Severance v. State

684 S.W.3d 610

2024 Ark. App. 87

Scott SEVERANCE, Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR-23-188

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, DIVISION IV.

Opinion Delivered February 7, 2024

APPEAL FROM THE PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, SEVENTH DIVISION [NO. 60CR-21-634], HONORABLE KAREN D. WHATLEY, JUDGE

Robert M. "Robby" Golden, for appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att’y Gen., by: Karen Virginia Wallace, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.

KENNETH S. HIXSON, Judge

₁Appellant Scott Severance appeals after he was convicted by a Pulaski County Circuit Court jury of second-degree murder and employing a firearm during the commission of the offense. He was sentenced as a habitual offender to serve an aggregate of six hundred months’ incarceration. On appeal, appellant challenges (1) the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction; (2) the circuit court’s refusal to admit Lindsey Krasovic’s out-of-court statements made to law enforcement; and (3) the circuit court’s sustaining the State’s Batson challenge as to one juror. We affirm.

₂I. Relevant Facts

Appellant, a Caucasian man,¹ was charged by felony information with murder in the first degree in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-10-102 (Supp. 2019), a Class Y felony.² The State alleged that appellant’s sentence should be enhanced pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-90-120 (Repl. 2016) for having employed a firearm as a means of committing the felony offense. The State further sought an enhanced sentence under the habitual-offender statute, Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-501(a) (Supp. 2019). The information alleged that appellant purposely caused the death of Brandon Simpson, an African American male.³ Appellant claimed the defense of justification and specifically argued that he acted in self-defense. Although a jury trial was first held on March 8, 2022, that trial resulted in a mistrial. As such, appellant’s second jury trial was held on August 16–17, 2022, wherein appellant was convicted as set forth above.

The State called nine witnesses. The victim’s wife, Shada Simpson, testified that on December 26, 2020, she and her husband, the victim Brandon Simpson, were on the way to a store. Before arriving at the store, they stopped at appellant’s residence. Ms. Simpson did not know why they were stopping and waited in the vehicle while the victim, Brandon, went ₃into appellant’s residence. Ms. Simpson explained that she did not know appellant very well and that she had met appellant and his girlfriend, Lindsey Krasovic, only once. When they arrived at the residence, there were a man and woman "hanging outside." Brandon left the vehicle running and went inside. Brandon was in the appellant’s residence for approximately five minutes. Ms. Simpson testified she looked up and saw a window in the house vibrate; and the man and woman, who were still outside, ran away down the street. Ms. Simpson stated that she got out of the truck and saw her husband come out of the front door. Her husband slumped over the railing and said "he shot me. I’m dying." When Ms. Simpson approached the porch, Brandon stopped her and said "he had a gun" and told her to "run and go get help[.]" Ms. Simpson had her phone in her hand and ran up the hill toward their apartment and called 911. A police officer responded to the call and met Ms. Simpson at the top of the hill at her apartment. Ms. Simpson got into the officer’s car, and they drove down to appellant’s residence. Ms. Simpson estimated that approximately five minutes had elapsed since the shooting.

When they arrived at appellant’s residence, Brandon was no longer lying on the porch. The police knocked on door several times but there was no answer. Ms. Simpson stated there were around ten officers at the scene. She called Brandon’s phone, but there was no answer. The police searched all around the exterior of the house and eventually removed Ms. Simpson from the scene and took her to a position up the hill and across from a school. Several minutes elapsed and the police officers subsequently returned to Ms. Simpson and advised her that Brandon was deceased.

₄Officer Coleman Dillon testified that he received a dispatch advising that a woman had called 911 and reported that her husband had been shot on Mara Lynn Drive in a red Tahoe. Officer Dillon was only two and a half blocks from the scene when he received the dispatch. He arrived on Mara Lynn Drive and located a red Tahoe. The Tahoe was not running. Officer Dillon searched the area, but he did net see anybody in the Tahoe or any indication of a shooting. Officer Dillon called dispatch and had them call back the woman who had reported the shooting. Dispatch then called Officer Dillon back and told him that the woman was located at 1141 Mason Drive, about one block away. Officer Dillon testified that he left the scene and found Ms. Simpson at her apartment. They got into his squad car and returned to the scene of the shooting. Officer Dillon stated that he knocked and banged on the door fairly loudly, but no one would answer the door. There were lights on; the shades were pulled down; and he heard music coming from inside the residence.

Additional police officers had arrived on the scene. Officer Dillon was still attempting to locate the victim. He called dispatch and requested that they contact local hospitals to see if anyone had been admitted with gunshot wounds. They also were attempting to ping Brandon’s phone to locate him. The pinging indicated that the phone was in the vicinity of the scene, but it did not produce a precise location.

While on scene, Officer Dillon was put in touch with Ashona Givens. He testified that Ms. Givens relayed that she had seen a male outside yelling that he had been shot and saw a Caucasian male come out and pull him back inside the residence.

₅Approximately two hours elapsed from the time of Ms. Simpson’s call, and it was at that point law enforcement decided to breach appellant’s residence. While clearing the residence, officers located Brandon dead in the southeast room of the house. He had "a single wound on the front." Lindsey Krasovic was found in the upstairs bathroom taking a shower. Appellant was not located.

Miranda Dollar, a crime-scene specialist with the Little Rock Police Department crime-scene search unit, testified that the keys to the red Tahoe were found inside the residence on the coffee table. She also testified that there was a package in the living room addressed to appellant’s daughter, Bailey Severance, in Pueblo, Colorado. The return address said "Dad" and listed an address in Pueblo, Colorado. A .380-caliber pistol was found underneath the sink of the bathroom inside a box of OxyClean. A .380 shell casing was located in the living room near the front door.

Ashona Givens testified that she lived with her mother on Mara Lynn Road. On the night of the shooting, as she was leaving her apartment, she saw a man yelling for help across the street from her residence. The man stumbled out of the door and fell. After the man collapsed, she saw a woman open the door, look out, and shut the door. Later, she opened it again, but this time there was a guy with her. Ms. Givens explained that she saw the guy pick up the collapsed man "by his underarms and [drag] him in the house like he was trash." They closed the door and then the woman opened the door again, looked out, and then closed the door. Ms. Givens admitted that she left and did not call law enforcement. However, she explained that she did call her mother who had lived with her. Later, Ms. ₆Givens received a phone call from her aunt with law enforcement on the other line. It was at that point that she told law enforcement what she had seen.

The police were unable to locate the appellant, so they set up surveillance of the appellant’s residence. Detective Jason Harris testified that he arrested appellant three days later at the residence on December 29, 2020, and transported him to the 12th Street station for an interview with Detective Temple.

Detective Eric Temple testified that after he advised appellant of his Miranda rights, appellant chose to waive those lights and gave a statement. Detective Temple and Detective Jackman were present and asked appellant questions during the interview. The recorded interview was played for the jury. During the interview, appellant said he had lived at his apartment for about a month and that he had lived in Arkansas for a total of two months. He stated that he knew Brandon for about a month, that Brandon "stop[ped] by all the time," and that he had agreed to buy a speaker from Brandon. Appellant claimed he called Brandon "Perp," and Brandon called him "Sergio." Appellant said that he had loaned Brandon money that Brandon still owed him.

Appellant stated that on the day Brandon was killed, he was away from home when he got a call from his fiancée, Ms. Krasovic.⁴ She told him that while she was taking out the trash, "a Black man just tried to break in the house." Appellant returned home, and soon after, Brandon knocked on the door, saying he had stopped by a little earlier. Appellant and ₇Brandon went to Brandon’s home to get the speaker, and Brandon said he would stop by again in about fifteen minutes to pick up the money for it.

When Brandon later approached appellant’s apartment, Ms. Krasovic told appellant that Brandon was wearing the same clothes as the man who had tried to break into the house. Appellant said that he and Ms. Krasovic were in the kitchen, and he had friends (a Caucasian couple whose names he did not know, except that the man was named Dustin) outside on the porch at the time. Appellant said that Brandon opened the door without knocking and entered the apartment. Appellant told him to stop and ordered him to leave.

Appellant said Brandon started walking toward them and pulled a gun from the "front side-ish" part of his waist. Appellant said Brandon never pointed the gun at him but that he grabbed Brandon as...