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SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No. CR-15-770
STATE OF ARKANSAS Opinion Delivered April 21, 2016
APPELLANT
APPEAL FROM THE CARROLL
V. COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
[NO. CR-2013-50 WD]
JASON SPRENGER
APPELLEE HONORABLE SCOTT JACKSON,
JUDGE
APPEAL DISMISSED.
JOSEPHINE LINKER HART, Associate Justice
The State of Arkansas has filed an interlocutory appeal from a Carroll County Circuit
Court order granting Jason Sprenger’s motion to suppress ten pornographic images of
children discovered during a search of Sprenger’s home. On appeal, the State argues that the
circuit court erred as a matter of law because “the time of the inculpatory information is not
an essential element of probable cause,” and the evidence was admissible under the good-
faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Because this is not a proper State appeal, we
dismiss.
On March 14, 2013, officers from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department executed
search warrants at Sprenger’s business and residence. The warrants were based on
information acquired during a November 19, 2012 interview with a fifteen-year-old female,
J.M., who claimed that Sprenger performed oral sex on her and took nude photographs of
her with his cell phone. Computers, cameras, and various storage media for VHS and digital
Cite as 2016 Ark. 177
images were seized pursuant to the warrant. Examination of the devices and electronic
storage media yielded ten images of persons alleged to be from ten and sixteen years old,
though none of the images were of J.M. On August 21, 2013, Sprenger was charged with
rape and possession of child pornography.
Sprenger moved to suppress the fruit of the search. At the hearing on his motion,
Corporal Mark Bailey testified that when he heard J.M.’s allegations, he took her for a
forensic interview at a child-advocacy center, Grandmother’s House. Bailey stated that he
watched the interview. J.M., who was then fifteen years old, recounted that when she was
in the fifth and sixth grades, Sprenger was living with her mother. She claimed that when
she was ten or eleven years old, Sprenger performed oral sex on her five or six times.
Sprenger also had her pose nude for photographs.
After consulting with Benton County prosecutors, Corporal Bailey prepared affidavits
to support the applications for search warrants for Sprenger’s home and business. He
presented the applications to then Circuit Judge Crow at a Mexican restaurant, who relied
on the affidavits to issue the warrants. The affidavits, which were admitted into evidence
at the hearing, contained no time references regarding when the rape or the picture-taking
took place. The only date references in the affidavits were the dates of the November 2012
interviews and J.M.’s age at the time of those interviews. The affidavits did not state that the
incidents took place four to five years before the interviews.
Officer Daniel Klatt testified that he helped prepare the warrants. He admitted that
he did not hear J.M.’s interview but supplied expertise in computer and digital forensics. In
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his experience, child pornographers “value their stash of child pornography, over and above
anything else.” He testified further that a child pornographer keeping material for ten to
twelve years would not be unusual.
The circuit court initially denied Sprenger’s motion to suppress but reconsidered and
ruled in Sprenger’s favor. It found that the absence of time references to when the alleged
criminal conduct occurred in the affidavits supporting the application for the warrants made
the warrants invalid.
Prior to examining the merits of any State appeal, we must first determine whether
it is a proper State appeal. State v. Tyson, 2012 Ark. 107, 388 S.W.3d 1. Arkansas Rule of
Appellate Procedure–Criminal 3(a)(1) provides that “[a]n interlocutory appeal on behalf of
the state may be taken only from a pretrial order in a felony prosecution which (1) grants a
motion under Ark. R. Crim. P. 16.2 to suppress seized evidence [.]” State v. Threadgill, 2011
Ark. 91, 382 S.W.3d 657 (citing Ark. R. App. P.–Crim. 3(a)(1) (2011)). The Rule further
states as follows:
(d) The Supreme Court will not consider an appeal filed under either subsection
(a)(1) or (2) or subsection (b) of this rule unless the correct and uniform
administration of the criminal law requires review by the court.
Ark. R. App. P.–Crim. 3(d). While a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to appeal,
appeals in criminal matters brought by the State are authorized only by Rule 3 of the
Arkansas Rules of Appellate Procedure–Criminal. State v. Jones, 2012 Ark. 454. In addition,
we accept appeals by the State when our holding would be important to the correct and
uniform administration of the criminal law. Id.
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Typically, this court decides appeals brought by the State in criminal cases only when
the issue is “narrow in scope” and involves the interpretation of law. Threadgill, 2011 Ark.
91, 382 S.W.3d 657. We do not permit State appeals merely to demonstrate the fact that
the circuit court erred. Id. Accordingly, we dismiss those appeals that do not present an
issue of interpretation of the criminal rules with widespread ramifications, or those appeals
where the resolution of the issue turns on the facts unique to the case or involve a mixed
question of law and fact. Id. Additionally, when an appeal merely raises an issue of the
application, not interpretation, of a criminal rule or statutory provision, we deem it to not
involve the correct and uniform administration of the criminal law and thus not within the
ambit of permissible State appeals under Rule 3. Id.
While the State attempts to characterize its appeal as a question of law, the question
before us is essentially whether a time reference to when the alleged criminal activity took
place was essential information that a magistrate would need to make a common-sense
determination that the contraband sought would be on the premises when the warrant was
executed. See United States v. Grubbs, 547 U.S. 90, 96 (2006). In pertinent part, Rule 13.1
of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure sets forth the requirements of the issuance of
a search warrant:
(a) A search warrant may be issued only by a judicial officer.
(b) The application for a search warrant shall describe with particularity the persons
or places to be searched and the persons or things to be seized, and shall be supported
by one (1) or more affidavits or recorded testimony under oath before a judicial
officer particularly setting forth the facts and circumstances tending to show that such
persons or things are in the places, or the things are in possession of the person, to be
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searched. If an affidavit or testimony is based in whole or in part on hearsay, the
affiant or witness shall set forth particular facts bearing on the informant's reliability
and shall disclose, as far as practicable, the means by which the information was
obtained. An affidavit or testimony is sufficient if it describes circumstances
establishing reasonable cause to believe that things subject to seizure will be found in
a particular place. Failure of the affidavit or testimony to establish the veracity and
bases of knowledge of persons providing information to the affiant shall not require
that the application be denied, if the affidavit or testimony viewed as a whole,
provides a substantial basis for a finding of reasonable cause to believe that things
subject to seizure will be found in a particular place.
Because the decision to issue a warrant is typically, as in the case before us, a highly fact-
intensive process, we hold that this appeal by the State is improper. See Threadgill, supra.
The State’s second point, that even if the information in the affidavit was insufficient,
the search should nonetheless not be suppressed because the police acted in good faith, is
likewise not proper for a State appeal. Because the issue presented, whether the police
officers acted in good faith in executing the search warrant, involves a mixed question of law
and fact, this case does not involve an interpretation of our rules with widespread
ramifications. Accordingly, this point is not proper for a State appeal. State v. Hart, 329
Ark. 582, 952 S.W.2d 138 (1997).
Appeal dismissed.
Leslie Rutledge, Att’y Gen., by: Rebecca Kane, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellant.
Chris Flanagin, for appellee.
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