Court Opinion

ID: 9617867
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:02:35.041744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:18.393001
License: Public Domain

Josephine Linker Hart, Judge, dissenting. I agree that sufficient evidence supports Mr. Lytle’s conviction. I respectfully dissent, however, because the trial court erred by failing to comply with Ark. Code Ann. § 16-89-115 (Supp. 2003). The majority affirms for two reasons. The majority cites Gruzen v. State, 276 Ark. 149, 634 S.W.2d 92 (1982), for the general proposition that an issue must be presented in a “timely and appropriate manner” and holds that Mr. Lytle “failed to make the timely and appropriate objections necessary to preserve this issue for review.” I disagree. Immediately after Ms. Church testified on cross-examination that she made a written statement to the police, Mr. Lytle asked for Ms. Church’s written statement. This motion was timely. The case of Blakemore v. State, 268 Ark. 145, 594 S.W.2d 231 (1980), supports this conclusion. In Blakemore, at the beginning of cross-examination by defense counsel, a witness testified regarding a written statement he made, and defense counsel “asked for” a copy for the purposes of cross-examination, and further made a “request” for another witness’s statement. Blakemore, 268 Ark. at 146, 594 S.W.2d at 232. Citing the statute, the Arkansas Supreme Court observed that “after a witness called by the State has testified on direct examination, the court ‘shall,’ on motion of the defendant, order the State to produce any relevant statement of the witness in its possession.” Id., 594 S.W.2d at 233. The court held that the “requests for the statements were timely.” Id. at 146-47, 594 S.W.2d at 233. Thus, Mr. Lytle’s request for Ms. Church’s statement, which was made at the same time as the request made in Blakemore, was likewise timely. Moreover, contrary to the majority’s assertion, Mr. Lytle’s objection was appropriate. In Blakemore, the State argued that the defense counsel should have moved for the witness’s testimony to be stricken. The Arkansas Supreme Court, however, again referred to the statute and noted that this “remedy is available only when the State elects not to comply with an order of the court to deliver a statement to the defendant.” Id. at 147, 594 S.W.2d at 233. The court held, “Nor was any further objection by counsel necessary, because he had made known to the court the action he desired the court to take.” Id. Because the request during cross-examination for the witness’s statement was appropriate in Blakemore, Mr. Lytle’s request during cross-examination for Ms. Church’s statement was likewise appropriate. Mr. Lytle made an additional — though not required — motion at the end of the State’s case to renew and buttress his previous request. It is this second motion that the majority deems both untimely and inappropriate. But because Mr. Lytle made a timely and appropriate request during Ms. Church’s cross-examination, the issue was preserved for review. In the alternative, the majority further states that it is unable to deduce from the record whether a written statement ever existed and observes that “Mr. Lytle did not ask the trial court to resolve the conflicting testimony, and it was his burden to bring up a record sufficient to demonstrate error.” Those observations, however, beg the question. The statute requires that “[a]fter a witness called by the state has testified on direct examination, the court, on motion of the defendant, shall order the state to produce any statement... of the witness in the possession of the state which relates to the subject matter as to which the witness has testified.” Ark. Code Ann. § 16-89-115(b) (Supp. 2003) (emphasis added). Thus, upon motion of the defendant, it was the trial court’s statutorily mandated duty to order the State to produce any statement that it may have possessed. Here, the trial court failed to do so. Furthermore, the trial court’s duty to order the State to produce any statement in its possession would have preceded the court’s resolution of any conflicting testimony regarding the existence of the statement, as the court would not have had to resolve the conflict absent Mr. Lytle’s request that the court order production of any existing statement. See Hill v. State, 331 Ark. 312, 962 S.W.2d 762 (1998) (noting the requirement that the trial court make an inquiry as to the whereabouts of the purported statement); Rush v. State, 252 Ark. 814, 481 S.W.2d 696 (1972) (discussing the duty of the trial court to conduct any inquiry necessary to aid the court in the discharge of its responsibility under the statute). Thus, Mr. Lytle’s failure to ask the trial court to resolve the conflicting testimony cannot serve as a bar to appellate review, as the trial court did not first order the State to produce any statement that it may have possessed. Accordingly, we should make a limited remand of this case to the trial court to carry out its statutorily mandated duty to determine the whereabouts of the purported statement, and if it finds that there was no statement, we could affirm when the case returns. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent. Griffen, J., joins.