Opinion ID: 1678586
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence Supporting Aggravating Circumstances

Text: The jury considered the testimony of appellant's daughter, Ruby, law-enforcement officials, and medical experts, and reviewed exhibits, photographs, and appellant's videotaped statement. Appellant's statement indicated that he considered murdering his family in August by carbon monoxide poisoning. He drove his family to a nearby lake to carry out this plan, but did not complete the murders. One month later, he stated that he sat up all night planning to kill his family and then to commit suicide. Early in the morning of September 14, 1993, he chose an eight-pound window weight as his weapon and first attacked his daughter Ruby, because she, as the oldest, would be most likely to talk him out of his plan. He struck her on the head, but she awakened, and according to Ruby, when she screamed, he attempted to smother her. The noise roused Ruby's thirteen-year-old brother, Eric, who entered the room while Ruby was seeking to flee with the youngest brother, Jonathan, in her arms. The appellant struck Jonathan on the head, and then turned his attention to Eric while Ruby and Jonathan escaped. Appellant stated that Eric practically ran into the weapon, and fell to the ground when he was struck on the head. Appellant then turned upon his own mentally handicapped brother, Roger, told him to turn around, and when he did so, struck him on the head. The blow, however, did not stun him, and appellant repeated the attack with as many as five blows until Roger fell to the floor. Appellant then returned to Eric and struck him again to make sure he was dead, before appellant locked himself in the bathroom and cut himself on the wrists and throat. The medical testimony was that Eric may have lived as long as thirty minutes after being struck, and Roger was still alive when the officers arrived at the scene soon after Eric's death. Both Ruby and Jonathan survived, and appellant's conviction and sentence for attempted murder of Rudy and Jonathan, affirmed in Willett I , is not at issue in this appeal. We first consider whether there was substantial evidence to support the jury's finding that the statutory aggravating circumstance was proven beyond a reasonable doubt in each of the charges. As we look at the evidence that Eric's murder was committed in an especially cruel manner because it was part of a course of conduct intended to inflict mental anguish upon Eric, we find evidence that Eric was confronted a month earlier with a plan to kill the family by carbon monoxide poisoning. Although that plan was not carried out, the awareness that such a plan had been considered illuminated the scene on the morning of the murders when Eric, hearing his sister's screams, ran into the room to witness his father's attack upon his sister Ruby and his brother Jonathan. Appellant's defense that he didn't intend to inflict mental anguish upon Eric, he only intended to kill him, is demonstrative of an indifference to the suffering of the victim. Intent may be inferred from the circumstances of the crime. See Weaver v. State, 324 Ark. 290, 294, 920 S.W.2d 491, 493 (1996). In this case, there was substantial evidence from which the jury could infer intent to inflict mental anguish, as well as to murder Eric, and in weighing the evidence, the jury is not required to accept appellant's explanation of his own motives. The jury is allowed to consider all evidence, including that which showed that Eric watched his father's attack upon his brother and sister. From this evidence a jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Eric must have suffered indescribable mental anguish and that he suffered uncertainty as to his ultimate fate as his father turned his attack upon him. See Davasher v. State, 308 Ark. 154, 170, 823 S.W.2d 863, 872, (1992), cert. denied, 504 U.S. 976, 112 S.Ct. 2948, 119 L.Ed.2d 571, 572 (1992). On review, the jury's judgment will be upheld if, taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, a rational trier of fact could find the aggravating circumstance to have existed beyond a reasonable doubt. Kemp v. State, 324 Ark. 178, 200, 919 S.W.2d 943, 953-954, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 436, 136 L.Ed.2d 334 (1996). While appellant's brother Roger might not have understood the significance of the plan to subject the family to carbon monoxide poisoning, there was abundant and substantial evidence that he witnessed the mayhem of the murderous scene of September 14, 1993, because the appellant told him to turn around, and when he did so, hit him in the back of the head with the window weight. Death was not merciful to either Eric or Roger. The first blow to the head did not stun Roger, and repeated blows were required to put him on the floor, where he remained alive until officers arrived. This substantial evidence would support the jury's finding that Roger's death resulted from an especially cruel or depraved manner because the means of inflicting death was serious physical abuse that first created a substantial risk of death, which, when continued and intensified, did finally result in his death. We conclude that there was substantial evidence before the jury to support the finding that the aggravating circumstance existed beyond a reasonable doubt in each of the counts of capital murder.