Court Opinion

ID: 9668078
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:01:49.524588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:42.861761
License: Public Domain

Richard B. Adkisson, Chief Justice, concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur in the affirmance of the convictions of defendants Spears and Cassell but dissent in the affirmance of the conviction of defendant Joseph Bumgarner. Accomplice testimony is not sufficient to convict unless corroborated by other evidence which tends to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2116 (Repl. 1977). The corroborating evidence must be independent of evidence given by the accomplice. Froman v. State, 232 Ark. 697, 339 S.W.2d 601 (1960). Here the only evidence at trial that actually connected defendant Joseph Bumgarner with the crime came in testimony by Patti Bumgarner, his wife, and Michael Anderson. Both were accomplices as a matter of law. The trial court so found as to Patti Bumgarner, but the finding as to Michael Anderson was erroneously left for a determination by the jury. Anderson admitted at trial that he was a part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy to commit a series of crimes. In regard to the particular crime here in question, Anderson admitted that he provided Spears with a suit to wear during the robbery and brought, for use in the crimes, guns and handcuffs to Bumgarner’s home. In view of this undisputed testimony, and in the absence of any inference to the contrary, Anderson should have been declared an accomplice as a matter of law. Michael Anderson testified at trial about a statement made to him by co-defendant Spears which implicated defendant Bumgarner. The majority justifies the admission of this testimony by supposing that the conspiracy had not ended, thereby bringing the statement within Unif. R. Evid., Rule 801 (d) (2) (v) which provides for admission of a statement by a co-conspirator of a party “during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.” The majority bases this supposition on the case of Hooper v. State, 187 Ark. 88, 58 S.W.2d 434 (1933), where this Court held the conspiracy to rob one bank did not end until the split of the cash between the accomplices. Here, all proceeds from the robbery had been distributed. Clearly, the conspiracy had ended, and the statement was inadmissible hearsay. The majority justifies the admission of Anderson’s statement implicating Bumgarner by asserting that there was no objection by appellant Bumgarner to this statement. But, there was an objection to this testimony. The trial court, in ruling on the objections of the three co-defendants, said, “[a]ny objection made by any [one defendant] will inure to the benefit of any other defendant.” Clearly the objection by defendant Cassell was sufficient to preserve the issue as to defendant Bumgarner.