State Carolina v. Teague

• Citation: 715 S.E.2d 919
• Decision Date: 04 October 2011
• Docket Number: No. COA11–39.,COA11–39.
• Court: Court of Appeal of North Carolina (US)
• Parties: STATE of North Carolinav.Charles O'Brien TEAGUE, Defendant.

715 S.E.2d 919

STATE of North Carolina
v.
Charles O'Brien TEAGUE, Defendant.

No. COA11–39.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Oct. 4, 2011.

[715 S.E.2d 920]

Appeal by defendant from judgments entered on or about 16 April 2010 by Judge R. Stuart Albright in Superior Court, Randolph County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 17 August 2011.

Attorney General Roy A. Cooper, III, by Assistant Attorney General Richard J. Votta, for the State.

Anne Bleyman, Chapel Hill, for defendant-appellant.

STROUD, Judge.

Charles O'Brien Teague (“defendant”) appeals from a conviction for two counts of attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and larceny of a motor vehicle. For the following reasons, we find no error in defendant's trial.

I. Background

On 23 June 2008, defendant was indicted on two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, larceny of a motor vehicle, and robbery with a dangerous weapon. On 21 July 2008, by separate indictment defendant was also indicted for one count of second-degree kidnapping. On 8 December 2008, defendant was indicted by superseding indictment with two counts of first-degree kidnapping. Defendant was tried on these charges during the 13 April 2010 Criminal Session of Superior

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Court, Randolph County. The State's evidence presented at trial tended to show the following: Maranda Teague married defendant when she was 17 years old and shortly thereafter became pregnant. Because they did not have their own place, defendant and Maranda lived with defendant's parents until they were asked to leave on or about 26 April 2008, when Maranda was around eight and a half months pregnant. Maranda then went to live with Wanda and Cecil Burke Myers, as Wanda had helped raise Maranda since she was a baby. However, Wanda and Burke did not allow defendant to live in or visit their home because he did not have a job and they did not trust him. In fact, the Myers did not even want defendant to know where they lived. However, Wanda allowed Maranda and defendant to talk on the phone. Maranda testified that she had talked to defendant at the Myers' residence one night without their knowledge, when defendant drove to their residence in a “gray color” Dodge, and defendant had told her that he did not want her staying with the Myers anymore. On 5 May 2008, Wanda came home from work at lunch and saw Maranda and defendant returning in his car to their residence and told defendant he “needed to leave [,]” and if Burke found out defendant had been there, he would probably tell Maranda to leave. After returning to work, Wanda sent her daughter-in-law, Jennifer Walker, to her house to check on Maranda. Ms. Walker found defendant at the Myers' residence and told him that “he wasn't allowed there [.]” Defendant got angry and cursed her telling her that “he had a right to be there” because Maranda was his wife and then “got in the car and spun out of the driveway.”

In the early morning hours of 6 May 2008, defendant entered the Myers' home without their permission, while Maranda and the Myers were asleep. Wanda testified that after locking the doors, she went to bed around 11 p.m., and was awakened by her husband moving in bed and then something sharp sticking her in the neck. Wanda was cut twice in the throat and on her hand. After realizing that something was happening, Wanda rolled out of bed and saw someone leaving their bedroom. Burke testified that he awoke in the early morning hours of 6 May 2008 and saw defendant cutting his throat and his wife's throat with a knife. After following the person out of the bedroom, Wanda went to the hallway and saw defendant standing holding the hedge clippers and a knife; she then noticed that her neck was dripping blood where she had been cut. Defendant then began arguing with Maranda accusing her of “sleeping with his daddy and his brothers and everybody[,]” and told Maranda “if [she] didn't tell him the truth he was gonna kill [her], too.” Defendant told Maranda that “he was gonna kill [them] all.” While they were arguing, Wanda and Burke went to the bathroom and Wanda saw that Burke had been cut in the throat and on his face, as part of his jaw was “hanging down[.]” Burke wrapped a towel around his neck to stop the bleeding, but there was “a lot of blood” coming out of his wounds. Defendant then entered the bathroom with the knife, and ordered Wanda and Burke to get into the bathtub, telling them “I should have just finished what I started.” Wanda stated that she was “[s]cared to death[.]” Maranda was in the hall begging defendant to leave them alone and telling him “if he wanted to kill somebody to kill her[.]” Burke told defendant that he was getting weak from the loss of blood and defendant allowed Burke and Wanda to go sit on the bed. Burke thought that in the bedroom defendant “was gonna finish the job up.”

In an effort to get defendant to leave, Burke told defendant he could take $600, their red Dodge Neon car, and Maranda and go to Virginia, Mexico, or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Thirty to forty five minutes after the initial attacks, defendant agreed with Burke and left the Myers' residence with their car, the money, and Maranda. Wanda then called 911. Maranda testified that after leaving the Myers' residence with defendant, they got a motel room in Greensboro. Defendant told Maranda that “he felt like [the Myers] were trying to keep me away from him.” Defendant and Maranda then traveled to Myrtle Beach in the Myers' car and checked into a hotel; defendant still had the knife with him in the car. Maranda began having stomach pains so defendant

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tried to take her to the hospital. Defendant stopped a police officer in Myrtle Beach to ask for directions to the hospital but when they arrived at the hospital there were three police patrol vehicles at the entrance of the hospital so they abandoned the car on the side of the road and ran through the woods to the beach. The next day the police apprehended defendant and Maranda while they were walking on the beach and took them into custody.

Dr. David Moore, a physician specializing in ear, nose, and throat medicine, testified that he treated Wanda's injuries to her throat and Burke's injuries to his face and throat. Dr. Moore testified that Wanda received two horizontal lacerations to her throat, with the upper wound penetrating “through the skin and fat underneath the skin” and the lower wound penetrating deeper through the skin, fat, and the “first layer of muscle[.]” Neither wound penetrated to the nerves or blood vessels of the neck. Dr. Moore estimated that it took around forty stitches to repair these wounds. As to Burke, Dr. Moore testified that his wounds were more extensive, as the lacerations to his face went from just below his left ear to the corner of his mouth and penetrated “through the facial artery,” requiring “ligating off and sewing it off[.]” Burke was cut three or four times in the neck and those lacerations were “quite deep” as they

went through the skin, through the fatty tissue, through the platysma, through the deeper layer of fat, through the strap muscles, and into the sternocleidomastoid muscle. But it didn't go into the trachea, the windpipe, which would be one layer down from those muscles, and it didn't affect the great vessels—the carotid artery or the internal jugular vein, and it didn't affect any major nerves in the neck either[.]

Dr. Moore testified that it took two hours to repair the lacerations to Burke. Wanda testified that at the hospital they stitched up her neck wound and she had surgery on her hand to repair a tendon. Burke testified that he had three surgeries, including reconstructive surgery, to repair the lacerations to his face.

Detective Derrick Hill with the Randolph County Sheriff's Department, investigated the scene at the Myers' residence on the day in question and found a pair of generic binoculars under the Myers' back porch and discovered a grassy area to the right of the back porch that had been flattened out “as if someone had been sitting, kneeling, or laying in that particular location.” Deputy Victor Welch with the Randolph County Sheriff's Department, investigated an abandoned silver Dodge Neon a short distance from the Myers' residence and after running the tag it came back as stolen. Inside the vehicle, Deputy Welch discovered a Walmart blister pack for a pocketknife and a receipt from Walmart dated 5 May 2008 for a pair of binoculars and a folding knife. Detective Hill testified that upon viewing the security video at Walmart, he saw an individual matching the description of defendant purchasing a pair of binoculars and a folding knife on 5 May 2008.

Lester Cook, a detective with the Myrtle Beach Police Department, searched the abandoned red Dodge Neon near the hospital and discovered a pocketbook, camera, and a knife with what appeared to be blood on it. Officer Bobby Jordan with the Myrtle Beach Police Department recovered a black knife from the passenger side of the red Dodge Neon. A search of defendant's person upon arrest revealed a black folding knife in his front right pocket.

At the close of the State's evidence, defendant moved to dismiss all charges for lack of sufficient evidence. The trial court dismissed both counts of first-degree kidnapping, but submitted to the jury the charges of two counts of first-degree attempted murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, misdemeanor breaking and entering, false-imprisonment, and larceny of a motor vehicle. After stating that he would not be presenting any evidence, defendant renewed his motion to dismiss, which was denied by the trial court.

On 16 April 2010, the jury found defendant guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and larceny of a motor vehicle. The trial court sentenced defendant to two consecutive

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terms of 282 to 348 months imprisonment for...