Vance v. State
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Cite as 2011 Ark. App. 413
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION IV
No. CACR10-1316
Opinion Delivered
THEODORE VANCE
APPELLANT
June 1, 2011
APPEAL FROM THE MISSISSIPPI
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT,
CHICKASAWBA DISTRICT
[CR-2010-103(VH)]
V.
HONORABLE VICTOR HILL,
JUDGE
STATE OF ARKANSAS
APPELLEE
AFFIRMED
DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge
Appellant Theodore Vance was convicted in a nonjury trial of one count of rape. The
trial court sentenced him to twenty-five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction. On
appeal, Vance argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss because there
was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. We affirm.
At trial, the victim, S.C., who was thirteen years old at the time of the incident,
testified that she was spending the night with her grandmother on February 7, 2010; that she
invited Vance (whom she had known for at least a month and knew was an “older” guy) to
her grandmother’s house late that night; that when he arrived, they went to her room where
she drew for a little while and Vance watched her; that they began to “play fight”; and that
then they began kissing and their clothes began to come off. S.C. testified that she and Vance
Cite as 2011 Ark. App. 413
had sex for about an hour and then she put her clothes back on and began drawing again. S.C.
stated that her grandmother came into her room while she and Vance were lying in bed
talking; that she (S.C.) “hurried up” and put a cover on; and that when her grandmother
asked who Vance was, he got up and ran out of the house.
On cross-examination, S.C. said that she pulled the covers up even though she had her
clothes on because she knew that she would be in trouble for having a boy at the house. She
said that she told her mother that she had sex, but that neither her mother nor her
grandmother took her to the hospital. S.C. denied telling other people that the incident had
not occurred.
Dorothy Williams, S.C.’s grandmother, testified that on the night of February 7, she
walked into the den and found S.C. and Vance in the bed. She said that S.C. had her clothes
on, and that she jumped up and asked Williams not to call her mother. Williams said that she
saw Vance in the bed, but he ran out of the house. Williams denied that there was a discussion
about taking S.C. to the hospital.
Latasha Jackson, S.C.’s mother, testified that her mother called her between 2:00 and
2:30 a.m. on the morning of February 8—when Jackson arrived at her mother’s house,
Williams told her that S.C. had a boy over, but that he left before Jackson arrived. Jackson
said that S.C. finally admitted to her that she had sex that night. Jackson said that she did not
take her daughter to the hospital for an examination, but that she did take her to see her
family physician two or three days after the incident, which was the first time the doctor
could see her.
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Cite as 2011 Ark. App. 413
Scott Adams, a detective with the Blytheville Police Department, testified that he
interviewed Vance in connection with the case on February 13, 2010. He said that Vance’s
date of birth was November 2, 1990, making Vance nineteen years old at the time of the
incident. Adams stated that while Vance admitted being at Williams’s house with S.C., he
denied having sexual intercourse with her. According to Adams, Vance told him that S.C.
called Vance about 11:00 p.m. to come over and watch television, that he arrived around
midnight, that Williams came in and found him in the room, and that he fled from the house.
After the State rested its case, Vance moved for dismissal, arguing that there was no
physical or medical evidence that a rape occurred. He pointed out that S.C. had not been
taken to the hospital, that she had not been seen by a doctor until two or three days after the
incident occurred, and that the State had not provided the trial court with the results of the
examination. The trial court denied Vance’s motion.
Vance called several people who testified that S.C. had told them that she and Vance
“didn’t do nothing.” One of those witnesses also testified that S.C. told her that her mother
was making her say that Vance had raped her. Linda Williams, Vance’s mother, testified that
S.C. told her after the incident that Jackson made her say that Vance had raped her and that
if she did not say that she would “whoop” her. Williams said that S.C. told her that she did
not have sex with Vance. Williams also said that she told S.C. to tell that to the police, but
that to her knowledge, S.C. never reported that to the police.
Vance testified on his own behalf. He testified that S.C. called him to come over to
her grandmother’s house on the night of February 7, 2010, around 11:00 p.m. He said that
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Cite as 2011 Ark. App. 413
after he went to Williams’s house, he dozed off, her grandmother came into the room, he got
scared, and he jumped up and left. He denied that anything sexual occurred between him and
S.C.—that they just talked. He also denied knowing S.C.’s age.
After the defense rested, Vance again moved for dismissal. The trial court again denied
the motion. The trial court found Vance guilty of rape, stating that it was its belief that Vance
went to Williams’s house to have sex with a child he knew to be thirteen years of age; that
he did have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl; that there was no incentive on S.C.’s part to
maintain that sexual intercourse had taken place; that if S.C. had not disclosed it, she would
not have been in trouble with her family; that it appeared that S.C. did not want to be in
court; and that S.C. recanted to her classmates because she wanted to salvage her relationship
with them. The trial court then sentenced Vance to twenty-five years in prison.
On appeal, Vance argues that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction
for rape. Specifically, he argues that there was no physical evidence of rape and that the
testimony presented by the State was contradictory and insufficient to support his conviction.
He argues that there was no medical evidence to support an allegation of rape, and he points
to the fact that S.C. was not taken to the hospital and did not see a doctor until two or three
days after the rape was alleged to have taken place.
In Henry v. State, 2011 Ark. App. 169, at 7, ___ S.W.3d ___, ___, this court set forth
the standard of review in bench trials:
A motion to dismiss at a bench trial, like a motion for directed verdict at a jury trial,
is considered a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Stewart v. State, 2010 Ark.
App. 9, ___ S.W.3d ___. When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged in a
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Cite as 2011 Ark. App. 413
criminal conviction, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State
and affirm if the verdict is supported by substantial evidence. Id. Substantial evidence
is evidence that induces the mind to go beyond mere suspicion or conjecture, and that
is of sufficient force and character to compel a conclusion one way or the other with
reasonable certainty. Id.
A person commits rape if he engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity
with another person who is less than fourteen years of age. Ark. Code Ann. § 5-14103(a)(3)(A) (Supp. 2009). The uncorroborated testimony of a rape victim alone is sufficient
to sustain a conviction. Standridge v. State, 357 Ark. 105, 161 S.W.3d 815 (2004).
Vance, while noting the legal precedent that a rape victim’s testimony, standing alone,
is sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction, nevertheless argues that in other cases, there have
been other factors present to corroborate a rape victim’s testimony. While it may be true that
some cases have physical evidence of rape in addition to the victim’s testimony that support
the victim’s version of events, that does not negate the fact that all that is needed for a rape
conviction is the uncorroborated testimony of the victim. Standridge, supra. While more
physical evidence against Vance would have made a stronger case, the fact remains that S.C.
testified that she and Vance had sexual intercourse, and the trial court believed her. That is
all that is required to sustain Vance’s rape conviction.
Affirmed.
G RUBER and H OOFMAN, JJ., agree.
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