Opinion ID: 1501332
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: First-degree battery conviction

Text: Appellant's wife, Jennifer, testified that she was awakened by the shootings and by appellant when she was yanked up out of the bed. She called to her father for help, and appellant hit her in the head with a gun. Bangs then dragged her through the hallway by her foot, leaving bloodstains on the carpeting. Appellant then told her, There is no use in yelling because I shot your mom and dad. Jennifer next recalled that she was sitting in her father's truck and that Bangs had tied her hands with a cord. He also hit her several times in the face, and her head hit the back glass of the truck's cab. Bangs then drove her to a trailer where they lived, drug her by the cord into the trailer, and got more ammunition. He then drove her into the woods and raped her. At some point, he placed her shirt around her head to stop the bleeding, and when she bled through the shirt, he wrapped paper towels around her head and put a toboggan on it. Appellant eventually released Jennifer in the woods. Ultimately, she encountered a police car. Jennifer was then admitted to the hospital for treatment. The surgeon who treated her wounds noted that she had two lacerations on her scalp, approximately five centimeters in length, which he closed with staples. She also had bruises on her forehead and face and blunt injuries to her scalp and the back of her head. Notably, the surgeon characterized the wounds as serious physical injuries. Pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 5-13-201(a)(3) (Repl.1997), a person commits first-degree battery if he causes serious physical injury to another person under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. Serious physical injury is defined at section 5-1-102(19)(Repl. 1997 & Supp.1999) as: physical injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health, or loss or protracted impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ. (Emphasis added.) Significantly, whether a victim has sustained serious physical injury is an issue for the jury. See Purifoy v. State, 307 Ark. 482, 489, 822 S.W.2d 374, 378 (1991). In light of the medical testimony and Jennifer's own account, the jury could reasonably conclude that Jennifer sustained serious physical injury. Accordingly, we hold that there was sufficient evidence to sustain appellant's first-degree-battery conviction.