Case Name: Thomas Edwin RUSSELL v. STATE of Arkansas
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1986-07-21
Citations: 289 Ark. 533
Docket Number: CR 86-19
Parties: Thomas Edwin RUSSELL v. STATE of Arkansas
Judges: Holt, C.J., not participating.
Reporter: Arkansas Reports
Volume: 289
Pages: 533–538

Head Matter:
Thomas Edwin RUSSELL v. STATE of Arkansas
CR 86-19
712 S.W.2d 916
Supreme Court of Arkansas
Opinion delivered July 21, 1986
Darrell E. Baker, Jr., Deputy Public Defender, for appellant.
Steve Clark, Att’y Gen., by: William F. Knight, Asst. Att’y Gen., for appellee.

Opinion:
Robert H. Dudley, Justice.
At trial, the appellant was convicted of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree. The victim was a nine year old girl. The single point of appeal concerns a question asked of the State's first witness, Dr. Donna Van Kirk, a licensed psychologist. The Deputy Prosecuting Attorney first asked Dr. Van Kirk if in her opinion the victim had been sexually abused. The appellant objected, and the trial court correctly ruled that the witness could not give her opinion about whether sexual abuse had, in fact, occurred. Shortly afterward, the following took place:
[MR. ZISER, DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY]:
Q. You have told us already that you took a history from Jennifer?
A. Yes.
Q. I assume that Jennifer told you some things about what may have happened to her?
A. Yes.
Q. And based on what she told you and based on your expertise in this area, is it consistent, is what she told you consistent with a child who has been abused?
A. Yes.
MR. BAKER: [DEFENSE ATTORNEY]:
Objection, Your Honor.
THE COURT:
Overrule the objection and permit it.
The appellant argues that the trial court erred in allowing the witness to answer whether the child's statements were consistent with sexual abuse because the subject matter was not beyond the common knowledge of the jury. The argument is meritorious.
The general test for admissibility of expert testimony is whether the testimony will aid the trier of fact in understanding the evidence or in determining a fact issue. Unif. R. Evid. 702; B&J Byers Trucking, Inc. v. Robinson, 281 Ark. 442, 665 S.W.2d 258 (1984). An important consideration in determining whether the testimony will aid the trier of fact is whether the situation is beyond the trier of fact's ability to understand and draw its own conclusions. B&J Byers Trucking, Inc. v. Robinson, supra. Here, lay jurors were fully competent to determine whether the history given by the victim was consistent with sexual abuse.
Accordingly, we conclude the trial court erred in admitting the testimony. The issue then becomes whether the error was prejudicial. The State's case against the appellant was so strong, and the error so inconsequential, that we find no prejudice.
The overwhelming evidence came primarily from the victim and a pediatrician. The victim's testimony was explicit, graphic, and unequivocal. Examples of her testimony are:
[BY MR. ZISER, DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY]:
Q. Okay. And then what did he do?
A. Then he took his penis and he rubbed it up and down in my vagina, and he said — I jumped a little bit, and he said, "Don't jump or I'll stick it all the way in."
Q. Did he stick his penis part of the way in?
A. Yes. The head.
Q. Did he stick it all the way in or just part way?
A. Part of it.
Q. Okay. What did he do?
A. Well, he had — he told me to take my pants off, and he took his off, and he had this lotion that he rubbed on his penis and my vagina. He told me to lay down on the bed. And he — he was — well, his knees were around me. He was kneeling on the bed and rocking back and forth with his penis run into my vagina.
Q. Did his penis go actually part of the way inside you?
A. Yes.
Q. Just partially in?
A. Yes.
Q. After he stuck his penis part of the way inside of you, did you see anything else happen?
A. Well, the next thing that happened, he told me — well, we got up and he told me that he was going to lay down, and he told me that I had to do the same thing that he did, just opposite, and I had to rock back and forth.
Q. Okay. And what happened after that?
A. Then he stood up and he told me to sit on the bed, and he told me to suck his penis.
Q. Did you, in fact, do that?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you describe his penis when you put it in your mouth?
A. (There is a long pause.) It was — it was sort of hanging. It wasn't real straight, but it was sort of hanging down a little bit.
The pediatrician testified that at the time of her examination the victim had a stretched labia minora with healed lacerations. The healing of the lacerations indicated the tearing occurred at the time the victim said it did, and the tearing was consistent with partial penetration.
While the psychologist should not have been allowed to testify that the history given by the victim was consistent with sexual abuse, in truth, the testimony merely provided the jurors with a hint of the testimony which they would receive from the victim. The error was harmless and did not affect the judgment.
Affirmed.
Holt, C.J., not participating.
Hickman and Hays, JJ., concur.
Purtle and Newbern, JJ., dissent.