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ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS

DIVISION I 

No. CR-16-428

TEAIRA WILLIAMS

APPELLANT

V.

STATE OF ARKANSAS

APPELLEE

Opinion Delivered December 14, 2016

APPEAL FROM THE CRAIGHEAD

COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, 

WESTERN DISTRICT

[NO. CR-2013-217] 

HONORABLE CINDY THYER, 

JUDGE

AFFIRMED

BRANDON J. HARRISON, Judge

Teaira Williams appeals the revocation of her probation, arguing that the circuit 

court erred in denying her motion for continuance and in finding that she willfully failed 

to pay as ordered. We affirm. 

In April 2013, Williams pled guilty to theft of property and was sentenced to five 

years’ probation. Among the conditions of her probation were that she not commit any 

criminal offense punishable by imprisonment; not possess a firearm or other deadly 

weapon; report to her probation officer; notify her probation officer of any change of 

address; and pay $35 per month in supervision fees, $4573.33 in restitution, and $756 in 

fines and costs. Williams was ordered to pay $100 per month toward these amounts 

beginning in May 2013. 
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In December 2013, the State filed a petition to revoke Williams’s probation, 

alleging that she had violated the conditions of her probation by committing the crime of 

aggravated assault and possessing a handgun. Between December 2013 and June 2015, the 

circuit court granted thirteen continuances at Williams’s request. The revocation petition 

was amended in August 2015 to include an allegation that Williams had committed the 

offense of criminal mischief. Also in August 2015, Williams requested and received her 

fourteenth continuance. 

In December 2015, the petition was again amended to include allegations that 

Williams had failed to report, changed her residence without proper notification, and 

failed to pay fines. The circuit court granted two more continuances at Williams’s 

request, in December 2015 and January 2016, and set the revocation hearing for 1 

February 2016. 

When the hearing began, Williams requested a continuance because she had been 

unable to compel the attendance of a witness for her defense. This witness, she argued, 

would provide testimony relevant to the aggravated-assault allegation. After noting that 

over two years had passed since the filing of the petition to revoke and that several 

continuances had already been granted to secure the presence of that particular witness, 

the circuit court denied the request, finding that “there have been ample opportunities for 

her to be here and she has not come.” 

The State proceeded with its case in chief, and Tammy Hubble, a staff accountant 

with the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office, testified that Williams had made six payments 

since 2013 and that a balance of $4949.33 remained. Keith Ming, Williams’s probation 
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officer, testified that Williams was supposed to report monthly but that she had not 

reported to him since July 2015. Several witnesses testified to an incident in July 2013 in 

which Williams had argued with and threatened some other women with a gun. 

Chancellon McMillion, the father of Williams’s two children, testified that Williams had 

vandalized his car in April 2015 by smashing his windshield with a paint bucket. And 

finally, Detective Jason Simpkins with the Jonesboro Police Department testified that he 

had investigated the criminal-mischief allegation involving McMillion’s car and that 

Williams admitted to him that she had damaged the car. 

Williams’s sister and mother both testified that she did not have a gun at the time 

of the July 2013 incident. Williams testified that she had held several jobs since 2013 and 

that she was currently working as a waitress. Williams admitted that she had argued with 

some other women but denied having a gun or pointing a gun at them. She did admit to 

damaging McMillion’s car with the paint bucket. She also explained that she had not seen 

her probation officer since July 2015 because she was stressed out all the time and had 

“got to the point where [she] want[ed] to just give up on everything.” She also admitted 

that “some” of her failure to pay was her fault. 

The circuit court found that Williams had violated her probation by failing to pay 

as ordered, failing to report to her probation officer, and committing criminal mischief 

when she damaged McMillion’s vehicle. She was sentenced to 120 days’ jail time and 

thirty-nine months’ probation. This appeal followed. 

Williams first argues that the circuit court erred in not granting her a continuance. 

She acknowledges that there had been “several” continuances previously granted but 
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nevertheless argues that the circuit court should have granted a seventeenth so she could 

get her witness. A circuit court shall grant a motion for continuance only upon a showing 

of good cause and only for so long as is necessary. Thomas v. State, 370 Ark. 70, 257 

S.W.3d 92 (2007). The grant or denial of a motion for continuance is within the sound 

discretion of the circuit court, and that court’s decision will not be reversed absent an 

abuse of discretion amounting to a denial of justice. Id. When a motion is based on a lack 

of time to prepare, we will consider the totality of the circumstances; prejudice from 

denial of the continuance must be shown, and the burden of showing prejudice is on the 

appellant. Id. 

Williams was granted sixteen continuances prior to this revocation hearing, and the 

circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying a seventeenth continuance. She had 

ample opportunity to secure any witness testimony she deemed necessary. In addition, 

Williams can show no prejudice from the denial of her continuance, as the absent 

witness’s testimony was not related to any of the bases for revocation found by the circuit 

court. 

For her second point on appeal, Williams asserts that the circuit court erred in 

finding that she willfully failed to pay as ordered. To prevail on a petition to revoke, the 

State must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant inexcusably 

violated at least one condition of his or her probation. Ark. Code Ann. § 16-93-308(d) 

(Repl. 2016); Coupey v. State, 2013 Ark. App. 446. We will reverse an order of 

revocation only if the circuit court’s findings are clearly against the preponderance of the 
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evidence, and we defer to the circuit court’s superior opportunity to assess witness 

credibility in determining where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Coupey, supra. 

We need not reach the merits of Williams’s argument on this point because she has 

failed to challenge the other two bases for the revocation: failing to report to her 

probation officer and committing criminal mischief when she damaged McMillion’s 

vehicle. When the circuit court makes its decision based on multiple independent 

grounds, and the appellant fails to attack any independent, alternative bases, the appellate 

court will affirm. Barber v. State, 2014 Ark. App. 311. So, we affirm without addressing 

the merits of Williams’s argument. 

Affirmed.

 GLADWIN, C.J., and VAUGHT, J., agree. 

Terry Goodwin Jones, for appellant.

Leslie Rutledge, Att’y Gen., by: Amanda Jegley, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.