Kimball v. State (Majority)
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In this appeal from the Supreme Court of Arkansas, appellant Fred Kimball Sr. was convicted by a Benton County jury on two counts of rape, for which he received two concurrent life sentences. Kimball appealed on the grounds that the statute of limitations barred the prosecution of the charges against him. The statute of limitations in effect when Kimball committed his crimes allowed for prosecution up to the victim’s twenty-fourth birthday, if the offense was not reported to the police or a prosecutor. This period was extended in 2011 and again in 2013 when the statute was amended to allow the prosecution for rape committed against a minor victim to be commenced at any time.
Kimball was charged with the rape of three girls, all his granddaughters, prior to 2010. The issue of whether Kimball’s crimes were time-barred was tried by the court prior to his jury trial. Kimball argued that the case involving all three victims should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had run. He asserted that the crimes he was charged with took place no later than 2003, and the statute of limitations in effect lapsed six years later because the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a report had not been made.
The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the lower court’s decision, holding that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to dismiss the charges involving Kimball’s rape of two of the victims. The court reasoned that all three victims testified they did not speak to law enforcement prior to the 2020 investigation. While there was evidence of an investigation into Kimball’s sexual assault of one of the victims, neither of the officers involved in the case recalled that the investigation ever extended to the other victims. The court also rejected Kimball's arguments that certain statements made by family members constituted a report to law enforcement. The court concluded that the statements lacked definitive knowledge of a specific crime or a specific victim.
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