Cite as 2014 Ark. App. 688
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION III
No. CR-14-326
Opinion Delivered December 3, 2014
APPEAL FROM THE SALINE
BRUCE ALLEN ECHOLS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
APPELLANT [NO. 63CR-12-513]
V. HONORABLE GRISHAM PHILLIPS,
JUDGE
STATE OF ARKANSAS REMANDED TO SETTLE AND
APPELLEE SUPPLEMENT THE RECORD;
REBRIEFING ORDERED
KENNETH S. HIXSON, Judge
Appellant Bruce Allen Echols was convicted of aggravated robbery and was sentenced
to thirty years in prison. On appeal, Mr. Echols argues that the trial court erred in failing to
suppress his custodial statements to the police, as well as the evidence obtained pursuant to
a search warrant that was in part based on those custodial statements. Mr. Echols contends
that all of this incriminating evidence was obtained after he was illegally arrested, and
therefore that it should have been excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree. We remand for the
record to be settled and supplemented, and we order rebriefing.
During the investigation of this case, Mr. Echols was Mirandized and then interviewed
by officers at the Benton Police Department. During the interrogation, Mr. Echols initially
denied any involvement in the bank robbery, but later admitted to committing the crime.
Cite as 2014 Ark. App. 688
The interview was recorded on a DVD, which was admitted into evidence both at the
suppression hearing and at trial, and was played for the jury. As required by our rules, this
DVD is included in appellant’s addendum. However, the record contains no transcript of the
recorded interview.
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. Here, there is no indication that the parties waived on the record the making of an
official transcript of appellant’s recorded custodial statement. Consequently, we remand to
the circuit court to settle the record by requiring that a verbatim transcription of the recording
be made and that the record be supplemented with the addition of this transcription within
thirty days of this opinion. See Piper v. State, 2014 Ark. App. 224; Patton v. State, 2013 Ark.
App. 131.
Once that has been done, we direct Mr. Echols to file a substituted abstract, brief, and
addendum incorporating both the transcript of appellant’s 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 days after the supplemental record has been filed with this court.
Upon rebriefing, we also direct Mr. Echols to cure additional deficiencies in his
addendum. Rule 4-2(a)(8)(A)(i) requires the addendum to include the order from which the
appeal is taken, and appellant’s addendum does not contain the sentencing order being
appealed. Nor does his addendum contain the charging instrument on which the prosecution
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Cite as 2014 Ark. App. 688
was based. We order appellant to include these critical documents in his addendum. These
briefing deficiencies are not to be taken as an exhaustive list, and we encourage appellant to
carefully examine the record and review our rules before resubmitting his brief.
Remanded to settle and supplement the record; rebriefing ordered.
HARRISON and WOOD, JJ., agree.
The Burns Law Firm, PLLC, by: James D. Burns and Jack D. Burns, for appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att’y Gen., by: LeaAnn J. Adams, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.
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