Snider v. State

323 S.W.3d 635, 2009 Ark. App. 472, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 549
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 17, 2009
DocketCA CR 08-507
StatusPublished

This text of 323 S.W.3d 635 (Snider v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snider v. State, 323 S.W.3d 635, 2009 Ark. App. 472, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 549 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

JOSEPHINE LINKER HART, Judge.

| .This case is once more before us after we ordered re-briefing in an unpublished January 28, 2009 opinion. We now decide this case on the merits. Edward Snider appeals his conviction by a Columbia County jury on charges of residential burglary, committing a terroristic act, and two counts of aggravated assault. For these crimes, Snider received consecutive sentences totaling 384 months in the Arkansas Department of Correction and a fine of $20,000. On appeal, Snider argues that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a tape of three 911 calls that one of the victims, Jana Blackwell, made near the time of his alleged crimes and a videotape of Blackwell’s statement made to police shortly after they responded to the 911 call. Blackwell did not testify at trial. We agree that the trial court erred in admitting the videotape of Blackwell’s interview with police. However, we find the error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and affirm the convictions.

1^Because Snider does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we will only briefly summarize the facts before considering his allegations of error. Snider and Blackwell divorced in August 2006. Blackwell was awarded possession of the marital residence, but Snider continued to live with her until December 21, 2006, when she insisted that he leave. By this time, Snider had rented another residence and had moved most of his personal belongings to that dwelling. However, Snider’s boat, a significant quantity of hand tools, fishing tackle, and camping gear remained at Blackwell’s house.

Blackwell began dating Robert Travis Barnwell several months before the divorce. He worked on an off-shore oil rig, but pursued his romance with Blackwell every third week when he received shore leave. Blackwell eventually banned Snider from her residence to make room for her new paramour, with whom she intended to spend the Christmas holiday.

On the rain-soaked Christmas Eve of 2006, Snider decided that he should “meet” Blackwell’s boyfriend. Snider, accompanied by his son, William Coby Snider, who had resided with his dad and Blackwell prior to the divorce, went to Blackwell’s house. Snider went to the door, only to be chased from the porch by Barnwell, who was wielding Blackwell’s thirty-eight special revolver. Snider got back into his truck and spun out of the yard, splattering mud on Barnwell’s truck.

Snider returned to his house and started drinking. Toxicology reports introduced at the trial indicated that Snider had also ingested methamphetamine and Xanax. Eventually, William left to go to Christmas dinner with his fiancee. Meanwhile, Blackwell had called 911 Rand reported Snider’s intrusion.

After his son William left, Snider armed himself with a Sig Sauer P226 forty-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a twelve-gauge Remington shotgun and drove his four-wheeler back to Blackwell’s house. He parked a tenth of a mile from the residence and walked toward the house. Snider paused in the yard and fired several rounds of buckshot into the residence. Barnwell and Blackwell scurried for cover, with Blackwell concealing herself in her bedroom closet. After kicking the door, Snider entered and fired three shots from his handgun into the bedroom. One of the bullets struck Barnwell in the leg. A scuffled ensued, and Blackwell left the bedroom to call 911. Barnwell claimed that Snider pressed his Sig Sauer to his chest, but the gun jammed. Barnwell then “cold-cocked” Snider. The beating that ensued resulted in Snider sustaining a concussion and broken facial bones. Snider was also shot with Blackwell’s thirty-eight.

When police arrived, they found Snider writhing in pain on the kitchen floor. He was suffering from a gunshot in the leg and severe facial contusions. A dozen live shotgun rounds were found on Snider’s person. The two guns that he brought into the residence had been placed on the back porch. Five spent shotgun shells were found in the yard, and three forty-caliber slugs were found in the bedroom. Lieutenant Mike McWilliams turned on his video camera and began videotaping the scene. Eventually, he conducted an interview of Blackwell, who fairly calmly responded to his questions concerning the events that had transpired that night.

|4The error complained of in this appeal was brought about because Blackwell did not testify at Snider’s trial. Rather than merely accepting Blackwell’s absence, or compelling her attendance, the State chose to introduce her to the jury by playing the three recorded phone calls she made to 911 and a videotaped interview conducted by the police after they responded to the crime scene. We review the decision by the trial court to admit this evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. Barrett v. State, 354 Ark. 187, 119 S.W.3d 485 (2003).

Although listed as separate points, we will consider Snider’s arguments concerning the admission of Blackwell’s videotaped interview together. He contends that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting Blackwell’s statement into evidence because it did not qualify as an excited utterance and it violated his right to confront the witness. Regarding whether the interview qualified as an excited utterance, Snider analyzes his case in terms of the five factors listed in Barrett and asserts that the factors indicate that the statement should have been excluded. The five factors are (1) the lapse of time, (2) the age of the declarant, (3) the physical and mental condition of the declarant, (4) the characteristics of the event, and (5) the subject matter of the statement. Id. The Barrett court further held that it must appear that the declarant’s condition at the time was such that the statement was spontaneous, excited or impulsive, rather than the product of reflection and deliberation.

Snider asserts that the lapse of time, approximately thirty minutes, allowed Blackwell to “calm down and reflect upon what happened”; that Blackwell’s age of thirty-seven, as 15compared to situations involving very young children, militates against finding that her interview was an excited utterance; that her mental condition was not that of a person that had been brutally traumatized, as in the case of a rape victim, but rather one who was able to answer a police officer’s questions; that Blackwell was uninjured and “safe” when she gave her interview; and that the statements that Blackwell made were in response to police questioning. We agree with this analysis. Our review of the video shows that while Blackwell was certainly upset by the events that she had just witnessed, her answers to police questions were deliberate and thoughtful, not “excited or impulsive.” Accordingly, it was error for the trial court to admit Blackwell’s interview as an excited utterance. Our rules of evidence prevent the admissibility of hearsay evidence. Ark. R. Evid. 802. A recitation of past events does not constitute an excited utterance. Marx v. State, 291 Ark. 325, 724 S.W.2d 456 (1987).

Regarding Snider’s related argument that introduction of the videotaped interview also violated his right to confront Blackwell, we likewise agree. We acknowledge that there was some question in our minds regarding whether this issue was preserved. Certainly, this issue could have been more thoroughly argued to the trial court.

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Bluebook (online)
323 S.W.3d 635, 2009 Ark. App. 472, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snider-v-state-arkctapp-2009.