Israel Estrada Cannalte v. State of Arkansas

── Israel Estrada Cannalte v. State of Arkansas ── Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas Date: May 28, 2026 Category: General Cite as 2026 Ark. 102 SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS No. CR-25-534 Opinion Delivered: May 28, 2026 ISRAEL ESTRADA CANNALTE APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE INDEPENDENCE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT V. [NO. 32CR-24-3] HONORABLE TIM WEAVER, STATE OF ARKANSAS JUDGE APPELLEE AFFIRMED. SHAWN A. WOMACK, Associate Justice Israel Cannalte was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. For reversal, Cannalte raises a single point on appeal challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his murder conviction. Specifically, he argues that the State failed to prove he purposely caused the death of Maximo Hernandez. We affirm. I. Facts and Procedural Background On December 25, 2023, Maximo Hernandez was stabbed to death with a knife and a Phillips-head screwdriver. Cannalte and Hernandez were former roommates at a home Hernandez rented in Batesville. Around lunchtime, Hernandez’s son and his son’s adopted mother visited him for a couple of hours. Another former roommate of Hernandez, Saundra Johnson, also planned on visiting him on Christmas, but he would not answer her phone calls. Eventually, Johnson went to Hernandez’s around 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. Christmas night. She knocked on the door. No one answered, so she left. She continued to call Hernandez, but he never answered. The next morning, Johnson and a friend went to check on Hernandez. She again knocked on the door with no answer. She even checked with a neighbor and asked whether the neighbor had seen Hernandez. Closer to noon, she went back to check again. This time, she pushed the front door open. She saw Hernandez on the floor. Because she could see blood on the floor, she did not enter and immediately called 911. The police arrived and found Hernandez in the living room face down in a pool of blood with his feet partially propped up on the couch. A responding officer said the room was in disarray. Furniture was turned over, and items were strewn on the floor. In addition, there was blood throughout the home, including in the living room, kitchen, kitchen sink, bathroom, and on a door in the kitchen that led outside. The blood in the bathroom was diluted with water as if someone had washed blood off of their hands into the sink that then dripped on the floor and the toilet. A half-folded knife that would no longer open or close was found on the floor of the kitchen. A Phillips-head screwdriver was in the kitchen sink, submerged in water. Given this, police asked local hospitals to be on the lookout for a person with injuries consistent with involvement in a stabbing. Unity Health in Newport then reported that a Hispanic male was in the emergency room with cuts and injuries to his hand that he could not explain. An investigator arrived at the hospital and told Cannalte, “[W]e need to chit chat, don’t we.” Cannalte responded by hanging his head and then nodding yes. He had a deep cut to his right pinky and a large cut to his index finger. Both appeared to be injured by a sharp object. Cannalte also grimaced when removing his sweater as if his arm or shoulder was injured. 2  Investigators used data from cellphone towers to determine Cannalte’s location on the day of the murder. The data showed that Cannalte was at the victim’s residence from 3:00 p.m. until 4:12 p.m. At 3:49 p.m., one of Cannalte’s children sent him a text message asking if he was still in Batesville. Cannalte responded no almost immediately. This was contrad