Cite as 2014 Ark. App. 224
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION I
No. CR-13-654
Opinion Delivered April 9, 2014
JAMES T. PIPER APPEAL FROM THE DREW
APPELLANT COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
[NO. CR-12-94]
V.
HONORABLE SAM POPE, JUDGE
STATE OF ARKANSAS REMANDED TO SETTLE AND
APPELLEE SUPPLEMENT THE RECORD;
REBRIEFING ORDERED
DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge
James Piper was tried by a jury and found guilty of the offenses of breaking or entering,
theft of property, and theft by receiving. His sole point of appeal challenges only the
sufficiency of the evidence supporting the breaking-or-entering conviction. We remand to
the circuit court to settle and supplement the record, and, once that has been done, we direct
Piper to file a substituted abstract, brief, and addendum.
Piper was Mirandized and then interviewed at the Monticello Police Department by
Greg Johnson. In his statement, among other things, Piper denied breaking or entering into
the victim’s car and taking her purse, claiming instead that he found it in a dumpster near his
residence. The interview was recorded on a DVD. During Johnson’s testimony at trial, the
State introduced the DVD as an exhibit, and it was shown to the jury. In moving for a
directed verdict, Piper referenced his recorded statement.
Cite as 2014 Ark. App. 224
Although the recorded interview was admitted into evidence and shown to the jury,
there is no transcript of the taped statement in the record. Moreover, while the digital
recording is attached to the record with other exhibits, it is not included in the addendum.
Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 4(a) imposes upon the trial court
a duty to require that a verbatim record be made of all proceedings pertaining to any
contested matter before the court or the jury unless the parties waive that requirement on the
record. See also Patton v. State, 2013 Ark. App. 131. We have not been directed to such a
waiver in the record to explain the failure to provide a transcript.
We therefore remand this case to the circuit court for it to settle the record by
requiring that a verbatim transcription be made of the custodial statement that was played for
the jury at trial and to supplement the record with the addition of this transcription within
thirty (30) days of this opinion. Patton, supra.
Once that has been done, we direct Piper to file a substituted abstract, brief, and
addendum that incorporates both the transcript of the custodial statement and the DVD of the
statement as required by Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-2(a)(8)(A)(i), and to do so within
fifteen (15) days after the supplemental record has been filed with this court.
Remanded to settle and supplement the record; rebriefing ordered.
PITTMAN and VAUGHT, JJ., agree.
Gary W. Potts, for appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att’y Gen., by: Brad Newman, Ass’t Att’y Gen., and Drew Aylesworth,
Law Student Admitted to Practice Pursuant to Rule XV of the Rules Governing Admission
to the Bar of the Supreme Court under the supervision of Darnisa Evans Johnson, Deputy Att’y
Gen., for appellee.
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