Case Name: Kendell CAMP v. STATE of Arkansas
Court: Arkansas Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1999-04-14
Citations: 66 Ark. App. 134
Docket Number: CA CR 98-873
Parties: Kendell CAMP v. STATE of Arkansas
Judges: Robbins, C.J., and Bird and Meads, JJ., agree.
Reporter: Arkansas Appellate Reports
Volume: 66
Pages: 134–144

Head Matter:
Kendell CAMP v. STATE of Arkansas
CA CR 98-873
991 S.W.2d 611
Court of Appeals of Arkansas Divisions II and III
Opinion delivered April 14, 1999
Martin E. Lilly, for appellant.
Winston Bryant, Att’y Gen., by: Gil Dudley, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.

Opinion:
John Mauzy Pittman, Judge.
The appellant in this case, Kendell Camp, was convicted at a jury trial of third-degree domestic battery for having beaten his wife. He was fined $500 and ordered to pay $211 in court costs. On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in allowing a police officer to testify as to statements made by the victim and in admitting a report made by the officer about his interview of the victim. He also contends that the trial court erred in admitting an affidavit that was filed by the victim in support of her request for an order of protection. We affirm.
At trial, the victim refused to testify. Over appellant's objection, the State was then allowed to introduce Officer Barry Holt's testimony concerning the victim's statements to the officer at the hospital some three hours after the alleged incident and the officer's written report of that interview. The trial court expressly found that the evidence was admissible under both Ark. R. Evid. 803(2) (excited-utterance exception) and 804(b)(5) (residual-hearsay exception when witness is unavailable).
In his first point for appeal, appellant argues that the trial court erred in admitting the the officer's testimony and report under Rule 804(b)(5). He makes no argument that the trial court's ruling under Rule 803(2) was erroneous. Therefore, since one of the trial court's stated grounds for having admitted the officer's testimony and report is not challenged on appeal, we need not decide whether the trial court erred in admitting the evidence. In other words, even if we were to assume that appellant's argument as to the applicability of Rule 804(b)(5) was correct, we still would not reverse in light of appellant's failure to attack the trial court's independent, alternative basis for its ruling. See Ark. R. App. P.—Crim. 14; Pearrow v. Feagin, 300 Ark. 274, 278-79, 778 S.W.2d 941, 943 (1989) (where trial court expressly based its decision on two independent grounds and appellant challenged only one on appeal, supreme court affirmed without addressing either).
Also admitted over appellant's hearsay objection was an affidavit executed by the victim on the day after the battery. The affidavit was apparently filed with the chancery court, in conjunction with the victim's complaint for divorce from appellant, in an effort to obtain an order of protection. The trial court found this evidence admissible under Rule 804(b)(5). On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in so ruling. The State argues that the affidavit was cumulative to the collective information provided to the jury through the officer's testimony and report, and that any error in its admission was harmless. Appellant argues that the affidavit was not merely cumulative because it contained "substantially more information than was originally provided to Officer Holt." Again, we conclude that we need not decide whether the trial court erred in admitting the evidence.
The law is well settled that prejudice is not presumed, and we will not reverse absent a showing of prejudice. Bell v. State, 334 Ark. 285, 973 S.W.2d 806 (1998). Our courts have refused to find prejudicial error where the evidence in question was merely cumulative to evidence otherwise admitted at trial. See Henderson v. State, 322 Ark. 402, 910 S.W.2d 656 (1995); Griffin v. State, 322 Ark. 206, 909 S.W.2d 625 (1995); Gibson v. State, 316 Ark. 705, 875 S.W.2d 58 (1994); Hooper v. State, 311 Ark. 154, 842 S.W.2d 850 (1992); Shaver v. State, 37 Ark. App. 124, 826 S.W.2d 300 (1992).
Here, we conclude that the information contained in the affidavit was cumulative to that which was introduced through the officer's testimony and his report, whose introduction appellant has failed to demonstrate was improper. While appellant argues that the affidavit contained substantially more information, we cannot agree. The affidavit detailed the physical attack on the victim for which appellant was prosecuted. It further stated that appellant had abused the victim for some ten years and had threatened to kill her if she went to the police. According to appellant's abstract of the record, this same information was contained in either the officer's testimony or his written report or both. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the information in the affidavit was merely cumulative to the evidence otherwise introduced at trial, and any error in its admission was not prejudicial.
Affirmed.
Robbins, C.J., and Bird and Meads, JJ., agree.
Hart and Neal, JJ., dissent.
Appellant does attack this ruling in his reply brief, but an argument cannot be raised for the first time in a reply brief. Jordan v. State, 323 Ark. 628, 917 S.W.2d 164 (1996).
The dissenting judges concede that appellant abandoned the excited-utterance argument by not arguing it in his initial brief. Nevertheless, they argue that, because the trial court's ruling on that question was wrong, we must reverse. Specifically, they argue, "[A]ll we can tell is that the appellant abandoned his Rule 803(2)-based allegation of error. The appellant's abandonment of this issue does not, however, permit the majority to assume that the trial court's Rule 803(2) decision was correct. If the trial court's Rule 803(2) ruling was correct, the majority should explain why." In other words, according to the dissent, we cannot affirm a judgment unless we search the record and conclude that every ruling adverse to an appellant was, in fact, a correct one, even in the absence of argument by the appellant on appeal. While a rule somewhat akin to that may be the law in cases where one is sentenced to life imprisonment or death, it simply is not the law in other cases. See Ark. R. App. P.—Crim. 14; see also Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 4-3(h). When an issue is not argued on appeal in an ordinary case, the issue is considered abandoned and is not addressed. See Fink v. State, 280 Ark. 281, 658 S.W.2d 359 (1983); see also King v. State, 323 Ark. 671, 916 S.W.2d 732 (1996); Pearrow v. Feagin, 300 Ark. 274, 778 S.W.2d 941 (1989); Flowers v. State, 30 Ark. App. 204, 785 S.W.2d 242 (1990). We do not hold that the trial court's ruling under Rule 803(2) was, in fact, correct; we do not reach the issue. We hold that, by abandoning the argument on appeal, appellant has waived the right to have the propriety of the ruling decided.
The dissenting judges next maintain, as did appellant's counsel at oral argument, that appellant did argue in his first brief that the court's ruling under Rule 803(2) was erroneous because he stated as much in his "argument heading." This position is interesting and might be debatable had it not long ago been decided that this was not the law. See Brockwell v. State, 260 Ark. 807, 545 S.W.2d 60 (1976) (mere statement of point for appeal is insufficient argument for reversal; point waived if not argued); see also Dougan v. State, 330 Ark. 827, 957 S.W.2d 182 (1997) (mere mention of an alleged error in a subheading of one's brief, without any argument or citation to authority, will not be addressed).
The dissent further maintains that appellant did, in fact, raise the excited-utterance argument in his initial brief because "he touch[ed] on facts related to the excited utterance exception." However, with all due respect, to discern this argument on the basis of the hints and traces mentioned in the dissent (i.e., appellant's eight-word parenthetical mention that the victim's statement was made three hours after the battery, which mention appears in a paragraph devoted to the residual-hearsay exception of Rule 804(b)(5)) requires a degree of sensitivity bordering on precognition. A fair reading of the briefs in this case leads to the inescapable conclusion that appellant simply abandoned the excited-utterance argument in his brief (a fact that the dissent both admits and denies), that the State discussed the issue in its own brief in such a manner that awakened appellant's interest in the argument, and that appellant responded by advancing the argument for the first time in his reply brief.
While appellant argues on appeal that his rights under the Confrontation Clause were violated by admission of the affidavit, his abstract fails to reflect that he objected to introduction of the affidavit on that ground below. Therefore, we will not analyze the admission of the affidavit under the constitutional standard of "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." See Griffin v. State, 322 Ark. 206, 221, 909 S.W.2d 625, 633 (1995).
The dissenting judges maintain that appellant's Confrontation Clause argument was properly preserved when, immediately after the trial court denied appellant's hearsay objection by reference to Rule 804(b)(5), appellant asked the court for the basis of its finding that the statement was trustworthy. They argue that, since case law holds that '"particularized guaranties of trustworthiness' of evidence is the touchstone of a Confrontation Clause argument," appellant's request effectively raised the constitutional argument. However, as the dissent notes, "equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness" is an express requirement under the terms of Rule 804(b)(5), the very rule that the trial court had just referenced and which it again referenced in response to appellant's request. The law is clear that, in order to preserve an argument for appeal, one must make a specific objection sufficient to apprise the trial court of the particular error alleged. Ayers v. State, 334 Ark. 258, 975 S.W.2d 88 (1998); Anthony v. State, 332 Ark. 595, 967 S.W.2d 552 (1998); Foreman v. State, 328 Ark. 583, 945 S.W.2d 926 (1997). An appellant cannot change the grounds for his objection on appeal, but is bound by the nature and scope of his argument at trial. Ayers v. State, supra. It is also clear that a hearsay objection is insufficient to preserve for appeal a Confrontation Clause argument. Gatlin v. State, 320 Ark. 120, 895 S.W.2d 526 (1995); Killcrease v. State, 310 Ark. 392, 836 S.W.2d 380 (1992). Under the circumstances presented here, we cannot conclude that the mere mention of the word "trustworthy" was sufficient to apprise the trial court of any Confrontation Clause argument.
The dissenting judges concede that we have correctly described the contents of appellant's abstract. They also acknowledge the longstanding rule that we will not go to the record to reverse. Yet, they proceed to make two inconsistent and faulty arguments. First, the dissent states that the majority's conclusion that the affidavit was cumulative to the officer's report is based on speculation and cannot stand because, while appellant's abstract indicates that some unknown portions of the report were excised before it went to the jury, the abstract "fails to show what information was excised." Second, the dissent argues that this case should be reversed on account of something that they say appears in the transcript but not in appellant's abstract. We cannot agree with either of these arguments. The first is based on the dissenting judges' assumption, unsubstantiated by the abstract, that the abstracted version of the officer's report is not the redacted version shown to the jury. In any event, both arguments are contrary to longstanding rules governing appellate practice. Rule 4-2(a)(6) of the Rules of the Arkansas Supreme Court requires that an appellant present us with an abstract of those parts of the record that are necessary to an understanding of the issues presented for decision. Clearly, the burden is on an appellant to bring up a record sufficient to demonstrate reversible error. McGhee v. State, 330 Ark. 38, 954 S.W.2d 206 (1997). The record on appeal is limited to that which is abstracted. Allen v. State, 326 Ark. 541, 932 S.W.2d 764 (1996) (reversing the court of appeals and reinstating a conviction where this court had gone to the record to reverse). We will not examine the transcript of a trial to reverse a trial court. Id. Here, as abstracted by appellant, the affidavit was cumulative to the report.