Lester v. State

687 S.W.3d 344

2024 Ark. App. 206

Jacob Michael LESTER, Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR-23-174

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, DIVISION IV.

Opinion Delivered March 27, 2024

APPEAL FROM THE WASHINGTON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 72CR-18-2080], HONORABLE MARK LINDSAY, JUDGE

Brett D. Watson, Attorney at Law, PLLC, by: Brett D. Watson, for appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att’y Gen., by: Christian Harris, Sr. Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.

BART F. VIRDEN, Judge

[1] ₁Jacob Michael Lester appeals his conviction of three counts of accomplice to rape and one count of accomplice to kidnapping.¹ Lester asserts the circuit court erred by excluding evidence under the rape-shield law; admitting hearsay testimony; and admitting irrelevant statements made by a police officer during his interview of Lester. He also asserts that there was insufficient evidence that he was an accomplice to rape. We affirm.

I. Relevant Facts

On July 11, 2018, Lester was charged with three counts of accomplice to rape and one count of accomplice to kidnapping. The felony information described the three ₂accomplice-to-rape charges as follows: Count 1—"the defendant and another person penetrated the anus of another person without the victim’s consent"; Count 2— "the defendant and another person forced the victim to perform oral sex on him"; and Count 3—"the defendant and another person penetrated the anus of another person with a foreign object without the victim’s consent[.]"

On November 17, 2021, Lester filed a motion in limine to present evidence pursuant to an exception to the rape-shield statute. Specifically, he alleged that the victim "had a recent history of engaging in sexual conduct similar to the allegations in this case through consensual, ‘role-playing’ behavior." Lester asserted that the evidence was necessary to his defense of consent. On August 19, 2022, Lester filed another motion in limine, this time requesting that the court exclude eight recorded statements Detective William Mason made during his custodial interview of Lester.

A hearing on the motions was held on August 26, and the court first addressed Officer Mason’s statements. After hearing extensive argument, the court admitted five of the statements outright and one statement as modified. Two of Officer Mason’s statements were excluded as prejudicial or "offensive." Next, the court heard argument regarding Lester’s motion to admit messages and correspondence exchanged between the victim and other men regarding the "fetish lifestyle." The court denied the admission of the correspondence as irrelevant and withheld ruling on cross-examination of the victim regarding the fetish lifestyle.

₃The following evidence and testimony were adduced at trial. In May and June 2018, the victim corresponded with Lester and Brandon Mooney by direct message through a website called Recon.² Over the course of a few weeks, the men discussed their interests. Lester and Mooney’s relationship involved Mooney acting as Lester’s "slave," who was obedient to Lester’s orders, and Lester asked the victim if he was interested in the "master-slave dynamic." The victim stated that he was not and explained that he was more interested in "pup play," wherein a submissive partner pretends to be a dog. Pup play can be sexual or nonsexual. Mooney was experienced in pup play, and the victim agreed to go to Lester’s home outside of Goshen to be trained in pup play. On June 7, 2018, the victim arrived at Lester’s house, and Mooney answered the door wearing only an athletic supporter. Mooney told the victim that Lester was "the Master" and he, Mooney, was "the Alpha" or "Astro."³ The victim was given the choice to remain clothed or disrobe. The victim chose to remove his clothing and begin his training, which included drinking water from a bowl on the floor and wearing a hood and mittens (worn to simulate a dog’s head and paws.) The victim stated that he "got a whiff of something funny" in the water but drank about half of it anyway. Mooney asked Lester’s permission to perform oral sex on the victim, and Lester allowed it. At this time, the victim was a willing participant. When asked if the victim had told anyone of his whereabouts, he stated that he had not, and Lester and Mooney admonished him for ₄not doing so, telling him "horror stories" of others who had failed to let someone know their location and who they were with. The victim began to feel "woozy" and was not thinking "super clearly," and Lester later admitted he had put Haldol, an antipsychotic drug, in the victim’s water. Mooney led the victim into the "torture room" or "playroom," which contained BDSM,⁴ devices, including whips, floggers, a ball gag with a rubber tube used for introducing liquids to the mouth of the person wearing the gag, and a metal chastity device that prevents the wearer from getting an erection. The ceiling was equipped with two D-rings, and there was a chain strung through the rings with handcuffs on each end of the chain. Lester stated that the victim would "make a great addition to the household," and he was handcuffed to the chain. The victim believed that he "wasn’t going to be able to leave anytime soon" and begged to be released. Initially, the victim was able to escape the handcuffs; however, as he was running to the door of the torture room, Lester tackled him and pressed his arm against the victim’s throat, cutting off his air supply. The victim stated that Lester "was definitely overpowering me." Lester told him that he "needed to comply if [he] didn’t want to pass out[.]" After this, the victim complied because he was afraid of Lester. The victim was handcuffed and hung from the ceiling and the ball gag was placed in his mouth and secured to his head. Mooney inserted an anal plug in the victim’s anus. The victim continued to beg to be released, but his requests were ignored. Lester instructed ₅Mooney to train the victim to be a slave, and Mooney ex- plained to the jury, "So, that’s what I learned as a slave, is pain is a great motivator." For about an hour, Mooney beat the victim with various implements on his back, buttocks, thighs, and testicles, and Lester whipped the victim with a cat o’ nine tails, a device with nine lashes and a barb at the end of each lash. Lester reminded the victim that if he had told someone where he was going, this would not have happened. After letting the victim hang for another half hour, antibiotic ointment was applied to his wounds. The victim asked to use the bathroom, and Mooney allowed him to urinate in a cup. Lester then poured the urine into the tube in the ball gag. The victim spat it out and was beaten for doing so. The victim was released from the handcuffs and, after tying his wrists together, the men went into the living room and watched television. Lester gave Mooney permission to force the victim to perform oral sex on him, and Mooney threatened him with more beatings if he did not comply. The victim was forced to eat food from a dog bowl on the floor, a shock collar was placed around his neck, and a metal chastity device was locked onto his genitals. The victim was instructed to call Lester "Master" and Mooney "Alpha." The men returned to the torture room, and Lester instructed Mooney to remove the anal plug. The victim immediately evacuated his bowels, and as Mooney cleaned the area, Lester anally raped the victim. After that, Lester took the victim into the shower to wash himself. Everyone returned to the living room, and with Lester’s permission, Mooney removed the chastity device and performed oral sex on the victim. When the victim was unable to ejaculate, Mooney punished him by beating him and replaced the chastity device. That night, Lester slept in a separate bedroom, and Mooney slept with the victim in the ₆torture room. Initially the victim’s hands were tied behind his back, but when he could not sleep, Mooney tied his hands in front of him, wrapped a cord around his genitals, then tied that cord to the victim’s feet so that if he tried to pull his feet, it would "yank [his] genitals." The next morning, Lester told Mooney to "hook [the victim] back up" and continue slave training. For about two hours, the victim was beaten with the cat o’ nine tails and a paddle wrapped in duct tape. Lester instructed Mooney to ask for the victim’s bank account information, which made him more afraid. After that, Mooney forced the victim to run in circles around the yard for exercise. The chastity device was removed, and Mooney sexually stimulated the victim. When the victim was unable to ejaculate, Mooney beat him again as Lester gave Mooney directions. Mooney and the victim returned to the living room and watched The Hunger Games movies, and during the movies, Mooney forced the victim’s mouth onto his penis as he ejaculated. The chastity device was removed from his genitals as a reward, though it was replaced later that evening. When the movies ended, the victim was forced back into the handcuffs and beaten. An electrical muscle-stimulation device was attached to the victim’s nipples, delivering electrical shocks. Mooney stated that the victim did not consent to any of the events following the first time Mooney performed oral sex on him; and at bedtime, Mooney decided to allow the victim to sleep unrestrained because the victim obviously did not want to participate, and it was "too painful to watch." Mooney hoped that when he fell asleep, the victim would escape. The victim awoke the next morning before Lester and Mooney did. He put on his shoes, which were by the door, wrapped himself in a blanket and ran from the home through the rural, wooded area. Eventually, the victim ₇rang the doorbell at Mark McClarty’s home, and McClarty opened the door finding the victim, "very upset" and "wind- ed." Over a hearsay objection, McClarty testified that the victim told him that he had escaped from a house about half a mile away. McClarty invited him inside and called the police. The...