House v. State

Cite as 2015 Ark. App. 280
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION IV
No. CR-14-779
Opinion Delivered April 29, 2015
BRANDON LAMONT HOUSE
APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE CLARK
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
[NOS. CR-2010-202; CR-2012-09]
V.
HONORABLE ROBERT E.
MCCALLUM, JUDGE
STATE OF ARKANSAS
APPELLEE AFFIRMED; MOTION TO
WITHDRAW GRANTED
PHILLIP T. WHITEAKER, Judge
Appellant Brandon House pled guilty in CR-2010-202 to two counts of commercial
burglary and one count of felony theft of property and was sentenced to five years’ probation
in June 2011. Approximately one year later, House pled guilty in CR-2012-09 to two counts
of second-degree forgery and received six years’ probation. His probation in both cases was
revoked in May 2014 after the circuit court found that he had committed several violations
of his probation. The court sentenced him to forty years’ imprisonment in the Arkansas
Department of Correction in CR-2010-202 and ten years’ suspended imposition of sentence
in CR-2012-09. House timely filed an appeal of his revocations.
On appeal, appellate counsel has filed a motion with this court to be relieved as counsel
pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), and Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-
3(k) (2012). The motion is accompanied by an abstract and addendum of the proceedings
Cite as 2015 Ark. App. 280
below. Counsel has also filed a no-merit brief, asserting that there is nothing in the record
that would support an appeal. House has filed pro se statements of points for reversal, and the
State has filed a response thereto.
The test for filing a no-merit brief is not whether there is any reversible error but
rather would an appeal be wholly frivolous. Tucker v. State, 47 Ark. App. 96, 885 S.W.2d 904
(1994). Based on our review of the record for potential error pursuant to Anders, we find that
there has been compliance with Rule 4-3(k), and after consideration of House’s pro se points
for reversal,1 we hold that House’s appeal is wholly without merit.
Affirmed; motion to withdraw granted.
VIRDEN and GRUBER, JJ., agree.
Crawford Law Firm, by Brandon Crawford, for appellant.
Leslie Rutledge, Att’y Gen., by: Jake H. Jones, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.
1
We note that the majority of House’s arguments in his pro se points, including his
ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims, were not raised below or were not otherwise
preserved for our review. Issues raised for the first time on appeal, even constitutional issues,
will not be considered because the circuit court never had an opportunity to make a ruling.
Johnson v. State, 2009 Ark. 460 (per curiam) (citing Green v. State, 362 Ark. 459, 209 S.W.3d
339 (2005)).
2