Scott v. State

1

2024 Ark.App. 549

ROXANNE SCOTT APPELLANT v. STATE OF ARANSAS APPELLEE

No. CR-24-115

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, Division IV

November 6, 2024

APPEAL FROM THE DREW COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 22CR-23-66] HONORABLE ROBERT B. GIBSON III, JUDGE.

Dusti Standridge, for appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att'y Gen., by: David L. Eanes, Jr., Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.

STEPHANIE POTTER BARRETT, Judge

Following a bench trial in the Drew County Circuit Court, appellant Roxanne Scott was found guilty of one count breaking or entering, a Class D felony, for which she was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the Arkansas Division of Correction, with a four-year suspended imposition of sentence; and one count of theft of property valued at less than one thousand dollars, a Class A misdemeanor, for which she was sentenced to one year in the county jail. Scott was charged as an accomplice; on appeal, she argues there was insufficient evidence to support her convictions as an accomplice.^[1] We affirm.

At trial, Officer James Slaughter of the Tenth Judicial Drug Task Force ("task force") testified that the task force utilized the fenced-in portion of the old armory to store forfeitures of seized vehicles and property. Due to break-ins, Officer Slaughter had installed game cameras on site. On February 26 2023, at 11:32 p.m., the game camera sent a picture to his phone showing someone inside the fence carrying something. On further investigation, officers found David Christen hanging underneath a bus parked in the fenced lot. Officer Slaughter stated that the gate to the lot was chained with two locks and one lock appeared to have been cut by bolt cutters. The officers found catalytic converters that had been removed from vehicles at the lot, a Sawzall, and a bag of tools inside the fenced lot.

According to Officer Slaughter, after Christen was taken into custody a text message was sent to his cell phone from "Roxanne" advising him to let her know when he was ready. Officer Slaughter, who was familiar with Roxanne Scott based on his employment with the task force, believed Scott was the person who sent the text. While patrolling the area around the armory, Officer David Menotti came into contact with Scott, who was driving Christen's vehicle; Officer Menotti conducted a traffic stop and searched Christen's vehicle, which revealed a set of bolt cutters in the back seat of the car. Officer Slaughter testified that he believed those bolt cutters were used to cut the lock on the armory gate.

Scott was arrested and taken to the county jail, where Officer Slaughter interviewed her; the taped interview was played for the circuit court. Scott acted surprised Christen was found under a bus; she claimed he was at the armory to change an alternator. Officer Slaughter told Scott Christen was cutting catalytic converters off of vehicles; Christen had told him Scott knew what he was doing; and she had dropped him off and picked him up after he was done. While Scott did not deny that she had dropped Christen off at the armory, she continued to maintain that he was there to change an alternator; she said that she had used Christen's vehicle to go see a guy named Jason, and she had come back to pick Christen up when he texted her that he was ready. Scott told Officer Slaughter that Christen had driven to the armory; that she had been on the phone and only gotten in the driver's seat after she ended her call; and that she had not seen Christen cut the lock and put the bolt cutters back in the vehicle before she left. When Officer Slaughter asked Scott what she thought when Christen had gotten out of the vehicle with a jack, Scott replied that she had not paid any attention, that Christen was a mechanic and worked on vehicles all the time. When asked if he was concerned about the veracity of Scott's statement, Officer Slaughter said that he believed that if Scott thought Christen was at the armory legally, she would have stopped when she saw the officers' vehicles in front of the armory; instead, she kept driving until she was stopped by Officer Menotti. He opined it would have been impossible for Scott not to have known Christen cut the lock on the gate, as it was either done by bolt cutters, which had been returned to the vehicle, or by the Sawzall, which would have made a lot of noise.

The State rested after Officer Slaughter's testimony, and Scott moved for dismissal of both charges. She argued that there was no allegation she was actually involved in the theft or that she had broken into the property; rather, the only allegation was that she drove Christen to the premises for the purpose of committing a theft. She asserted there was no evidence she had knowledge that Christen intended to commit a crime at the armory; while there were allegations that perhaps she should have known something was going on if she had been more observant, that did not prove she aided and abetted Christen in the commission of a crime.

The State responded that circumstantial evidence supported the allegation that Scott had knowledge of what Christen planned to do-it was not reasonable to believe that he was at the armory at 11:30 p.m. to fix an alternator; that he had either cut the lock with bolt cutters and put them back in the car, or he used a Sawzall; that he had carried large bags into a locked, fenced-in area while she drove off; and that Scott had arrived back at the armory within ten minutes of sending Christen a text asking if he was ready.

In denying the motion to dismiss, the circuit court noted that Christen was inside the fenced storage lot; the gate lock had been cut off; Christen was found under a bus...