Goins v. State, CR-18-558

2019 Ark. App. 11

568 S.W.3d 300

Tyree Maurice GOINS, Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR-18-558

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, DIVISION I.

Opinion Delivered: January 16, 2019

Phillip A. McGough, P.A., North Little Rock, by: Phillip A. McGough, for appellant.

Leslie Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Michael A. Hylden, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.

DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge

Tyree Goins was tried by a jury and found guilty of the offense of rape. His victim, TL, was under fourteen years old at the time of the offense. Goins raises four points of appeal, contending the trial court erred in denying 1) his motions for directed verdict based on pre-trial and trial-defense motions, 2) his motion for directed verdict based on defense arguments concerning inconsistencies between the victim's pre-trial and trial testimony, 3) his motion for directed verdict restricting defense arguments concerning the relationship between the victim's mother and Goins being the motive for the charges against him, and 4) his objection to jail-phone recordings being admitted for the jury to hear. We affirm.

TL testified she was born on October 23, 2001. She stated she was thirteen years old when she met Goins at the Fox Creek Apartments in Texarkana. TL explained she lived in an apartment complex located next door to his. According to her, approximately two weeks after meeting Goins, they had sex for the first time. She described several subsequent sexual encounters with Goins. As abstracted, she described in part her first sexual encounter with Goins as follows:

One night we were outside. He asked me if I wanted to go to the store and I said yes. And we didn't go to the store right away. And we, we went somewhere and had sex. No, ma'am, I do not remember about what time of year it was. Yes, ma'am, I do remember it was before my fourteenth birthday.

....

Yes, ma'am, it was a burgundy car with tinted windows. I can tell you what happened in the burgundy car with tinted windows. We had sex. I don't know where he parked and told me that he would not hurt me, that I'd be okay. He told me to take off my clothes and he got out of the car and got in the back seat where I was and we had sex. He said everything was going to be okay and he was not going to hurt me.

I can tell you what I mean when I say he had sex with me. When a male sticks their penis in a female's vagina, Yes ma'am, that did happen. No, ma'am, I do not know what made it stop. Next, we left. No, ma'am, I do not know if anything came out of his penis. No, ma'am, nothing came out of my vagina. Then we left and went to Church's and back to Fox Creek.

I remember that it made my vagina feel weird.... It was my first time so it felt weird.

TL then testified about at least six additional sexual encounters with Goins. She described another time they had sex in the same burgundy car in the parking lot of the Links Apartments. She testified Goins "started licking my vagina and then we start[ed] having sex." She said she took her clothes off; he just pulled down his pants; he told her to turn around and bend over; he was behind her and he started having sex, which she again described as a "man's penis going in the vagina"; and she said that was what happened that day at the Links Apartments.

She explained they also had sex in a Fox Creek apartment where nobody lived because it was getting fixed. They were in one of the rooms in the apartment; they had sex in that room. She said her pants came off; his pants "got pulled down."

She also described a sexual encounter that took place in his apartment at Fox Creek where he lived with the mother of his children. TL testified they did not have sex, but she described the encounter as going into his room and "his penis was in my mouth." The kids were outside playing.

She described another time when they were parked by the fairgrounds and had sex in the burgundy car. She said when they finished having sex, Goins grabbed a towel. TL acknowledged that when she said they had sex, it was the same definition she had previously given. She then described a time when he came to get her at the Village Park South apartments, and they "went somewhere" where they had sex in a black Jeep; she did not know where they were, but she described the route they took to get there.

Finally, she described an encounter that took place in a "grayish silver looking car" in a "big parking space behind E-Z Mart and Wendy's on State Line and by Motel 6." She testified they were in the car and had sex and that "sex" meant what it had meant all the other times. She said at least one or more of the seven sexual encounters she described happened before her fourteenth birthday on October 23, 2015. TL explained her brother saw texts she and Goins had exchanged on her brother's phone, and her brother showed their mother, who called the police.

Goins's first three points of appeal challenge the trial court's denial of his motion for directed verdict, attempting to encompass arguments within the sufficiency challenge that are not pertinent. We address them together. In reviewing the denial of a motion for directed verdict, we treat the motion as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Wiseman v. State , 2017 Ark. App. 371, 526 S.W.3d 4. We examine the evidence to determine whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence. Id. Substantial evidence is evidence that is forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or the other beyond suspicion or conjecture. Id. We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and only evidence supporting the verdict will be considered. Id. Variances and discrepancies in the proof go to the weight or credibility of the evidence and are matters for the fact-finder to resolve. Id. The trier of fact is free to believe all or part of any witness's testimony and may resolve questions of conflicting testimony and inconsistent evidence. Id. Accordingly, when there is evidence of a defendant's guilt, even if it is conflicting, it is for the jury as fact-finder to resolve, not the court. Id.

Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-14-103 (Repl. 2013) defines the offense of rape in pertinent part:

(a) A person commits rape if he or she engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person:

....

(3)(A) Who is less than fourteen (14) years of age.

"Deviate sexual activity" means any act of sexual gratification involving (A) the penetration, however slight, of the anus or mouth of a person by the penis of another person; or (B) the penetration, however slight, of the labia majora or anus of a person by any body member or foreign instrument manipulated by another person. Ark. Code Ann. § 5-14-101(1). A rape victim's testimony may constitute substantial evidence to sustain a conviction of rape, even when the victim is a child. Garcia v. State , 2017 Ark. App. 457, 530 S.W.3d 862. A rape victim's testimony need not be corroborated, nor is scientific evidence required, and the victim's testimony describing penetration is enough for a conviction. Id.

We begin by noting that Goins's efforts to encompass into his sufficiency challenges the trial court's denial of pre-trial and trial motions, inconsistencies in the testimony, and TL's mother's relationship with Goins fail. They do not provide grounds for a sufficiency challenge. Moreover, even if the trial court had erred in the ways argued by Goins, it would not change the outcome of his challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence. In reviewing sufficiency challenges, all the evidence presented, including that which may have been inadmissible, is considered in the light most favorable to the State. Britt v. State , 2015 Ark. App. 456, 468 S.W.3d 285.

Here, Goins was charged with only one count of rape. TL testified about at least seven sexual encounters that would satisfy the definition of either sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity. She was able to give graphic descriptions of those encounters. She explained she regarded sexual...