## Facts

- Ronnie Midgett, Sr., a 6'2", 300-pound man, lived with his eight-year-old son, Ronnie Jr., who weighed about 38–45 pounds.
- Over a substantial period, Ronnie Jr. displayed repeated bruising noticed by school personnel; the child did not identify the cause of his injuries.
- Midgett’s ten-year-old daughter testified that, several days before the child’s death, Midgett drank heavily and repeatedly struck Ronnie Jr. with a closed fist in the stomach and back.
- The daughter also testified she had previously seen Midgett choke Ronnie Jr. on multiple occasions and attributed bruises over the preceding months to him.
- On the day Ronnie Jr. died, Midgett brought him to a hospital and claimed not to know what was wrong.
- The autopsy found the child malnourished and underdeveloped, with multiple recent and older bruises and both recent and healed rib fractures.
- The cause of death was intra-abdominal hemorrhage from blunt force trauma consistent with a human fist.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove the statutory element of a “premeditated and deliberated purpose” to cause death required for first-degree murder.
2. If not, whether the evidence was sufficient to support second-degree murder based on a purpose to cause serious physical injury resulting in death.
3. Whether the appellate court could modify the conviction to a lesser-included offense rather than order a new trial.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Arkansas held the evidence was insufficient to prove first-degree murder because it did not show a premeditated and deliberated purpose to kill.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient to prove second-degree murder because it supported a finding that Midgett acted with the purpose of causing serious physical injury that resulted in death.
- The court modified the judgment from first-degree murder to second-degree murder and affirmed as modified.

## Legal Principles

- First-degree murder requiring a “premeditated and deliberated purpose” to cause death demands proof of a formed intent to kill accompanied by reflection, not merely proof of violent conduct.
- Repeated brutality and a history of abuse, without evidence showing an intent to kill formed and considered, do not by themselves establish premeditation and deliberation.
- Second-degree murder is supported where the defendant acts with the purpose to cause serious physical injury and death results.
- An appellate court may reduce a conviction to a lesser-included offense when the evidence fails on an element of the greater offense but establishes every element of the lesser offense.

## Conclusion

The court ruled that prolonged and severe child abuse proved a purposeful intent to inflict serious physical injury, but did not prove the additional mental-state requirement of premeditated and deliberated intent to kill; it therefore reduced the conviction to second-degree murder and affirmed the modified judgment.


Midgett v. State, 292 Ark. 278, 729 S.W.2d 410 (Ark. 1987)