Summary
The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Ricky Ray Anderson’s capital-murder conviction and life sentence. The court held that sufficient evidence supported causation, including expert testimony that the victim would have died from a stab wound even though a police bullet caused her immediate death. The court also upheld admission of pregnancy and crime-scene photograph evidence and found that Anderson’s challenges to the jury instruction and custodial statements were either unpreserved or meritless.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Anderson's capital-murder conviction where a police officer's gunshot caused the immediate death but Anderson's stabbing contributed to the death.
- Whether the causation jury instruction unconstitutionally shifted the State's burden of proof to Anderson.
- Whether evidence that the victim was pregnant was relevant and properly admitted to show motive and intent.
- Whether crime-scene photographs taken eight to nine hours after the victim's death were properly admitted.
- Whether custodial statements Anderson made before receiving Miranda warnings were inadmissible because they resulted from interrogation or coercion.
Holdings
- The evidence substantially supported the capital-murder conviction because Anderson's stabbing of Ulmer was not clearly insufficient to cause her death, even though an officer's gunshot was the immediate cause of death.
- The court declined to consider Anderson's argument that the causation instruction shifted the burden of proof because he did not raise that constitutional objection in the circuit court.
- The circuit court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence that Ulmer was pregnant because the evidence was relevant to the State's theory of motive and intent.
- The circuit court did not abuse its discretion by admitting State's Exhibits 9 through 16, because the photographs assisted the jury in understanding testimony about the crime scene and the jury was informed that they were taken eight to nine hours after the death.
- The circuit court properly denied suppression of Anderson's custodial statements because, except for one statement already suppressed, the statements were spontaneous and were not the product of police interrogation or coercion.
Key quotations
“Substantial evidence is evidence forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or the other beyond suspicion or conjecture.” (385 S.W.3d at 215)
“Ultimately, the resolution of Anderson’s causation challenge rests on the credibility of Dr. Craig’s testimony that Jill would have died from the wound to her common iliac artery.” (385 S.W.3d at 216)
“The general rule is that this court does not consider arguments, even constitutional ones, raised for the first time on appeal.” (385 S.W.3d at 217)
“The mere fact that a photograph is inflammatory or cumulative is not, standing alone, sufficient reason to exclude it.” (385 S.W.3d at 219)
“A suspect’s spontaneous statement while in police custody is admissible, and it is irrelevant whether the statement was made before or after Miranda warnings because a spontaneous statement is not compelled or the result of coercion under the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination.” (385 S.W.3d at 220)
Factual background
On June 26, 2009, Jill Ulmer called 911 to report that Anderson was at her apartment despite a protection order. Police arrived during screams from inside the apartment and saw Anderson fighting with Ulmer and making stabbing motions with a knife. Officers fired their weapons, and Ulmer was found with 27 stab wounds and a fatal gunshot wound; medical testimony established that a stab wound to her common iliac artery would likely have caused death within minutes without surgery. Anderson was taken into custody and made multiple statements before and after receiving Miranda warnings, including statements that police officers deemed spontaneous.
Procedural history
Anderson was convicted of capital murder in circuit court and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, a causation jury instruction, admission of pregnancy evidence and crime-scene photographs, and denial of his motion to suppress custodial statements made before Miranda warnings. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed.