Summary
The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed Derek Sales's convictions for capital murder and aggravated robbery, including sentences of death and life imprisonment. The court held that substantial evidence supported the convictions and the aggravating circumstances, and rejected or declined to review claims concerning a mistrial, victim-impact evidence, and the admission of aggravating-circumstance evidence.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether substantial evidence supported the convictions for aggravated robbery and capital murder.
- Whether the circuit court erred by denying or failing to rule promptly on Sales's motion for a mistrial based on potential jurors' exposure to crime-scene photographs.
- Whether the circuit court committed reversible error by failing sua sponte to preview or control victim-impact testimony, admonish the jury, or declare a mistrial.
- Whether the evidence supported the statutory aggravating circumstances of pecuniary gain and avoiding or preventing arrest.
- Whether any reversible error appeared under the issues reviewed pursuant to Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure–Criminal 10 and Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-3(h).
Holdings
- Substantial evidence supported the aggravated-robbery conviction because the evidence showed that Sales took the contents of York's cigar box and inflicted serious injury.
- Substantial evidence supported the convictions for premeditated and deliberated capital murder and felony capital murder.
- The circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying the mistrial motion because Sales offered no evidence of prejudice or that anyone who saw the photographs served on the jury.
- The court would not review Sales's claim that the circuit court should have acted sua sponte concerning victim-impact testimony because there was no ruling on the objection and Sales failed to develop an argument under Arkansas's recognized exceptions to the no-plain-error rule.
- The evidence supported the jury's findings of the pecuniary-gain and avoiding-or-preventing-arrest aggravating circumstances, and the issue was reviewable under Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure–Criminal 10 despite waiver and the absence of a circuit-court ruling.
Key quotations
“A mistrial is a drastic remedy, to be employed only when an error is so prejudicial that justice cannot be served by continuing the trial, and when it cannot be cured by an instruction to the jury.” (429)
“Substantial evidence is evidence of sufficient force and character that without resorting to speculation and conjecture compels with reasonable certainty a conclusion one way or the other.” (428)
Factual background
Willie York, a severely disabled man who could not walk or effectively use his hands, was found dead in his home shortly after 11:30 p.m. on April 16, 2005. Sales had remained at the home throughout the day and evening and was the only person with York shortly before the body was discovered; witnesses saw Sales inside, near York's body, and later fleeing from police. York's cigar box, which he used as a cash register and where he kept money and personal papers, was nearly empty after the killing, while coins and a paper formerly kept in the box were found in Sales's possession. Blood and DNA evidence linked Sales to York and to a knife found near the body.
Procedural history
A jury convicted Sales of capital murder and aggravated robbery and imposed sentences of death and life imprisonment, respectively. The circuit court denied or overruled his motions and objections, including motions for directed verdict and a motion for mistrial. The Supreme Court of Arkansas reviewed the convictions and death sentence and affirmed after reviewing the enumerated issues under Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure–Criminal 10 and the record for reversible error under Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-3(h).