State v. Jennings
| Citation | 333 N.C. 579,430 S.E.2d 188 |
| Decision Date | 04 June 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 555A90,555A90 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Patricia Wells JENNINGS. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal of right pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing a sentence of death entered by Butterfield, J., at the 8 October 1990 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Wilson County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Execution stayed 26 November 1990 pending defendant's appeal. Heard in the Supreme Court 13 February 1992.
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Ellen B. Scouten, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.
James R. Parish, Fayetteville, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant was tried capitally on an indictment charging her with the first-degree The State presented evidence that Jennings was beaten and tortured to death in a hotel room in Wilson, North Carolina on 19 September 1989. Defendant's evidence suggested that Jennings suffered from dementia and died from accidental or self-inflicted wounds.
murder of her eighty-year-old husband, William Henry Jennings (hereinafter "Jennings"). The jury returned a verdict finding defendant guilty upon the theories of (1) premeditation and deliberation and (2) torture. Following a sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that the jury selection, guilt and sentencing phases of defendant's trial were free from prejudicial error, and that the sentence of death is not disproportionate.
Defendant was a nurse working at Westwood Manor Nursing Home in Wilson when she first met Jennings in June 1983. Jennings, a retired businessman living in Wilson, was an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous and was called to the nursing home for a consultation about an alcoholic patient. Four years later, in February 1987, defendant and Jennings were married. She was forty-four years old; he was seventy-seven.
Shortly after their marriage in September 1987, defendant and Jennings visited George Henry, a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch and an acquaintance of Jennings for more than twenty years. The purpose, Henry testified, was to transfer half of Jennings' assets, which then totaled about $150,000, to defendant. An account was opened for defendant, and half of Jennings' assets were transferred to the new account.
The State presented several witnesses who testified that Jennings told them of ongoing abuse by defendant and that he was afraid defendant would kill him or have him committed to an institution. Among these was Superior Court Judge Knox Jenkins. In May 1989, Jenkins was practicing law in Smithfield. Jennings came to Jenkins' office to have a will drawn. According to Jenkins' testimony, Jennings said defendant had physically beaten him, dragged him across the room, and stomped him with her cowboy boots. Jennings told Jenkins defendant had threatened to stomp him to death with her cowboy boots. Jennings also told Jenkins defendant had tried to have him committed. Jenkins testified that Jennings was a frail man physically but was not confused and appeared well oriented. Jenkins had no reservations or doubts about Jennings' competency. Jennings never returned to Jenkins' office to sign the legal documents.
On 19 September 1989, defendant and Jennings were staying at the Hampton Inn in Wilson. About 9:30 p.m., defendant called the desk and said she had a "code blue." The hotel manager called 911, and emergency medical personnel arrived at 9:35 p.m. They found defendant performing CPR on Jennings, who was lying nude on the floor. Paramedic Larry Parnell testified that he asked defendant how long Jennings had been "down." Defendant, Parnell testified, said Jennings had been down five to ten minutes. When Parnell began doing CPR on Jennings, Jennings' skin appeared cool and his body seemed generally stiff. Paramedic Lee Fowler testified that when he arrived at the hotel room, defendant was wearing a black nightgown and brown cowboy boots.
Jennings was taken to Wilson Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Emergency room physician Dr. Andrew Duerr testified that in his opinion Jennings had been dead for at least several hours.
Dr. Andrew Price, a Wilson physician and local medical examiner, testified that he examined Jennings' body at the hospital around 10:30 the night of Jennings' death. In his opinion, based in part on the fact that Jennings' body temperature was 86.3 degrees, Jennings had been dead for six to eight hours.
Dr. Page Hudson, forensic pathologist and former Chief Medical Examiner for the State of North Carolina, testified that he performed an autopsy on Jennings on 20 September 1989. Dr. Hudson found multiple bruises and scrapes on various parts of Additionally, Dr. Hudson found tiny cracks or splits in the thin membrane that lines the anus around the sphincter. The surface of the membrane had been stretched to the point that it cracked. Dr. Hudson testified, further, that the pattern of injuries was not consistent with an injury caused by a rectal thermometer. Dr. Hudson also found injuries to the head of the penis in the form of sharply defined imprints. In his opinion, a pair of forceps found in the hotel room could have caused these wounds. Dr. Hudson examined the forceps and found a small piece of skin consistent with the type found on the underside of the eyelid or the head of the penis. Dr. Hudson also found a laceration on the shaft of the penis, scrapes at the base of the penis, and a scratch on the scrotum. In his opinion, most of Jennings' injuries were inflicted around the same time, and Jennings had been dead five to ten hours before his body arrived at the emergency room. Based on Jennings' injuries, Dr. Hudson opined that Jennings had been sexually assaulted and tortured.
Jennings' head, scalp, face, neck, legs, arms and hands. All the injuries appeared fresh. There was a large bruise in the mesentery of the abdominal cavity, the tissue which holds in and supports the intestines and contains blood vessels to the intestines. Dr. Hudson opined that a blunt force impact to the abdominal wall caused the tears in the mesentery, and that blood loss from these tears caused the victim's death. The injury to the abdomen was not consistent with a fall in the bathtub, Dr. Hudson testified, unless the victim fell from a height of at least twenty feet. The injury was, however, consistent with a kick or stomp to the abdomen.
Finally, Dr. Hudson testified that, after consultation with a neuropathologist, he found no evidence of any organic brain disorder, including Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Hudson also testified that deprivation of caring interaction can have a great effect on the personality of elderly people and can lead to mental alterations, confusion, and what appears to be dementia. 1
Dr. Price, the local medical examiner, testified for the State on rebuttal that certain drugs can cause symptoms similar to those displayed by some persons with dementia. Tests showed high levels of one of these drugs, butalbital, in Jennings' body.
Detective Teresa Jo Adams of the Wilson Police Department investigated Jennings' death. She testified that she found a large blood stain on the carpet of the hotel room, blood on the sheets, and a blood-stained adult's diaper 2 underneath a pillow. There was also a bloodstain on the underside of a pillowcase.
District Court Judge Allen Harrell, who had known Jennings for about thirty years, testified for the State on rebuttal that defendant called him the day after Jennings' death and asked how closely doctors could approximate the time of a person's death based on autopsy results.
Four expert witnesses testified for defendant that Jennings suffered from dementia. Two, family practitioner Dr. Donald Reece and neurologist Dr. Ashley Kent, examined Jennings prior to his death. Both opined, based on their examinations, that Jennings suffered from dementia. Two others, psychiatrist and attorney Dr. Thomas W. Brown and psychologist John F. Warren III, reviewed Jennings' medical records and concurred with Drs. Reece and Kent that Jennings suffered from dementia. Dr. Brown testified that this was a "clear case of dementia" and that it is not uncommon for demented patients to injure themselves. After reviewing photographs of Jennings' injuries, Dr. Brown testified that, in his opinion, all the injuries could have been self-inflicted.
Defendant testified in her own behalf. She said she loved her husband and did not kick, stomp, assault or hurt him in any way. Defendant testified that Jennings Defendant testified that the next day, 19 September, Jennings again fell hard in the bathtub. She also found him in the bathroom beating himself with a She also testified she saw Jennings picking his rectum. Later that evening she awoke and found him on the floor. She did not recall telling paramedic Parnell that Jennings had been down five to ten minutes; she did not recall asking Judge Harrell how closely doctors can estimate the time of death from autopsy results; and she denied that she was wearing cowboy boots when paramedics came to the hotel room the night of Jennings' death.
would get very depressed at times and would beat his testicles and pick his rectum. During these severe depressions he would "go into what I call, canine behavior.... [H]e would crawl around on the floor and make noises like a dog and would want to eat--he would put his food down on the floor and want to eat that way." On the day before his death, Jennings found out that a friend had died; this caused him to retreat into his "canine behavior." Defendant testified that Jennings beat his testicles with a shoe and, later that day,...To continue reading
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