Wilson v. State

669 S.W.2d 889, 282 Ark. 551, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1676
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 4, 1984
DocketCR 83-129
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 669 S.W.2d 889 (Wilson 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
Wilson v. State, 669 S.W.2d 889, 282 Ark. 551, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1676 (Ark. 1984).

Opinions

Darrell Hickman, Justice.

Charles Isaac Wilson, Jr., was convicted of rape, aggravated robbery, and burglary, and sentenced to forty years and fined $ 15,000. He essentially makes three arguments on appeal: his identification by the victim was unreliable, improper verdict forms were submitted, and the victim’s street address should not have been admitted because it identified the appellant as the “Yorkshire Rapist.” We find no error and affirm.

The identification of the appellant by the victim was made after a voice lineup. Such identification is permissible. See Kellensworth v. State, 272 Ark. 252, 631 S.W.2d 1 (1982); Rhea v. State, 104 Ark. 162, 147 S.W. 463 (1912); United States v. Scully, 546 F.2d 255 (9th Cir. 1976), vacated and remanded on other grounds, United States v. Cabral, 430 U.S. 902 (1977); 2 Wigmore on Evidence § 660 (1979); J. Weinstein and M. Berger, Weinstein’s Evidence § 901 (b) (5) [01] (1983). It is for the trial court to determine if there are sufficient aspects of reliability surrounding the identification to permit its use as evidence and then it is for the jury to decide what weight the identification testimony should be given. Kellensworth v. State, 278 Ark. 261, 644 S.W.2d 933 (1983); Watkins v. Sowders, 449 U.S. 341 (1981); Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (1977); see also Weinstein’s Evidence, supra. We do not reverse a trial court’s ruling on the admissibility of identification evidence unless it is clearly erroneous, Kellensworth v. State, supra, and do not inject ourselves into the process of determining reliability unless there is “a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.” Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377 (1968). That likelihood does not exist in this case.

The victim never saw her assailant. She saw a figure crouching in the doorway of her bedroom, and a quilt was immediately thrown over her head. But she said that the rapist talked to her for an hour and a half. She said that he seemed to be a foreigner and spoke in “broken” English. About three months after the attack and before she identified the appellant in the voice lineup, the victim received a telephone call from a man whom she recognized as her assailant and then concluded that he was a black man. Her testimony concerning the call is important; it reads:

Q. Okay. What type of voice was it?
A. I said it was like an Iranian-type voice.
Q. Okay, now, when you say Iranian-type voice, what do you mean?
A. Kind of like a broken English type. He would leave words out, like, “I cut you,” and things on that order. He wouldn’t put all the words together.
Q. In other words, he spoke English but he would leave some of the grammar type things out?
A. Yes.
Q. Instead of “I’ll cut you,” it was, “I cut you”?
A. “I cut you.”
Q. At the time did you feel like that you could recognize the voice if you heard it again, based upon the tone and quality?
A. I knew I could.
Q. Did you have an occasion to hear that voice again later?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. How was that?
A. In — I got a phone call about in June and I had gotten a few phone calls before I had moved from the apartment, and when I would answer they would just hang up. Then I got one one morning and asked if Cheryl was there, and I went to the phone. When I got there, the person had hung up, and then about 4:00 that afternoon I got another phone call and he asked who it was, and I said it was Cheryl, and he said, he asked me what I was wearing, and I just told him it was none of his business, and he said something, you know, like, “Do you want me to come to your apartment on Yorkshire?” And I said, “No,” and he said, “What are you wearing?” and I said, “Well, I was wearing a robe,” and he said, “Take it off,” and I said, “No.” We were just kinda bickering back and forth.
Q. Did he say anything else to you?
A. He told me I was the best.
Q. He said you were the best?
A. And I said, “Best what?” And he said, “You know.”
Q. Tell us about the accent on that phone call.
A. It was — It was the voice of a colored man, but it was kind of like still leaving the words out, you know, certain — like he asked me, “You listen to me?” And I said, “Yes, I’m listening.”
Q. So in other words, some of it was with leaving the words out and some of it wasn’t?
A. Yeah.
Q. Like somebody wasn’t keeping their words straight?
A. Yes, like he wasn’t really trying, you know. It was just every once in a while, maybe, to get it through my head who I was really talking to or something.
Q. Now, did you later have occasion to hear the voice in the apartment again?
A. I did.
Q. Where was this?
A. At a lineup. (Italics supplied.)

Another unusual event occurred in this case. Prior to trial the appellant saw the victim and appeared to know her. Her testimony is as follows:

Q. Did you have an occasion later to see him in this courthouse?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Okay, and did he indicate to you that he knew who you were?
A. Yes, he did.
Q. How did he do that?
A. It was through his first trial.
Q. Okay, what did he do?
A. He walked in the room and —
Q. Okay, Ms. Jackson, on the other occasion that you saw the defendant, did he focus his attention on you out of a room full of people?
A. I was sitting in the middle of about four or five women.
Q. Now, where did he look at you?

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Wilson v. State
669 S.W.2d 889 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
669 S.W.2d 889, 282 Ark. 551, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-state-ark-1984.