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Appeals court affirms misdemeanor loitering conviction Thursday, Apr 26, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A man who appealed a guilty verdict to a misdemeanor sexual solicitation charge in Sabastian County had his conviction upheld Wednesday by the state Court of Appeals. Thomas Harold Davis, 60, was arrested in May 2005 during a police undercover operation at Fort Smith Park. He was charged with loitering for the purpose of engaging or soliciting another person to engage in deviate sexual activity. In January 2006, Davis was convicted in Sebastian County Circuit Court of loitering and ordered to serve 15 days in jail and pay a $100 fine. Davis appealed, arguing the state failed to prove he took any overt step toward deviate sexual activity. The state Court of Appeals upheld his conviction Wednesday. The Fort Smith detective who conducted the undercover operation testified at Davis' trial that he and Davis began talking in the park, and Davis told him he liked oral sex. The detective said he agreed to get into Davis' truck with him for that purpose, then gave a visual signal for other officers to make an arrest. Davis testified at his trial that he was not homosexual and was only joking with the detective. In an opinion Wednesday affirming Davis' conviction, Judge Wendell Griffen said the evidence supported the jury's finding. "The evidence here was such that a reasonable jury could find that appellant was soliciting ... for oral sex and/or that appellant had committed acts demonstrating that he intended to engage in oral sex in a public park," Griffen wrote. |
