Court Opinion

ID: 9775940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:13:38.261947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:32.255122
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice. This case was certified to us by the Arkansas Court of Appeals as one involving a legal principle of major importance. We accepted the certification with a view toward clarifying the requirements in our rules with respect to whether a defendant in a criminal trial conducted by a judge without a jury must apprise the Trial Court of the particulars of his or her claim that the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction in order to raise the issue on appeal. We hold there is no need to make such a motion in a bench trial in order to raise the issue on appeal. We affirm the conviction in this case as the evidence was sufficient to support the judgment. Kenneth Strickland, the appellant, was the stepfather of a 12-year-old female child who accused him of sexual abuse. When the conduct allegedly occurred, Mr. Strickland was 43 years old. The child alleged, and later testified at trial, that Mr. Strickland fondled her breast. The child testified that Mr. Strickland asked her to lie in bed with him while her mother was away from home. When she complied, he put his arm around her shoulder and began rubbing her breast. She said she began crying and was told to shut up but then was allowed to leave him and go to her room. She testified that she told a friend about the incident the next day. The friend’s mother notified school officials, and that led to the charge of sexual abuse in the first degree. Mr. Strickland waived his right to a trial by jury. At the ensuing bench trial he denied the alleged event had occurred and said the child had made up the story due to jealousy as the result of attention given to him by his wife, the child’s mother. Mr. Strickland’s counsel did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence at the conclusion of the State’s evidence. In his closing statement, however, defense counsel asked for acquittal stating, “Your Honor, ... I don’t feel that [the State has] met their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” The Trial Court found Mr. Strickland guilty and sentenced him to five years probation, ninety days in the county jail, a $1,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. Mr. Strickland questions the sufficiency of the evidence. 1. Bench trial; questioning sufficiency of the evidence The State contends that the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence is not preserved for appellate review because Mr. Strickland failed to raise the issue at trial in the manner required by Ark. R. Crim. P. 33.1 (previously rule 36.21). Rule 36.21(b), which was in effect when the trial took place, provided: Failure to Question the Sufficiency of the Evidence. When there has been a trial by jury, the failure of a defendant to move for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the evidence presented by the prosecution and at the close of the case because of insufficiency of the evidence will constitute a waiver of any question pertaining to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury verdict. The rule has since been amended, renumbered as Rule 33.1, and retitled “Motions for Directed Verdict and Special Procedures During Jury Trial.” See In re: Motions for Directed Verdict in Criminal Cases, 321 Ark. 698 (1995). As amended, the rule provides: When there has been a trial by jury, the failure of a defendant to move for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the evidence presented by the prosecution and again at the close of the case because of insufficiency of the evidence will constitute a waiver of any question pertaining to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury verdict. A motion for a directed verdict based on insufficiency of the evidence must specify the respect in which the evidence is deficient; a motion merely stating that the evidence is insufficient for conviction does not preserve for appeal issues relating to a specific deficiency such as insufficient proof on the elements of the offense. A renewal of a previous motion for a directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence preserves the issue of insufficient evidence for appeal. Rule 36.21(b) and its replacement, Rule 33.1, by their very terms apply only “When there has been a trial by jury.” The State argues that, despite the language of the rule, we have required criminal defendants at bench trials to move for a “directed verdict” to preserve the sufficiency of the evidence issue for appeal. In support of the argument the State relies on Igwe v. State, 312 Ark. 220, 849 S.W.2d 462 (1993), and Stricklin v. State, 318 Ark 36, 883 S.W.2d 465 (1994). In the Igwe case, the appellant was convicted in a bench trial and appealed questioning the sufficiency of the evidence. The State contended that failure to renew a “directed verdict” motion at the close of the evidence barred appellate review of the sufficiency of the evidence. We held that “in a trial by the court without a jury, it is unnecessary to raise the question of sufficiency of the evidence by motion at the close of the trial to preserve the issue for appeal.” In the opinion, we discussed that part of Greer v. State, 310 Ark. 522, 837 S.W.2d 884 (1992), which stated, “Appellant’s argument is a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, and, since appellant did not move for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence, we do not address the issue even though this was a bench trial.” We said, “In the Greer case we obviously realized we were dealing with a bench trial rather than a jury trial, but we said the motion was required despite that fact without spelling out our reasons.” In overruling that part of the Greer case which required a criminal defendant in a non-jury trial to move for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the evidence to preserve the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, we stated, “We find no authority for applying the requirement of Rule 36.21 in a non-jury situation.” In Stricklin v. State, supra, the appellant moved for a directed verdict on specific grounds as to each count at the close of the State’s evidence and renewed the motions at the close of all the evidence. After a bench trial, the appellant was found guilty on all counts. On appeal he argued the Trial Court erred in denying his directed verdict motions for two specific reasons which were not presented to the Trial Court. We affirmed and stated: To conclude, in contravention of our established law applicable to proper preservation of issues for appellate review, appellant argued three grounds for his motion at trial, but bases his argument on appeal on two entirely different specific grounds, neither of which was raised at trial. In consequence, we summarily dispose of the argument, and will not consider it for the first time on appeal. Brown [v. State], 316 Ark. 724, 875 S.W.2d 828. Brown v. State was a case tried before a jury. In Graham v. State, 314 Ark. 152, 861 S.W.2d 299 (1993), the Trial Court found Graham guilty of promoting a sexual performance by a child under the age of seventeen and held that he had failed to produce proof of an affirmative defense. The appellant asserted to this Court that the Trial Court erred in failing to grant his motions for directed verdict at the close of the State’s case and at the close of all evidence. In reversing the conviction, we stated, “It is, of course, unnecessary in a trial by the court without a jury for the defense to renew its motion for a directed verdict at the close of the trial in order to preserve the issue for appeal. Igwe v. State, 312 Ark. 220, 849 S.W.2d 462 (1993).” The Igwe case presented only the question whether renewal at the close of the case of the motion for directed verdict was required in a bench trial, so that was the only question answered. The State contends that decision thus did not affect a general requirement that sufficiency of the evidence be challenged at some point in a bench trial. We understand the State’s narrow reading of the case, but we find it inconsistent with the rationale expressed in the Igwe case opinion. There, we found it necessary to overrule Greer v. State, supra, in which we had said a motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence was necessary to preserve the issue of sufficiency of the evidence for appeal. Our explanation was twofold: The issue we consider here was not argued by the parties in the Greer case. Any reasons we may have had for applying the requirement of a motion for a directed verdict at the close of a criminal bench trial are easily overcome when we consider the clear wording of the Rule limiting the requirement to jury trials and our assumption that the main purpose of a judge trying a case without a jury is to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused with the sufficiency of the evidence as the point of the trial. [Emphasis supplied.]  It may be necessary, and certainly economic, to grant a directed verdict motion to keep a case from a jury when it is clear that the evidence is insufficient to support any conviction the jury might return. Our assumption, however, expressed in the Igwe opinion was that motions for directed verdict are superfluous when there is a trial without a jury as the judge would only be directing his own verdict and the entire purpose of a bench trial is to have the judge, rather than a jury, ascertain the sufficiency of the evidence to convict. If the Igwe decision meant that a defendant need not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence in order to preserve that issue for appeal, then it cannot be reconciled with our more recent decision in the Stricklin case. If there is no need whatever for a defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to preserve that issue for review, then it is illogical to say that, if he or she does so, he or she is bound to the specifics of the challenge and may not expand or supplant them on appeal. In our opinion in the Igwe case, we referred to Bass v. Koller, 276 Ark. 93, 632 S.W.2d 410 (1982), and the practice in civil cases pursuant to Ark. R. Civ. R 50(e) which, by its terms, requires the directed verdict motion be made and renewed only in jury trial cases. Discussing the Bass case, we said: It was the first time we were called upon to decide whether Rule 50(e) applied to a non-jury trial. We concluded the Rule meant exactly what it said and noted that prior to the adoption of the Rule there was a requirement that the matters stated in Rule 50(e) applied both to a jury and non-jury trial. We held that, by specifically stating that it applies to a jury trial, the Rule by implication excluded applicability to cases tried without a jury. Rule 50(e) is, by its terms, limited to jury trials. Rule 50(a), however, provides in part: In nonjury cases a party may challenge the sufficiency of the evidence at the conclusion of the opponent’s evidence by moving either orally or in writing to dismiss the opposing party’s claim for relief. The motion may also be made at the close of all of the evidence and in every instance the motion shall state the specific grounds therefor. Rule 50(a) thus provides a means of challenging the sufficiency of the evidence in a bench trial not found in the criminal procedure rules. Use of the motion is obviously discretionary rather than mandatory because the rule provides that a party “may” make such a motion. The fact that the motion is optional keeps the use of it from being a requirement for preservation of the sufficiency issue for appeal. Rule 50(e), on the other hand, specifies that failure to make and renew a directed verdict motion in a jury trial waives any question pertaining to sufficiency of the evidence but makes no such provision with respect to the motion to dismiss in a non-jury trial.  Our supposition in the Igwe case was that a Trial Court, sitting as a trier of fact, would be sufficiently aware of the evidence and the elements of the crime that no such motion would be necessary, and that is why our rules do not require the motion to dismiss in non-jury-trial cases. We adhere to that supposition today, and we overrule Stricklin v. State, supra, to the extent it is inconsistent with this decision. 2. Sufficiency of the evidence Arkansas Code Ann. § 5-14-108 (Repl. 1993) provides in part: A person commits sexual abuse in the first degree if: Being eighteen (18) years old or older, he engages in sexual contact with a person not his spouse who is less than fourteen (14) years old ... . The pertinent part of the definition of “sexual contact” is contained in Ark. Code Ann. § 5-14-101(8) as “any act of sexual gratification involving the touching, directly or through clothing, of the sex organs ... of a person or the breast of a female.”  Mr. Strickland contends the State failed to satisfy its burden of proof because there was neither evidence that he touched a sex organ nor that the touching was an act of sexual gratification. First, he argues the child did not demonstrate her knowledge as to the significance of a breast and that the failure to demonstrate such knowledge had some legal effect on whether a sex organ was touched. The argument completely ignores the last part of the definition of sexual contact where it plainly states “or the breast of a female.”  Second, Mr. Strickland claims that there was insufficient evidence as to whether the touching was for sexual gratification. “Sexual gratification” is not defined in the statute, but we have construed the words in accordance with their reasonable and commonly accepted meanings. Warren v. State, 314 Ark. 192, 862 S.W.2d 222 (1993); McGalliard v. State, 306 Ark. 181, 813 S.W.2d 768 (1991).  It is not necessary for the State to provide direct proof that an act is done for sexual gratification if it can be assumed that the desire for sexual gratification is a plausible reason for the act. See Holloway v. State, 312 Ark. 306, 849 S.W.2d 473 (1993); Holbert v. State, 308 Ark. 672, 826 S.W.2d 284 (1992); McGalliard v. State, supra. The child testified that Mr. Strickland called her to the bedroom, asked her to lie down and fondled her breast for five or ten minutes. Under the circumstances, the Trial Court could properly infer that the fondling was for the purpose of sexual gratification. The evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction. Affirmed. Dudley, Glaze, and Corbin, JJ., concur.