FELTON EARL SINGLETON v. STATE OF ARKANSAS
No. CR-11-1149
SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
September 26, 2013
Cite as 2013 Ark. 348
HON. HERBERT WRIGHT, JR., JUDGE
PRO SE APPEAL FROM THE PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, 60CR-09-3259
PER CURIAM
In 2010, a jury found appellant Felton Earl Singleton guilty of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, maintaining a drug premises, and tampering with physical evidence. An aggregate sentence of forty years’ imprisonment was imposed. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. Singleton v. State, 2011 Ark. App. 145.
Appellant subsequently filed in the trial court a timely pro se petition for postconviction relief pursuant to
When considering an appeal from a trial court’s denial of a
The benchmark for judging a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel must be “whether counsel’s conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686. Pursuant to Strickland, we assess the effectiveness of counsel under a two-prong standard. First, a petitioner raising a claim of ineffective assistance must show that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the petitioner by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Williams v. State, 369 Ark. 104, 251 S.W.3d 290 (2007). There is a strong presumption that trial counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of professional assistance, and an appellant has the burden of overcoming this presumption by identifying specific acts or omissions of trial counsel, which, when viewed from counsel’s perspective at the
Appellant first argues that the trial court erred in failing to grant him an evidentiary hearing on his
To the extent that appellant raises the argument that we should reverse the trial court’s denial of his
The State’s evidence at appellant’s trial was that a SWAT team raided a house that appellant later gave as his address in a police interview; during the raid, appellant was found lying on the floor of the bathroom at the back of the residence; several bags of marijuana were found in various locations in the house; three bags of marijuana were found underneath appellant on the bathroom floor, and eight bags were found in the toilet — amounts well above the amount for one person’s use; a rock of cocaine and cocaine-methamphetamine pills in an amount to be sold were found in the toilet in the bathroom where appellant was found; and surveillance equipment allowing anyone in the house to see people approaching the front door was found inside and outside the house. Appellant’s wife denied that appellant lived at the house where the raid occurred. Testifying on his own behalf, appellant admitted that he was on the bathroom floor surrounded by drugs when the officers entered the residence. He denied that the drugs were his, and he denied selling drugs out of the house. He claimed that he was just there to get high. Appellant testified that the house belonged to his son and his son’s girlfriend, and that he lied about his address in the police interview. He stated that someone came over the radio saying “flush it” because the police were outside, and that someone else gave him the drugs to flush.
In its written order, the trial court cited four reasons in support of its finding that if Dorn had testified at trial, there is not a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different. First, the court noted that Dorn’s affidavit did not list the correct address of the
Based on the standard set out in Strickland, appellant fails to establish that his counsel was ineffective for not calling Dorn as a witness. In light of the questions raised with regard to the value and credibility of Dorn’s testimony, we cannot say that counsel’s decision not to call Dorn as a witness was not a matter of trial strategy. Because we hold that appellant’s counsel did not provide ineffective assistance, it is not necessary for us to consider whether there is a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been different if Dorn had testified. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 697.
In his second point on appeal, appellant refers to the argument raised in his petition that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by withdrawing a motion to suppress physical evidence seized in the raid that resulted in his arrest. However, he then admits that his claim was conclusory and that the withdrawal of the motion was a matter of trial strategy. Because appellant fails to offer any support for his claim on appeal, the allegation is conclusory and does not merit further consideration. A conclusory claim is not a ground for postconviction relief. James v. State, 2013 Ark. 290 (per curiam). Conclusory statements without factual substantiation
Having considered the arguments raised by appellant in this appeal, the record, and the order rendered by the trial court, there is no ground on which to reverse the trial court’s ruling. Accordingly, the order is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Felton Earl Singleton, pro se appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att’y Gen., by: Jake H. Jones, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.
