Timothy McDaniels v. State of Arkansas

Cite as 2025 Ark. App. 213
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION II
No. CR-24-439

TIMOTHY MCDANIELS Opinion Delivered April 9, 2025

APPELLANT
APPEAL FROM THE HOT SPRING
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
V. [NO. 30CR-23-147]

STATE OF ARKANSAS HONORABLE STEPHEN L. SHIRRON,
APPELLEE JUDGE

AFFIRMED; REMANDED TO
CORRECT SENTENCING ORDER

CINDY GRACE THYER, Judge

Appellant Timothy McDaniels was charged as a habitual offender with one count of

failing to comply with Arkansas’s sex-offender registration requirements by failing to

maintain his sex-offender registry information since being paroled from the Arkansas

Division of Correction (ADC) in 2021. A Hot Spring County jury found him guilty and

sentenced him to twelve years in the ADC. On appeal, he argues that the circuit court erred

in denying his motion for directed verdict. We affirm McDaniels’s conviction but remand

to correct a clerical error on the sentencing order.

I. Trial Proceedings
At trial, McDaniels and the State stipulated that he had previously been convicted of

an offense that required him to register as a sex offender. 1 The State then called two

witnesses: Angela Williams and Detective Susan Turner. In June 2021, Williams assisted

McDaniels with filling out a change-of-address form for registered sex offenders. The

documents she helped him fill out informed him that he had to go to his local sheriff’s

department or police department to update his address. Williams explained that if a sex

offender moves and has a change of address, the offender must update his or her paperwork

and address within ten days.

Williams and McDaniels both signed the change-of-address form on June 9, 2021.

The form, which was introduced without objection, is titled “Arkansas Crime Information

Center State Sex Offender Registry Change of Information Form for Registered Sex

Offenders.” McDaniels listed a current address in Malvern and his “new place of residence”

as an address in Sherwood. On the same day, McDaniels also signed a “State of Arkansas

Sex Offender Registration Form,” but none of the information, such as his name, date of

birth, and sex-offense information, was filled in. He also signed a “Sex Offender

Acknowledgment Form” that informs a sex offender about Arkansas’s registration

requirements, including the requirements that an offender must report any changes in

address in person to a local law enforcement agency and that an offender must report to

local law enforcement no later than ten days after release from incarceration.

1
McDaniels was convicted of rape in 2003 and served nineteen years in prison.

2
Detective Susan Turner of the Malvern Police Department testified that as part of her

duties, she maintains records pertaining to registered sex offenders who live in Hot Spring

County. In June 2023, a “concerned citizen” contacted Turner about McDaniels.2 On the

basis of the information she received from the citizen, Turner went to McDaniels’s workplace

and verified both his identity and the fact that he was supposed to register as a sex offender.

On the date she met with McDaniels, he was not part of her case load as a registered sex

offender.3 Turner asked McDaniels to come to her office the next day. When he did, she

asked why he had not been to see her; he said he did not think he needed to. He told Turner

that he was homeless and living in a car close to his job in Hot Spring County.

Turner then registered McDaniels. She helped him fill out the sex-offender

registration form that contained his name, date of birth, acknowledgement of registration,

and address. Because he was homeless, McDaniels did not list a specific address. Turner said

that because of his status as a homeless sex offender, McDaniels was required to report to

her every thirty days. Turner, who has access to sex-offender records, ascertained that

McDaniels had never registered anywhere––not in Sherwood and not in Hot Spring

County––and he told her that he never went to the Sherwood address he gave Williams in

2
Turner did not testify to the details of the concerned-citizen encounter at trial, but
in her probable-cause affidavit, she stated that a woman came to the police department with
information that her sixteen-year-old daughter had been texting a sex offender who worked
in Malvern.
3
Turner explained that she has a folder for each individual sex-offender case, and she
did not have an open case or record for McDaniels.

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2021. McDaniels confirmed to Turner that he was not registered, stating again that he didn’t

think he had to.

The State rested following Turner’s testimony, and McDaniels moved for a directed

verdict. He argued that the State failed to present prima facie evidence that he failed to

register, asserting that the document he signed with Williams was “a change of address and

[an] actual sex offender registration.” The circuit court denied his motion, and the jury

subsequently convicted McDaniels of failure to register. The sentencing order was entered

on March 25, 2024. McDaniels timely appealed and now argues that the circuit court erred

in denying his motion for directed verdict.

II. Standard of Review

On appeal, a motion for directed verdict is treated as a challenge to the sufficiency of

the evidence. Dortch v. State, 2018 Ark. 135, at 5, 544 S.W.3d 518, 522. In reviewing a

challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we review the evidence in the light most

favorable to the State, considering only evidence that supports the verdict. McEuen v. State,

2023 Ark. App. 65, 660 S.W.3d 615. We will affirm the verdict if substantial evidence

supports it. Id. Substantial evidence is evidence of sufficient force and character that it will,

with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion without resorting to speculation or

conjecture. Id.

III. Discussion

McDaniels was charged with failure to comply with Arkansas’s sex-offender

registration and reporting requirements in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated section

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12-12-904(a)(1)(A)(i) (Supp. 2023). This statute provides that a person who fails to register

or verify registration as required by the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) is guilty of a

Class C felony. A sex offender required to register under the SORA “shall verify registration

in person every six (6) months after the sex offender’s initial registration date during the

period of time in which the sex offender is required to register.” Ark. Code Ann. § 12-12-

909(a)(1) (Supp. 2023). That verification must be done in person at a local law enforcement

agency having jurisdiction; at that time, the offender must sign and date a Sex Offender

Acknowledgment Form, and a law enforcement officer shall also witness and sign the form.

Ark. Code Ann. § 12-12-909(a)(2)(A)(i). The failure to register is a strict-liability offense.

Adkins v. State, 371 Ark. 159, 264 S.W.3d 523 (2007); Allen v. State, 2020 Ark. App. 84; 596

S.W.3d 518.

On appeal, as he did below, McDaniels concedes that he was required to register as a

sex offender. He nonetheless argues that the evidence introduced at trial showed that he

registered when he left the ADC. He points to Williams’s testimony that she “registered”

him and Turner’s testimony that she also “registered” him. Williams, however, testified that

she assisted McDaniels with filling out a change-of-address form. Two documents were

introduced during her testimony: a “Change of Information” form and a Sex Offender

Registration Form. Of the two, only the change-of-information form was actually filled out;

the Sex Offender Registration Form was entirely blank except for McDaniels’s signature.

Moreover, while Turner did testify that she registered McDaniels, that registration did not

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occur until June 21, 2023, two years after McDaniels was released from the ADC. Turner’s

records indicated that McDaniels was not registered anywhere before that date.

An offender’s stipulation that he is required to register as a sex offender and a law

enforcement officer’s testimony that the offender did not register as required constitutes

substantial evidence from which a jury can conclude that the offender failed to register.

Huggins v. State, 2021 Ark. App. 218, at 2–3, 624 S.W.3d 342, 344. The evidence in this case

included McDaniels’s stipulation that he is a sex offender who is required to register and

Turner’s testimony that McDaniels was not registered anywhere. Thus, the evidence

presented at trial supported McDaniels’s conviction for failure to register. We therefore

affirm.

Although we affirm McDaniels’s conviction, we must remand for correction of an

error on the sentencing order. As mentioned above, McDaniels was charged as a habitual

offender with the Class C felony of failing to register as a sex offender. The jury sentenced

him to twelve years, commensurate with Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-501(a)(2)(D)

(Repl. 2024) (authorizing a sentence of three to twenty years for a Class C felony conviction

for one who has been convicted of more than one but fewer than four felonies). McDaniels’s

sentencing order, however, does not reflect that he was sentenced as a habitual offender. The

circuit court is free to correct a clerical error to have the judgment speak the truth. Roberts v.

State, 2023 Ark. App. 115, at 12, 662 S.W.3d 668, 676. We therefore remand to the circuit

court with instructions to correct the sentencing order by marking the boxes indicating that

McDaniels was sentenced as a habitual offender.

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Affirmed; remanded to correct sentencing order.

KLAPPENBACH, C.J., and BROWN, J., agree.

Gregory Crain, for appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att’y Gen., by: A. Evangeline Bacon, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.

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