Wells v. State

2013 Ark. 389, 430 S.W.3d 65, 2013 WL 5574426, 2013 Ark. LEXIS 475
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 10, 2013
DocketCR-13-122
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 2013 Ark. 389 (Wells 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
Wells v. State, 2013 Ark. 389, 430 S.W.3d 65, 2013 WL 5574426, 2013 Ark. LEXIS 475 (Ark. 2013).

Opinions

JIM HANNAH, Chief Justice.

1, Appellant, Timothy Allen Wells, was convicted of capital murder in furtherance of aggravated robbery and was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. The conviction arose as a result of the shooting death of Madhuben Patel, the owner of a motel in Hot Springs. On appeal, Wells contends that (1) there was insufficient evidence that Patel’s murder was committed during the course and furtherance of an aggravated robbery, and (2) the circuit court erred when it refused to allow the jury to determine the accomplice status of Jason Smith. Because this is a criminal appeal in which a sentence of life imprisonment has been imposed, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule l-2(a)(2) (2013). We affirm the circuit court.

On February 13, 2010, Wells and Smith stopped by Gene’s Liquor Store in Mal-vern, where they attempted to cash a forged check in the amount of $2700, using Smith’s name and identification. Dwayne Wright, the night manager at the liquor store, testified that he |2had known Wells for many years and recognized him when he came into the store. Wright stated that he refused to cash the check because “[t]he check had been ... scribbled over whoever’s name it was, and it was just that amount of check on a weekend from another town.” According to Wright, when Wells left the liquor store, he was driving a Pontiac G-6. After Wells failed to obtain money at the liquor store, he told Smith that he could get money in Hot Springs. With Smith as his passenger, Wells drove to Hot Springs and stopped in an alley by the Lynwood Motel. Armed with a gun, Wells then entered the motel and shot Patel inside the motel’s office. Terrell Alan Kuykendall and Steven Hasley were at the Shell Superstop across from the motel at the time of the murder. After hearing a loud noise and a woman’s scream, Kuykendall and Hasley saw a man leaving the motel. They followed the man — who was driving a Pontiac G-6 — in an attempt to obtain his license-plate number, but they were unsuccessful.

Wells confessed to investigators that he had murdered Patel at the Lynwood Motel. In his confession, which was read to the jury and admitted into evidence, Wells stated,

Man, I lost my mind the other day in Hot Springs. I blanked out. I’m bipolar and sometimes I flip out and go in a rage. I remember going in that building and a man and lady started screaming at me. My bipolar acted up and I just shot. Anybody could have been hurt that day in Hot Springs, I was ready to go in a rampage. Jason said that he couldn’t believe the way I was acting. I remember going to the liquor store to cash the check. I was OK there. I remember going to Hot Springs and parking the car. I remember getting out and running into the little building. Jason was yelling at me and I told him to shut the fuck up and I just kept going. In the store, these Arabian or Indian people were yelling at me and I just shot. They were inside the building. That day anyone could have got hurt. I was ready to kill somebody or kill myself. I didn’t know the lady in Hot Springs had died. I threw the gun out the passenger’s side window between Malvern and Hot Springs. It was between the Reynolds plant and before the Rainbow Mart. I’m glad they stopped me; I need some help.

laWells’s friend, David Hughes, testified that, on the night of the murder, Wells admitted to him that he had shot somebody. Wells drove to Hughes’s residence shortly after the murder. According to Hughes, Wells was driving a Pontiac G-6 that night.

Although Wells confessed to killing Patel, he contends that there was insufficient evidence that he had committed the underlying felony offense of aggravated robbery. The test for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence. See, e.g., Huff v. State, 2012 Ark. 388, 428 S.W.3d 608. Substantial evidence is evidence that is forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or the other beyond suspicion or conjecture. E.g., Stevenson v. State, 2013 Ark. 100, 426 S.W.3d 416. On review, only evidence that supports the verdict is considered, and the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Id.

Circumstantial evidence may constitute substantial evidence to support a conviction. E.g., Dixon v. State, 2011 Ark. 450, 385 S.W.3d 164. To be substantial, the evidence must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis than that of guilt of the accused. Id. The question of whether circumstantial evidence excludes every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence is for the jury to decide. Id.

Under the felony-murder statute, a defendant need only have the requisite intent to commit the underlying felony, here aggravated robbery, and not the intent to commit murder. See, e.g., Jones v. State, 386 Ark. 191, 984 S.W.2d 432 (1999). Therefore, the elements required to sustain the conviction in this case are that Wells committed aggravated robbery, and, in the course of or in immediate flight therefrom, he caused the death of | ¿another person under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. See Ark.Code Ann. § 5-10-101 (Supp.2009). A person commits aggravated robbery if he or she commits robbery as defined in Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-12-102,1 and the person (1) is armed with a deadly weapon, (2) represents by word or conduct that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon, or (3) inflicts or attempts to inflict death or serious physical injury upon another person. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-12-103 (Repl.2006).

Wells maintains that there is insufficient evidence that Patel’s murder was committed during the course and furtherance of an aggravated robbery because proof that Wells was attempting to rob the motel was based on the inconsistent testimony of Smith. Smith testified at trial that, when Wells told him that he could get money in Hot Springs, he first thought Wells might have some family members at the motel who would give him money, but he later concluded that Wells intended to rob the motel. Smith testified that he remembered telling police that he thought Wells was going to rob the motel and that he tried to talk him out of it. Then, Smith testified that Wells “didn’t tell me he was gonna rob it,” and later, during cross-examination, Smith testified that he was not sure if Wells had stated that “he was going to rob the place.” During redirect examination, Smith stated that, when he thought Wells was going to rob the motel, he tried to talk Wells out of it, but Wells told him to “shut the fuck up.”

IsThe State contends that it is of no moment whether Wells actually uttered the word “rob” when he told Smith he could get some money in Hot Springs. Further, the State points out that there was no evidence demonstrating that Wells knew Patel or that she was willing to give Wells any money. Finally, the State asserts that the evidence shows that Wells took a gun with him into Patel’s place of business. The State contends that, in view of the evidence adduced at trial, it is beyond speculation and conjecture that Wells entered the Lynwood Motel with the intention of using deadly force to accomplish his stated purpose of obtaining money and that he shot and killed Patel in the course and furtherance of an aggravated robbery.

We agree, and we hold that there was substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict.

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Wells v. State
2013 Ark. 389 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 Ark. 389, 430 S.W.3d 65, 2013 WL 5574426, 2013 Ark. LEXIS 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-v-state-ark-2013.