Court Opinion

ID: 9683827
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:37:27.350874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:50.485761
License: Public Domain

John A. Fogleman, Chief Justice, dissenting. I respectfully disagree with the majority. I would affirm the judgment. I submit that there is substantial evidence to support the trial judge’s finding of fact that Fairchild represented by conduct that he was armed with a deadly weapon. In making the determination we jnrust view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state. Chaviers v. State, 267 Ark. 6, 588 S.W. 2d 434 (1979); Thomas v. State, 266 Ark. 162, 583 S.W. 2d 32. We must draw from the testimony all reasonable inferences favorable to the trial court’s judgment. Core v. State, 265 Ark. 409, 578 S.W. 2d 581. We should not reverse the trial court’s fact-finding unless we find that a reasonable mind could not infer from the evidence that Fairchild’s conduct was a representation that he was armed with a deadly weapon. Core v. State, supra. I submit that this cannot be said. Viewed in the light in which we must view it, the evidence showed: Fairchild approached Mrs. Calva in the parking lot of the Checkmate Club at about 11:00 p.m. As she turned to go to the back door of the club, he ran toward her, jerked the door open, stepped inside and said, “Give me your money.” Mrs. Calva said, “I don’t have anything but my keys” and showed him her hands and keys and turned to go into the inside of the club. When Fairchild first approached Mrs. Calva, he had one hand “up under his shirt” and kept it there during the entire confrontation. His shirt was “out at the bottom.” Fairchild made a statement to the police after he was arrested in which he stated that he had tried to make Mrs. Calva believe he had a gun by holding his hand under his shirt. ■ I find the majority’s explanation of its disregard of appellant’s statement baffling, to say the least. If appellant really intended his conduct to be a representation that he was armed with a deadly weapon, how can an appellate court on review say that the trier of fact has no reasonable basis for an inference that he engaged in conduct that was a representation that he was so armed? When the testimony of Mrs. Calva is considered, along with the statement, I submit that the trial court’s drawing of the inference was reasonable and the majority’s unreasonable. In a closely analogous case, it has been held that evidence that one accused of robbery entered a bank with his hand in his pocket, instructed the bank manager not to sound the alarm and the tellers to hand over the money was sufficient to establish conduct reasonably calculated to produce fear. United States v. Amos, 566 F. 2d 899 (4 Cir., 1977). Obviously, the basis of the fear was that the hand in the pocket was a representation that the robber was armed with a deadly weapon. In State v. Young, 134 W. Va. 771, 61 S.E. 2d 734 (1950), it was held that when a man entered a room, found a defenseless woman alone, put his hand into his hip pocket and commanded her to take a certain position and then committed a robbery, he was guilty of armed robbery. The West Virginia Supreme Court equated the conduct with a “threat of firearms.” Certainly, the conclusions of these courts are those of reasonable minds. The same reasoning would support the finding of fact here. It seems to me that the majority is, in reality, displeased with the language of the statute. If this is the case, it should say so and, perhaps, the General Assembly would change it. Until it is changed, the courts shall not nullify it by deciding what inference a fact finder should have drawn from the conduct of the accused in a case like this one. I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Stroud joins in this opinion.