State v. Lynch

• Decision Date: 26 July 1990
• Docket Number: No. 679A86,679A86
• Citation: 393 S.E.2d 811,327 N.C. 210
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Gregory Stewart LYNCH.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 811

393 S.E.2d 811

327 N.C. 210

STATE of North Carolina v. Gregory Stewart LYNCH.

No. 679A86.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

July 26, 1990.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Gordon Widenhouse, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

EXUM, Chief Justice.

At defendant's trial for first degree murder the jury was instructed that it could find defendant guilty on a theory of premeditation and deliberation or on a theory of lying in wait. The jury returned a general verdict of guilty without specifying upon which theory or theories it relied.

While the evidence was sufficient to support a verdict on a theory of premeditation and deliberation, the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict on a theory of lying in wait. It was reversible error, therefore, to submit the case to the jury on a theory unsupported by the evidence; and defendant must be given a new trial. We also conclude there was no error in the admission of certain evidence against defendant.

I.

Defendant was indicted by the Grand Jury of Rutherford County at the 21 July 1986 Criminal Session of Superior Court for the offense of first degree murder. He was tried capitally in the Superior Court of Rutherford County in October 1986 and found guilty of first degree murder. After a sentencing hearing, the jury found the presence of one aggravating circumstance, that the defendant previously had been convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to a person. The jury found one mitigating circumstance, that the murder occurred while defendant was under the influence of a mental or emotional disturbance. It failed to find that defendant's capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct was impaired and that there were any other unspecified mitigating circumstances. The jury determined that the mitigating circumstance was insufficient to outweigh the aggravating circumstance and that the aggravating circumstance was sufficiently substantial to warrant the death penalty. The jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death. For the statutory authorization for these findings at sentencing, see N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3), (f)(2), (c)(2) and (3).

The State's evidence tends to show the following:

On 21 June 1986 at around 11:45 p.m. the victim, Jackie Lynch, was stabbed repeatedly in the parking lot of Spindale Mills, where she worked third shift. She was pronounced dead on arrival at Rutherford County Hospital.

Defendant and Jackie Lynch were married but had been separated for approximately two months before Jackie was killed.

On the morning of 18 May 1986 defendant surreptitiously entered Jackie's home and was discovered by Duprey McDowell, Jackie's son. McDowell escaped through a window and called the police from a neighbor's house. The police found defendant hiding in the basement. Although he was arrested, charges stemming from the incident were dismissed for lack of probable cause. On 19 May 1986 Jackie told Officer Floyd Laughter that defendant had previously telephoned her and threatened to have her killed.

On 21 June 1986 Jackie told two friends, Sharon Pruitt and Gloria Edgerton, that defendant's threats to kill her had frightened her.

About 7:40 p.m. on 21 June 1986 Tony Latham picked up defendant in front of Spindale Drug Store and drove him about one quarter mile to Petroleum World, a local service station about one quarter mile from Spindale Mills. Around 11:30 p.m. Ruby Taylor, Robert Lee Barnes and Debbie Hutchins, all third shift employees of Spindale Mills, arrived for work. They saw a black man sitting on the hood of a blue Dodge Daytona parked near the entrance of the parking lot. Hutchins said the black man looked at each car that came into the parking lot. Barnes said the man kept his back to him and never showed his face. Fingerprints lifted from the hood of the Dodge Daytona by an SBI special agent matched those of defendant.

Jackie Lynch arrived at the mill for work around 11:45 p.m. Tim Stamper, another third shift employee, observed a black man and Jackie walking through the parking lot. The man had his arm around Jackie. Moments later Stamper observed the same black man running across the parking lot as Jackie emerged from between some cars with blood all over her, screaming "Help me, help me," before falling down. Floyd Fowler, an employee of the mill who did not know Jackie, observed a black man chasing a black woman across the parking lot. Fowler saw the man catch the woman and lead her back to the car. As they started to move, Fowler heard her say, "No, please, don't do that." A few moments later she said, "Somebody help me." When Fowler went to the parking lot to investigate, he saw the man running across the parking lot and the woman walking out to the center of the parking lot saying, "Will somebody please help me."

Officer Randy Bostic of the Spindale Police Department was dispatched to the Spindale Mills parking lot and arrived just before midnight. Upon examination of Jackie Lynch's body, he detected no pulse. He discovered a knife sheath next to the blue Dodge Daytona. Defendant's fingerprints were found on the Dodge Daytona and on Jackie's Plymouth Valiant. Jackie's car also contained blood which matched her blood grouping. Bostic said witnesses described the suspect as a black man wearing light trousers, a red shirt and a baseball cap. ¹

About 3:15 a.m. on 22 June defendant was arrested some two-tenths of a milefrom Spindale Mills. He was wearing light colored trousers, a red shirt and a baseball cap and had blood on his clothes and arms. Defendant was bleeding from wounds on his upper arms. A knife was found on the ground a few feet from where defendant was apprehended. No usable fingerprints were found on the knife, but the knife did have blood on it matching that of Jackie Lynch and not that of defendant.

Defendant was taken to the Rutherford County Hospital for treatment and then to jail. He possessed a key fitting the ignition of Jackie Lynch's car.

Jackie Lynch was dead on arrival at Rutherford County Hospital. Cause of death was shock due to loss of blood from multiple stab wounds.

Defendant offered no evidence in the guilt phase of the case.

II.

Defendant first contends the evidence was insufficient to show that he committed the murder with which he was charged and the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the case for insufficiency of evidence. We conclude the evidence was sufficient to be submitted to the jury on the question of defendant's guilt of first degree murder on a theory of premeditation and deliberation.

The question is whether there is substantial evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged and (2) that defendant is the perpetrator of the offense. State v. Mercer, 317 N.C. 87, 96, 343 S.E.2d 885, 890 (1986).

Substantial evidence is "such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." State v. Smith, 300 N.C. 71, 78-79, 265 S.E.2d 164, 169 (1980).... If the evidence is sufficient only to raise a suspicion or conjecture as to either the commission of the offense or the identity of the defendant as the perpetrator of it, the motion to dismiss should be allowed. This is true even though the suspicion so aroused by the evidence is strong.

State v. Earnhardt, 307 N.C. 62, 66, 296 S.E.2d 649, 652 (1982) (citation omitted). In determining the sufficiency of the evidence we consider it in the light most favorable to the State.

[T]he State is entitled to every reasonable intendment and every reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom; contradictions and discrepancies are for the jury to resolve and do not warrant dismissal; and all the evidence actually admitted, whether competent or incompetent, which is favorable to the State is to be considered by the court in ruling on the motion.

Id. at 67, 296 S.E.2d at 653. The test for sufficiency of the evidence is the same whether the evidence is direct, circumstantial or both. Id. at 68, 296 S.E.2d at 653.

When as here the motion to dismiss puts into question the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence, the court must decide whether a reasonable inference of the defendant's guilt may be drawn from the circumstances shown. If so the jury must then decide whether the facts establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is actually guilty.

State v. Triplett, 316 N.C. 1, 5, 340 S.E.2d 736, 739 (1986) (citation omitted).

These formulations of the sufficiency of the evidence comport with the United States Supreme Court's articulation that as a matter of constitutional due process the evidence in a criminal case, after it is viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, must be such that "any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979). See State v. Blake, 319 N.C. 599, 604, 356 S.E.2d 352, 355 (1987).

Here the evidence, although circumstantial, was sufficient to permit the jury to determine defendant's guilt of first degree murder on a theory of premeditation and deliberation beyond a reasonable doubt. Before the fatal stabbing, defendant had threatened the life of the victim and surreptitiously entered her home. Witnesses observed a person matching defendant's description walking with the victim shortly before she was fatally wounded. Fingerprints taken from an automobile at the scene of the killing matched those of defendant. A knife with the victim's blood on it was found near where defendant was arrested, and a sheath in which this knife fit was located near the automobile on which defendant's fingerprints were found. The victim was stabbed five separate times.

Even if each of these circumstances standing alone would be insufficient to raise more than a mere suspicion of defendant's guilt, all the circumstances taken together are...