Sweet v. State

2011 Ark. 20, 370 S.W.3d 510, 2011 WL 285804, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 27
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 27, 2011
DocketNo. CR 10-676
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 2011 Ark. 20 (Sweet v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sweet v. State, 2011 Ark. 20, 370 S.W.3d 510, 2011 WL 285804, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 27 (Ark. 2011).

Opinion

JIM GUNTER, Justice.

hA jury in Crawford County convicted appellant David Sweet of aggravated robbery and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment. Our jurisdiction is pursuant to Rule l-2(a)(2) of the Arkansas Rules of the Supreme Court.

Appellant asserts six arguments on appeal: (1) that the circuit court erred in denying his proffer of jury instructions on the offenses of robbery and false imprisonment; (2) that the circuit court erred in allowing into evidence a videotape and several photographs; (3) that the circuit court erred in refusing to suppress appellant’s custodial statements; (4) that the photo lineup provided to the victim was unduly suggestive and created a substantial possibility of misidentification; (5) that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s request for a mistrial; and (6) that the circuit court erred in denying appellant’s motion for directed verdict because there was insufficient evidence to support the aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges. We affirm.

|2On April 29, 2009, at approximately 5 p.m., Elizabeth Bitzelberger was the last employee to leave the medical clinic in Mulberry, Arkansas. As she was exiting through the back door of the clinic, a man came at her with a knife. He forced Bit-zelberger back into the clinic and used duct tape to cover her mouth and bind her feet and hands. He then demanded money. The man took six dollars out of Bitzel-berger’s purse and $102.60 out of the cash drawer in the office of the clinic. He then placed Bitzelberger in one of the examination.rooms and ripped off her shirt and bra with the knife. Thereafter, he took the keys to Bitzelberger’s truck and went out the back door of the clinic to the parking lot. When Bitzelberger heard the backdoor bell indicating that the man had left the building, she freed her feet and ran out the front of the clinic, across the street, and into a neighboring pharmacy. There, she had pharmacy employees call for help.

After law enforcement officers arrived on the scene, Bitzelberger gave a description of her attacker and then identified appellant as her attacker from his picture as a registered sex offender on the Arkansas Crime Information Website. The next day, appellant was apprehended by law enforcement. While he was being transported to jail, appellant confessed to Mulberry Police Chief Joshua Craig. Later, appellant gave a videotaped confession to Crawford County Sheriffs Department Detective Ken Howard.

On February 9, 2010, the State filed an amended information charging appellant with aggravated robbery in violation of Ark.Code Ann. § 5-12-103, a Class Y felony; kidnapping in violation of Ark.Code Ann. § 5-11-102, a Class Y felony; attempted rape in violation of | ¡⅛Ark.Code Ann. § 5-3-201, a Class A felony; and enhanced sentencing as a habitual offender. Prior to trial, appellant filed a motion to suppress his custodial statements and a motion in limine to exclude Bitzelberger’s photographic identification of appellant, a surveillance videotape from the pharmacy across the street showing Bitzelberger running across the street, and photographs of Bitzelberger taken after the incident.

The circuit court held a hearing on the motions on January 28, 2010, with a followup hearing held the morning of trial on February 10, 2010. Evidence was presented that appellant had four prior felonies and had served twenty-one years in prison in Georgia. After hearing testimony and argument from both parties, the circuit court found that the photographic identification of appellant by Bitzelberger on the day of the incident was not unduly suggestive because at the time, appellant was not a suspect in the crime. Therefore, an actual photographic lineup had not taken place. The court did prohibit the State from mentioning that the photographs were accessed from the sex-offender registry. The circuit court also found that the videotape and photographs were admissible. As to the suppression of appellant’s custodial statements, the circuit court found that appellant made a knowing and voluntary waiver of his rights.

At trial, Bitzelberger identified appellant as the man who accosted her on April 29, 2009. She testified that as she was leaving the Mulberry Clinic, appellant “came at” her with a knife to her throat. He pushed her back into the clinic; taped her mouth, wrists, and ankles with duct tape; and demanded money. Bitzelberger stated that appellant warned her that he |4would not kill her if she cooperated. She testified that appellant took six dollars out of her purse and then asked her where the clinic money was kept. After appellant removed the tape from her mouth, Bitzel-berger told appellant the money was in the front office. Appellant carried Bitzelber-ger over his shoulder to the front of the clinic where he took $102.60 out of the clinic’s coffers. Bitzelberger stated that appellant wiped down the handles of the drawer with his sleeve. Appellant then carried Bitzelberger back to one of the clinic’s examination rooms. There, he placed her on the examination table and re-taped her wrists behind her back. Bit-zelberger pleaded with appellant not to hurt her and she would not tell anyone what he had done. Appellant responded that “that’s what they all say.” Appellant told Bitzelberger that if she did not shut up, he was going to kill her. At that point, appellant used the knife to cut open Bitzel-berger’s shirt and cut off her bra. Appellant made a comment about Bitzelberger’s youth and that “they don’t know what they’re missing out on.” Bitzelberger testified that appellant touched the inside of her leg when he made the statement. Appellant again taped her mouth shut and asked for the keys to her truck. She nodded to her left jacket pocket. Appellant removed the keys from her pocket and exited the clinic through the back door. Bitzelberger stated that when she heard the service bell above the back door indicating that appellant had left, she rolled her ankles to remove the tape. She tripped, fell into a weight scale, hit a table, knocked over several chairs, and ran out the front of the clinic to the pharmacy across the street where employees immediately called for the police.

Bitzelberger testified that she got a good look at appellant during the incident. She described him to police as 5'8" or 5'9", blue-eyed, with salt and pepper hair, a moustache, and |5an unshaven face. Bit-zelberger testified that Detective Patti Bonewell with the Crawford County Sheriffs Department showed her twenty-five pictures to try to identify her attacker. Bitzelberger did not identify any of the men pictured as the perpetrator. However, Detective Bonewell showed Bitzelber-ger a second batch of photographs, and she immediately identified appellant as her attacker.

Martha Wilkins testified that she was employed by the Mediquik Pharmacy in Mulberry and was working on April 29, 2009. She stated that she saw a man cross the street and go behind the Mulberry Clinic at approximately closing time. Wilkins identified appellant as the man that she saw that day. Ten or fifteen minutes after Wilkins saw the man, Bitzelberger rushed into the pharmacy. Wilkins testified that Bitzelberger’s shirt and bra were cut so that her breasts were exposed, that she had duct tape hanging from her ankle, that her hands were taped behind her back, and that she had tape across her mouth.

Franklin County Sheriffs Officer Brent Scott testifiéd that on April 30, 2009, he was summoned to assist in the apprehension of appellant.

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Bluebook (online)
2011 Ark. 20, 370 S.W.3d 510, 2011 WL 285804, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sweet-v-state-ark-2011.