Opinion ID: 2436501
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Bennett requested that the trial court direct a verdict on grounds that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction for first degree murder. The motion was denied. Bennett argues that the court erred. We disagree. A challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence in the lower court and on appeal requires that this court address that issue even though the case is being reversed and remanded on other grounds. Harris v. State, 284 Ark. 247, 681 S.W.2d 334 (1984). In considering the question, however, any errors allegedly committed by the trial court are disregarded. Id. The issue is whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence. Substantial evidence, whether direct or circumstantial, must be of sufficient force that it will, with reasonable and material certainty, compel a conclusion one way or the other. Gardner v. State, 296 Ark. 41, 754 S.W.2d 518 (1988). It is necessary to ascertain only the evidence favorable to the appellee and only that testimony which actually supports the verdict of guilt. Id. The State's case was built entirely upon circumstantial evidence, which can be sufficient to sustain a conviction as it may constitute substantial evidence. Still v. State, 294 Ark. 117, 740 S.W.2d 926 (1987). In order for circumstantial evidence to be sufficient to support the finding of guilt in a criminal case, it must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence. Smith v. State, 264 Ark. 874, 575 S.W.2d 677 (1979). However, whether the evidence excludes every other reasonable hypothesis is for the fact finder to determine. Id. In the main, the State's proof was based on inconsistent statements made by Bennett to various authorities on separate occasions and on inconsistencies between those statements and the physical evidence obtained by officers investigating the drowning. Dub Hamilton, the former sheriff of Logan County, was one of the first officers to interview Bennett. In a statement to Hamilton on March 26, Bennett described the first few moments before the incident as follows: Marcia and I were fishing side by side on the bridge. We had fished quite some time and she was cold. I told her we may as well quit. I reeled in one pole. As I was preparing to take the bait off and put the pole up, Marcia took a couple of steps toward her pole. The next thing I heard her yell and when I looked up, her and the lantern was gone. Bill Kimbriel, Hamilton's chief deputy, testified that he did not recall that the second pole was rigged to fish when he found it on the bridge near where Marcia Bennett allegedly fell. In a separate statement made on March 27 to Kimbriel and to John Bailey, a former criminal investigator for the Arkansas State Police, Bennett's story changed. He told Bailey that he had rigged his wife's pole for fishing and had returned to the car to get some more fishing tackle when he heard his wife scream. Already at the car, Bennett turned around and Marcia was gone from the bridge. Some three months later when visiting with Doug Stevens of the Arkansas State Police, Bennett again changed his story to reflect the earlier version given to Sheriff Hamilton. There were other inconsistencies. At trial, Hamilton testified that on the night of March 25 he had noticed Bennett's glasses had mud and water on them. Bennett could not explain how his glasses had stayed on after he supposedly jumped from the bridge to the water below and then swam from pier to pier in search of his wife. The height of the bridge was measured at 24 to 27 feet depending on the point of measurement on the bridge. The depth of the water around the bridge was estimated at three to five feet with isolated pools near the bridge supports measuring between eight to ten feet. At least once, Bennett maintained that he had not hit bottom when he jumped from the bridge. Deputy Sheriff Kimbriel testified from experience that a jump of 27 feet into water three to five feet deep would not only have caused Bennett to hit bottom but that the jump would certainly have buckled Bennett's knees and jarred his head upwards and that it would have been impossible for Bennett's glasses to stay on. Bennett had also indicated to the officers that the current around the bridge had been very strong. Kimbriel testified that there was no current in the area. Hamilton also testified that there was no current in the waters surrounding the bridge near Morrison Bluff. In light of evidence concerning the lack of current in the river, the State's case emphasized that Marcia Bennett's body was not discovered until it surfaced four to five hundred feet from where Bennett claimed Marcia had fallen into the water nine days earlier. Hamilton testified that when the body surfaced, it remained absolutely stationary until removed by the medical examiner. Further emphasis was placed upon the fact that the body was not discovered anywhere near the site of the alleged fall despite extensive dragging operations. Danny Sorey, an emergency medical technician, attended to Bennett for possible hypothermia or exposure on the night of the incident. Sorey testified that Bennett had been wearing slip-on type shoes, slacks, a tee shirt, and a shirt. Bennett told Sorey that he had been in the water for an hour or more. Sorey testified that Bennett showed no signs of hypothermia and that his condition (i.e., body temperature, behavior, etc.) was inconsistent with Bennett's statement that he had been in the icy water for an hour or more. In his subsequent statement to Investigator Doug Stevens, Bennett stated that he could not remember how long he had been in the river. Further testimony by Sorey revealed that Bennett's shoes, although wet, did not contain any mud or other residue from the muddy water on the river bottom. Bennett's wallet was wet, but the contents were dry. Sorey indicated that Bennett was primarily concerned for the safety of about $800.00 in bills in his wallet and that Bennett never expressed sorrow about the possible death of his wife. Bennett also told Sorey that at one point he had gotten ahold of his wife but that the current pulled her away, a fact which Bennett failed to relate to either Kimbriel, Hamilton, or Bailey. At trial, both Kimbriel and Hamilton described the clothing found on Marcia Bennett's body after it surfaced on April 4. She was dressed in thermal underwear, pants, a wool shirt, two sweaters, boots, and gloves. Officer Hamilton considered it significant that Marcia Bennett was found wearing gloves in light of statements by Bennett that when Marcia fell from the bridge into the water Bennett had told her to remove her jacket and a blanket, which she allegedly did. (Officers later recovered both the jacket and the blanket.) Hamilton testified that he thought it would have been very difficult for Marcia Bennett to remove her jacket in the water while still wearing the gloves found on her nine days later. In Smith v. State, 282 Ark. 535, 669 S.W.2d 201 (1984), this court affirmed a sentence of life imprisonment for first degree murder where the State's evidence was entirely circumstantial. We stated that guilt may be proved even in the absence of an eyewitness to the crime, and we emphasized that false and improbable statements explaining suspicious circumstances are admissible as proof of guilt. Id. at 538, 669 S.W.2d 201. Few statements of law have greater relevance to the evidence presented to the fact finder in the case at bar. The State introduced additional evidence which was consistent with Bennett's guilt but which we need not detail in great length. Bennett's former girlfriend, Connie Mosier, testified by deposition that she had accompanied Bennett to the Morrison Bluff bridge prior to his marriage to the victim and that Bennett had commented, This would be a good place to kill someone. Don Buckner, Bennett's insurance agent from Ohio, testified by deposition that Bennett called several times prior to the 1978 Arkansas trip to see if an insurance policy on Marcia Bennett's life had been approved and had come into the office. According to Buckner, Bennett picked the policy up on or about the day the couple left for Arkansas from Ohio. Bennett was the named beneficiary. Buckner also testified that Bennett was upset (after Marcia's death) when he discovered that the policy was not of the double indemnity type. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that there is substantial evidence to support the verdict of guilt. As such, we find no error in the trial court's refusal to direct a verdict in Bennett's favor.