Background
Frank McHenry was charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery after a hotel front-desk clerk testified that he held a knife to her throat, put her in a chokehold, dragged her into a restroom, demanded the hotel’s money, and took $156.79 from the register. The State also alleged that McHenry was a habitual offender.
At trial, the State presented the clerk’s testimony, police body-camera footage, hotel surveillance video, and McHenry’s recorded interview admitting his actions. McHenry moved for directed verdicts on both charges, generally asserting that the State had not met its burden on the elements. The jury convicted him of both offenses, and the circuit court imposed concurrent thirty-five-year prison sentences.
The Court’s Holding
The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed McHenry’s kidnapping conviction. It did not decide whether the evidence showed restraint greater than that normally incident to aggravated robbery, which was McHenry’s appellate argument.
Instead, the court held that McHenry failed to preserve that sufficiency challenge. Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 33.1 requires a directed-verdict motion to specify how the State’s evidence is deficient; McHenry’s general assertion that the State had failed to prove the elements did not identify the claimed lack of evidence concerning restraint.
Key Takeaways
- A criminal defendant must state the specific evidentiary deficiency in a directed-verdict motion to preserve a sufficiency argument for appeal.
- A general claim that the State failed to prove the elements is insufficient under Rule 33.1.
- The appellate court affirmed without reaching the merits of McHenry’s argument about restraint incidental to aggravated robbery.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces Arkansas’s strict preservation rule for sufficiency challenges. Defense counsel must identify the precise missing proof at trial, both to give the circuit court an opportunity to rule and to permit the State, if appropriate, to address an evidentiary gap before the case goes to the jury.