APPEAL
FROM THE LONOKE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NOS. 43CR-13-496 &
43CR-18-305] HONORABLE BARBARA ELMORE, JUDGE
Robert
M. "Robby" Golden, for appellant.
Leslie
Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Jacob H. Jones, Ass't
Att'y Gen., for appellee.
KENNETH S. HIXSON, JUDGE
Appellant
Anita Rowton was serving probation in case number 43CR-13-496
(hereinafter referred to as 13-496). While on probation,
appellant was involved in a motor-vehicle accident, wherein
she was cited with driving while intoxicated (DWI), refusal
to submit to a chemical test, and careless and prohibited
driving. Appellant was convicted of all three offenses in a
bench trial in the Lonoke County Circuit Court in case number
43CR-18-305 (hereinafter referred to as 18-305). Appellant
was sentenced to an aggregate term of twelve months in the
county jail. Immediately following the bench trial, appellant
was tried and found guilty of violating the terms and
conditions of her probation in 13-496. The circuit court
sentenced appellant to serve an aggregate term of eighteen
months' imprisonment. On appeal, appellant contends that
there was insufficient evidence to convict her of DWI in
18-305 and that there was insufficient evidence that she
violated the terms and conditions of her probation in 13-496.
However, we are unable to reach the merits at this time. We
remand to settle and supplement the record, and we order
rebriefing after the record is settled and supplemented.
I.
Relevant Facts
A. Case
Number 43CR-18-305
On
February 2, 2018, appellant's vehicle ran off the road
when she was driving around a sharp curve. The front air bags
deployed, and the vehicle was left inoperable and wedged on
top of a tree stump. Law enforcement arrived and observed her
behavior at the scene.[1] The officer testified that appellant was
generally disoriented, incoherent, and had slurred speech.
Appellant was transported to the sheriff's department
where she was given a breathalyzer test. Appellant tested
0.00%. The officer then requested that appellant submit to a
urinalysis, and appellant refused. Appellant was arrested and
charged with DWI in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated
section 5-65-103 (Repl. 2016), refusal to submit to chemical
test in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated section
5-65-205, and careless and prohibited driving in violation of
Arkansas Code Annotated section 27-51-104. The circuit court
held a bench trial on December 5, 2018.
According
to appellant's statement of the case in her brief on
appeal, she was found guilty by the Lonoke County District
Court, and she appealed to the circuit court. According to
the transcript contained in our record on appeal, at the
conclusion of the bench trial, the circuit court orally found
appellant guilty.
Now I'm going to take into consideration everything.
I'm going to take into consideration what I saw on the
video. And she was swaying. I -- I was beginning to sway with
her. Okay? She was swaying. And she did have -- was slurred.
And I just -- I don't think her motor skills and her
judgment was up to par. I believe that those combinations of
everything, if you take into combination everything -- her
statement, her reactions, her rambling on, consistently
rambling on, talking when other people were trying to tell
her not to talk, her behavior indicated to me that she was
intoxicated. So I'm finding her guilty.
Despite
our record containing a circuit court trial transcript
finding appellant guilty, on January 9, 2019, the
circuit court filed a sentencing order indicating that
appellant voluntarily, intelligently, and knowingly entered a
guilty plea on each of the three charges. The
sentencing order reflects that appellant was sentenced to
serve twelve months in the county jail for DWI and three
months in the county jail for refusal to submit to a chemical
test. Further, the circuit court did not check any box
regarding whether it had found her guilty or sentenced her on
the charges, no sentence is listed for careless and
prohibited driving, the total time to be served for all
offenses was left blank, and the circuit court checked the
box that this case was not an appeal from district
court. Hence, the record on appeal contains inconsistencies
that must be settled as discussed below.
B. Case
Number 43CR-13-496
On
April 7, 2014, appellant pleaded guilty in the Lonoke County
Circuit Court in 13-496 to breaking or entering in violation
of Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-39-202, theft of
property in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated section
5-36-103(b)(3)(A), third-degree escape in violation of
Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-54-112, and public
intoxication in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated section
5-71-212. Appellant was placed on probation for seventy-two
months for the breaking-or-entering and theft-of-property
charges, twelve months for the third-degree-escape charge,
and thirty days for the public-intoxication charge.
On
February 16, 2018, the State filed a petition to revoke
appellant's probation, alleging that appellant had
violated her terms and ...