Hooks v. State

2015 Ark. 258

465 S.W.3d 416

Pamela Hooks, Appellant

v.State of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR–14–845

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Opinion Delivered June 4, 2015

Pamela Hooks, pro se appellant.

Dustin McDaniel, Att'y Gen., by: Vada Berger, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.

Opinion

PER CURIAM

In 2010, John Davis collapsed during a physical altercation with Pamela Hooks and died later that same day. In 2012, Hooks was charged with first-degree murder in the death. At trial, a primary issue was Davis's ill health, which included a preexisting heart condition involving severe blockage of a main artery.

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Davis testified that he had sustained sixty-eight separate injuries—cuts, scratches, and multiple superficial stab wounds, some of which were consistent with defensive injuries. Scissors that were recovered from the scene of the struggle were stained with the blood of both Davis and Hooks. The pathologist further testified that, while Davis's injuries in themselves were not life threatening in a healthy person, he classified the manner of death as homicide caused by complications of cardiac arrest brought on by the physical struggle with Hooks and arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Hooks testified that Davis had attacked and injured her and that she had fought back with some broken glass and a piece of broken plate as she tried to free herself from his grasp. She also testified that she and Davis had an open sexual relationship that sometimes turned violent and that she had entered a plea of nolo contendere in 2008 to domestic battering arising from a prior fight with Davis in which Davis sustained serious multiple lacerations to his face. There was also proof presented that Hooks had entered pleas of guilty in the following cases, in all of which Davis was the victim: in 1991, first-degree battery and second-degree battery; in 1995, aggravated assault; in 1996, second-degree battery; in 2003, domestic battering.

After hearing all the testimony, the jury found Hooks guilty of the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder, and she was sentenced as a habitual offender to 564 months' imprisonment. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that, considering the record as a whole and applicable precedent, substantial evidence supported the jury's finding that Hooks acted with the purpose to seriously injure Davis. The substantial evidence noted by the court included the use of scissors, which can be used as a deadly weapon, and the cumulative number of injuries inflicted to vital portions of the victim's anatomy that give rise to the inference that serious harm was intended. The court of appeals also noted that the jury was not required to believe Hooks's account of the fight in which she acted in self-defense. Hooks v. State, 2013 Ark. App. 728, 431 S.W.3d 333.

After the judgment was affirmed, Hooks timely filed in the trial court a verified, pro se petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1 (2012). The trial court denied the petition without holding an evidentiary hearing, and Hooks brings this appeal.

Hooks raised a number of issues in her petition for Rule 37.1 relief. On appeal, she raises only some of the issues argued below. Those claims argued below, but not in this appeal are considered abandoned. Carter v. State, 2015 Ark. 166, 460 S.W.3d 781.

Hooks first urges this court to reverse the trial court's order on the ground that a hearing should have been held on her claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Rule 37.3 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure requires an evidentiary hearing in a postconviction proceeding unless the petition and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the petitioner is entitled to no relief. See Beverage v. State, 2015 Ark. 112, 458 S.W.3d 243. If the files and the record conclusively show that the petitioner is not entitled to relief, the trial court is required to make written findings to that effect, “specifying any parts of the files, or records that are relied upon to sustain the court's findings.” Ark. R.Crim. P. 37.3(a) (2012). The trial court here made the required findings. As it could do so conclusively based on the files and record in the case, the trial court did not err in ruling on the petition without a hearing.

When reviewing a decision of a trial court to deny relief on the issue of whether counsel's representation was effective, this court has held that it will reverse the trial court's decision granting or denying postconviction relief only when that decision is clearly erroneous. Lemaster v. State, 2015 Ark. 167, 459 S.W.3d 802. A finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the appellate court, after reviewing the entire evidence, is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Sartin v. State, 2012 Ark. 155, 400 S.W.3d 694. When considering an appeal from a trial court's denial of a Rule 37.1 petition based on ineffective assistance of counsel, the sole question presented is whether, based on a totality of the evidence under the standard set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the trial court clearly erred in holding that counsel's performance was not ineffective. Taylor v. State, 2013 Ark. 146, 427 S.W.3d 29.

The benchmark for judging a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel must be “whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Pursuant to Strickland, we assess the effectiveness of counsel under a two-prong standard. First, a petitioner raising a claim of ineffective assistance must show that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the petitioner by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Williams v. State, 369 Ark. 104, 251 S.W.3d 290 (2007). Second, the petitioner must show that counsel's deficient performance so prejudiced petitioner's defense that he was deprived of a fair trial. Holloway v. State, 2013 Ark. 140, 426 S.W.3d 462. A petitioner making an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim must show that his counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. Abernathy v. State, 2012 Ark. 59, 386 S.W.3d 477 (per curiam). The petitioner must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, the fact-finder would have had a reasonable doubt respecting guilt, i.e., the decision reached would have been different absent the errors. Smith v. State, 2015 Ark. 165, 459 S.W.3d 806. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial. Lemaster, 2015 Ark. 167, 459 S.W.3d 802.

Hooks argues that her attorney at trial failed to “more thoroughly advise her in plea bargaining.” As support for the allegation, she states that she “requested five years from the prosecutor,” and that the request was rejected by the State. For the first time in her brief, she alleges that she went to trial after her attorney advised her that the five-year plea offer was “too low” to be accepted by the State and that she would not have gone to trial had she been aware that she would be required as a habitual offender to serve one hundred percent of her sentence. Hooks does not contend that the State made any offer of a plea bargain or otherwise explain what action counsel should have taken with respect to plea bargaining in her case.

The argument is not grounds to reverse the trial court's order. As noted, Hooks does not contend that the State made a plea offer to her. She also does not allege that there was some offer by the State of a plea bargain that counsel failed to communicate to her. When a petitioner provides no evidence that a plea offer by the State existed or that trial counsel failed to communicate a plea offer, the petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance has no merit. See Huddleston v. State, 347 Ark. 226, 61 S.W.3d 163 (2001) (per...