12 results for 'judge:"Kemp"'.
J. Kemp finds the circuit court improperly found that Arkansas gross receipt and tourism tax statutes applied to the online travel companies, making them liable for unpaid taxes. The companies provide an intermediary service and do not rent, lease, or furnish rooms under the plain meaning of the relevant statute. Reversed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: May 16, 2024, Case #: CV-23-416, Categories: Property, Tax
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for capital murder and aggravated robbery, sentencing him to life plus 40 years in prison. A homeowner called her husband about a suspicious person at the house and the husband, on his way home, found a body in the street with multiple gunshot wounds. Police dash cam recorded defendant escaping in the victim's truck, and the victim's DNA was discovered on defendant's bloody pants when he was later arrested on multiple warrants. Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence. Certain evidence was properly admitted as cumulative of other evidence admitted at trial, and Ring camera photos of the truck were properly authenticated by detective testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: CR-23-574, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Due Process
J. Kemp finds the circuit court properly denied defendant's petitions for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and for extraordinary writs. Defendant was sentenced to 72 months in prison on his no-contest plea conviction on sexual assault charges. He does not plead the facial invalidity of the judgment or the trial court’s lack of jurisdiction, as necessary, having not pleaded his actual innocence. Defendant has not properly alleged illegal detainment. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: CR-22-450, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender, Plea
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for two counts of first-degree murder. Officers responded to a call by a victim's son when he discovered his mother and defendant's father dead from gunshot wounds. The father's body appeared to officers to be posed with a gun in its hand, though it was later confirmed he had been shot six times by that very gun. Furthermore, the trial court properly rejected proffered instructions on justification and kidnapping because there was no evidence defendant reasonably believed the victims were about to commit a felony with force or violence, or that his life was in imminent danger. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: CR-23-486, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for capital murder. An eyewitness saw defendant run from the area where the shooting took place and investigators recovered evidence from the residence where he hid, including ammunition, gunshot residue and the victim's DNA. All evidence supports the conviction, defendant's right to a speedy trial was not violated, and the prosecution gave valid, race-neutral reasons for exercising peremptory strikes of jurors. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: CR-23-342, Categories: Evidence, Jury, Murder
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J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder, battery, possession of drugs with the purpose to deliver, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms by a felon and fleeing. While fleeing from police, defendant crashed into another vehicle, causing the vehicle to catch fire and kill one of the occupants. Defendant had the culpable intent to commit the crime of felony fleeing, which supports the murder conviction. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: CR-22-696, Categories: Murder, Escape, Battery
J. Kemp finds the circuit court properly denied defendant's petition for declaratory judgment and a writ of mandamus. Defendant pleaded guilty to all charges, including his habitual-offender status. Because no right to declaratory judgment exists, there is no basis for the writ. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: CV-23-300, Categories: Robbery, Theft, Plea
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for capital murder and aggravated robbery, sentencing him to life without parole. Eyewitness accounts, including one from defendant’s girlfriend, reveal that defendant approached a man who purchased marijuana from him with allegedly counterfeit money. Defendant took money and certain possessions from the man as the victim approached. After a brief physical altercation, defendant shot the victim. Nearby security camera footage corroborates the testimony. All evidence supports conviction and the proposed defense of justification and a denied motion for mistrial are not preserved for review. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp, Filed On: November 2, 2023, Case #: CR-22-776, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Self Defense
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for multiple counts of rape, sexual assault and sexual indecency with five victims between the ages of eight and 11, sentencing him to two life terms in prison. Forensic interview and examination of the victims supports the convictions. Statements made by one of the victims to a family friend about her parents trading the victims for sex and drugs and about the alleged sexual conduct between the girls, their father and their brother are highly inflammatory and outweigh any probative value regarding the victims’ sexual propensities. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp, Filed On: October 12, 2023, Case #: CR-22-461, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Kemp finds the circuit court properly dismissed the prisoner’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking entitlement to parole. The issue has been addressed by the Arkansas Supreme Court in a prior order affirming the circuit court’s denial of the same type of petition. Because petitioner pleaded guilty to rape committed in 1996, certain Arkansas Code applies addressing violent offender eligibility upon reaching regular eligibility, but only after a minimum age of 55. Though petitioner is 55, his eligibility is not within the purview of the trial court. Thus, no reference to the parole-eligibility statutes is listed in his judgment and commitment order. It is settled that the determination of eligibility is solely up to the corrections division, which has determined that the petitioner’s eligibility date is in 2037. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp, Filed On: September 28, 2023, Case #: CV-22-792, Categories: Parole, Sex Offender, Jurisdiction
J. Kemp denies Monsanto’s petition for any supervisory writ preventing the circuit court from allowing deposition of the chief executive officer of Bayer AG, Monsanto’s parent corporation and a German citizen, saying it acted beyond its jurisdiction in this suit against Monsanto and Walmart alleging a failure to warn, negligence and deceptive trade practices violations brought by the cancer patient. The requested writs are not appropriate remedy to reverse a discovery order and would require the Arkansas Supreme Court to delve into the underlying merits, which has been often held to be improper in decisions on issuing writs.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: CV-22-635, Categories: Tort, Negligence, Jurisdiction