APPEAL
FROM THE MILLER COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 46CR-17-4]
HONORABLE BRENT HALTOM, JUDGE
Eric
Moore, for appellant.
Leslie
Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Michael L. Yarbrough, Ass't
Att'y Gen., for appellee.
BART
F. VIRDEN, Judge
A
Miller County jury convicted appellant Quayvon Peoples of two
counts of rape, and he was sentenced to an aggregate term of
thirty years in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Peoples argues that the trial court erred in denying his
directed-verdict motion because the State failed to prove
that the alleged events occurred in Miller County, Arkansas,
and because the victim's testimony was insufficient to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had been
raped.[1] We affirm his convictions.
I.
Standard of Review
A
motion for a directed verdict is a challenge to the
sufficiency of the evidence. Bowman v. State, 2019
Ark.App. 240, 574 S.W.3d 235. When reviewing a challenge to
the sufficiency of the evidence, this court views the
evidence in the light most favorable to the State and
considers only the evidence that supports the verdict.
Id. The sufficiency of the evidence is tested to
determine whether the verdict is supported by substantial
evidence, direct or circumstantial. Id. Substantial
evidence is evidence that is of sufficient force and
character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a
conclusion one way or the other, without resorting to
speculation or conjecture. Id. The credibility of
witnesses is an issue for the jury and not the court.
Id.
II.
Trial Testimony
Lisa
Grant testified that Peoples is her stepson and that he came
to live with her family in 2006 when he was eleven years old.
In the ensuing years, they moved several times between
Arkansas and Texas. In March 2008, they moved to Harner
Street in Texarkana, Miller County, Arkansas. Grant said that
the children would describe the house on Harner Street as the
one with the sliding glass doors. In April 2010, they moved
to Seventh Street in Texas. In July 2011, they moved to
Preston Street in Texarkana, Miller County, Arkansas. Grant
said that the children referred to the house on Preston
Street as the house by the big pool. In 2012, the family
moved to Texas and have lived there since that time. Brett
Gaitlin, an investigator with the Texarkana, Arkansas, Police
Department, confirmed that both Harner Street and Preston
Street are in Miller County.
In May
2016, Grant received a text message from the victim, her
daughter A.G., stating that Peoples had been sexually
inappropriate with her. A.G., born October 31, 2002,
testified that when she was six or seven years old, she was
sharing a room with her older sister in the house with the
sliding glass doors. She said that Peoples came to her room
at night, took her to the living room, undressed her,
digitally penetrated her vagina, and put his penis in her
vagina. A.G. recalled another incident around that time frame
when Peoples took her from her room at night, led her to his
bedroom, and had sexual intercourse with her. A.G. testified
that when she was seven or eight years old and while they
were living in the house by the big pool, Peoples took her
from a room where she had been playing with her siblings and
forced her to perform oral sex on him in the kitchen.
J.G.,
A.G.'s older brother, testified that, while they were
living in the house with the sliding glass doors, he saw
Peoples on top of A.G. and described Peoples's body as
moving in a "stroking motion." J.G. recalled
another time when he saw Peoples on top of A.G. doing the
same thing, but he testified that this incident happened
while they were living in the house by the big pool.
III.
Discussion
A.
Jurisdiction/Venue
Next,
Peoples argues that the State failed to prove that the
alleged incidents occurred in Miller County, Arkansas.
According to Peoples, the State did not introduce any
evidence to corroborate testimony that the Grants lived on
Harner ...