Tony Boykins v. State of Arkansas

── Tony Boykins v. State of Arkansas ── Court: Court of Appeals of Arkansas Date: April 29, 2026 Category: General Cite as 2026 Ark. App. 264 ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION IV No. CR-25-152 TONY BOYKINS Opinion Delivered April 29, 2026 APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE JEFFERSON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT V. [NO. 35CR-11-445] STATE OF ARKANSAS HONORABLE JODI RAINES DENNIS, APPELLEE JUDGE AFFIRMED WENDY SCHOLTENS WOOD, Judge Tony Boykins appeals the Jefferson County Circuit Court’s order denying his petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Rule 37.1 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. On appeal, he argues that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to (1) adequately advise him of the ramifications of not testifying at trial; (2) advise him that there was a police dash-cam video of another suspect at the scene of the crime on the day of the murder; (3) effectively cross-examine witnesses; and (4) call crime-scene witnesses who would have exonerated him. We affirm. On July 27, 2011, Boykins shot and killed Brian Keith Smith with a handgun during a physical altercation between Smith and Boykins’s brother, Terrell. Boykins was charged in the Jefferson County Circuit Court with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by certain persons. Boykins was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to forty years’ imprisonment in the Arkansas Division of Correction for the murder and given a ten-year enhancement for the use of a firearm. He appealed the conviction, and this court affirmed on September 4, 2013. Boykins v. State, 2013 Ark. App. 463. Boykins filed a timely, verified petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Rule 37 on November 4, 2013, and a verified amended petition on August 26, 2014, making the same four arguments he brings on appeal. Because Boykins’s trial counsel, Greg Robinson, was ill and could not physically appear to testify at a hearing, Robinson and Boykins were deposed. Boykins filed a motion for a ruling on the pleadings and submitted the transcripts of the deposition testimony as the only evidence for consideration. The circuit court entered an order noting that the transcripts did not appear complete and directed the parties to amend them and to file memoranda in support of their respective positions on the Rule 37 petition. After neither party filed either an amendment or memorandum, the court entered an order on November 14, 2024, dismissing Boykins’s petition with prejudice: Boykins’s allegations are without factual support. No supporting testimony was provided referencing who should have been called to testify at the jury trial, what that testimony would have been, or how it would cast a reasonable doubt that, but for counsel’s errors, the fact-finder would have had a reasonable doubt respecting guilt. Mere allegations are insufficient to overcome the presumption that counsel is effective. Lane v. State, 2019 Ark. 5, 564 S.W.3d 524. Petitioner has failed to meet the Strickland standards and is not entitled to relief. Boykins appealed. 2  We do not reverse the denial of postconviction relief unless the circuit court’s findings are clearly erroneous. Johnson v. State, 2018 Ark. 6, at 2, 534 S.W.3d 143, 146. A finding is clearly erroneous when the appellate court, after reviewing the entire evidence, is left with the definite and firm conviction that the circuit court made a mistake. Id., 534 S.W.3d at 146. In reviewing a circuit court’s denial of postconviction relief on a claim of ineffective assistance o