APPEAL
FROM THE CLEBURNE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 12CR-17-63]
HONORABLE TIM WEAVER, JUDGE
Brett
D. Watson, Attorney at Law, PLLC, by: Brett D. Watson, for
appellant.
Leslie
Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Karen Virgina Wallace,
Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.
JOHN
DAN KEMP, CHIEF JUSTICE
Appellant
Rodney Wayne Rayburn appeals an order of the Cleburne County
Circuit Court convicting him of rape of a minor and
sentencing him as a habitual offender to life imprisonment
without parole. For reversal, Rayburn argues that the circuit
court erred in denying his motion to dismiss for violating
his right to a speedy trial and his motion to dismiss for
prosecutorial delay. Rayburn also contends that the circuit
court abused its discretion in admitting an Arkansas
Department of Correction "pen pack" and an Arkansas
Court of Appeals opinion as evidence of prior convictions. We
affirm.
I.
Facts
On July
9, 2015, Rayburn raped his eleven-year-old daughter, H.R., at
a Cleburne County campsite. There, Rayburn took H.R. and her
brother to the campground showers, sent her brother to a
different shower stall, went into the same shower with H.R.,
locked the door, began washing her naked body, forced her to
perform oral sex while on her knees, and attempted anal
penetration.
On July
13, 2015, the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children
Division (CACD) received a call from the child-abuse hotline
alleging that Rayburn had sexually abused H.R. on numerous
occasions. The next day, on July 14, CACD Investigator Pamela
Meeks conducted a forensic interview of H.R. During the
interview, H.R. described in detail what Rayburn had done to
her in the shower at the Cleburne County campsite. She also
described other sex crimes committed by Rayburn against her
at a rice mill in Arkansas County and at her home in
Jefferson County where she and her family lived. Investigator
Meeks sent notice to prosecutors in Arkansas and Jefferson
Counties. The Arkansas State Police did not report the
investigation to Cleburne County officials at that time.
Arkansas County officers arrested Rayburn in August
2015.[1]
The
Cleburne County Sheriff's Office learned about the July
2015 rape in June 2016. Jennifer Osborne, an investigator
with the Cleburne County Sheriff's Department, testified
that she received a call from H.R.'s grandmother
inquiring why she had not been notified by the sheriff's
department about the Rayburn case. Osborne stated that at
that time, she had received nothing from the hotline saying
that she had allegations in her county. After that phone
call, Osborne spoke with a CACD investigator and subsequently
met with H.R., her mother, and her grandmother. Osborne
stated that she went to the crime scene with the victim and
photographed it. She stated that after her initial
investigation in the fall of 2016, she went on vacation for a
month and a half and presented the file to the [Cleburne
County] prosecutor "[w]hen I came back."
On
April 18, 2017, the State filed a felony information in the
Cleburne County Circuit Court and charged Rayburn with the
rape of a child less than fourteen years of age, a violation
of Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-14-103(a)(3)(A) (Supp.
2017). The Cleburne County Circuit Court issued an arrest
warrant that same day. The arrest warrant was served on
Rayburn on January 12, 2018. On February 9, 2018, after a
two-day jury trial, the Cleburne County Circuit Court entered
an order convicting Rayburn of rape and sentencing him to
life imprisonment as a habitual offender. He timely filed his
notice of appeal.
II.
Arguments on Appeal
A.
Speedy Trial
For the
first point on appeal, Rayburn argues that the circuit court
erred in denying his motion to dismiss for violation of the
right to a speedy trial. Specifically, he contends that the
State violated his right to a speedy trial by holding his
trial in Cleburne County in February 2018-more than two years
after his August 2015 arrest in Arkansas County. On appeal,
we conduct a de novo review to determine whether specific
periods of time are excludable under our speedy-trial rules.
E.g., Yarbrough v. State, 370 Ark. 31, 257
S.W.3d 50 (2007).
Pursuant
to Rule 28.1(b) of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure
(2018), any defendant charged with an offense and
incarcerated in this state pursuant to conviction of another
offense must be brought to trial within twelve months
"from the time provided in Rule 28.2, excluding only
such periods of necessary delay as are authorized in Rule
28.3." Rule 28.2(a) provides that "[t]he time for
trial shall commence running from the date of arrest or
service of summons." (Emphasis added.) If a
defendant is not brought to trial within the requisite time,
he or she is entitled to have the charges dismissed, and
"[t]his discharge shall constitute an absolute bar to
prosecution." Ark. R. Crim. P. 30.1(a). Once it has been
shown that a trial was held after the speedy-trial period set
out in Rule 28.1 has expired, the State bears the burden of
proving that the delay was the result of the defendant's
conduct or was otherwise justified. Miles v. State,
348 Ark. 544, 75 S.W.3d 677 (2002).
In the
present case, the following facts are relevant to our
analysis. On February 5, 2018, before trial, Rayburn filed a
motion to dismiss alleging that the State did not bring him
to trial within twelve months of his arrest because he was
arrested in August 2015 in Arkansas County. He argued that
the twelve-month time period began in August 2015 and that
his speedy-trial time expired in August 2016. He asked the
circuit court to dismiss the charges. The next day, the
circuit court held a hearing and denied Rayburn's
speedy-trial motion.[2]
Here,
Rayburn's trial in Cleburne County occurred well within
twelve months from the time of his arrest for the charge in
Cleburne County, as required by Rule 28.1 of the Arkansas
Rules of Criminal Procedure. On January 11, 2018, Rayburn was
served with an arrest warrant for the rape that occurred in
Cleburne County. Rayburn was brought to trial in Cleburne
County on February 8-9, 2018. Because Rayburn was tried
within twelve months of his arrest, we conclude that his
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