State Of North Carolina v. Capers
| Decision Date | 21 December 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 99 CRS 10321,NO. COA09-1613,COA09-1613,99 CRS 10321 |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. JAVON CAPERS, Defendant. |
Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 30 April 2009 by Judge J. Gentry Caudill in Cleveland County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 27 May 2010.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Derrick C. Mertz, for the State.
Marilyn G. Ozer for defendant-appellant.
Defendant Javon Capers appeals his conviction of first degree murder, contending that the trial court erred in allowing testimony that defendant, when arrested, was handcuffed and shackled. Defendant primarily argues this evidence was admitted in violation of State v. Tolley, 290 N.C. 349, 365, 226 S.E.2d 353, 366 (1976) (emphasis added), which provides that "a defendant in a criminal case is entitled to appear at trial free from all bonds or shackles except in extraordinary instances." Because Tolley does not apply to the situation in which a jury is allowed to hear that a defendant was previously handcuffed and shackled when arrested, we hold that the trial court properly admitted this testimony.
At trial, the State's evidence tended to show the following. On 26 August 1999, Brandon Wilson borrowed a black Dodge Ram truck from Rodney McCloud in exchange for crack cocaine. Wilson, who admitted he might have smoked marijuana that evening, was driving around Shelby, North Carolina at about 5:30 p.m. when he was flagged down by defendant. Defendant asked for a ride to a friend's house, and Wilson agreed. At defendant's direction, Wilson drove to the Lawndale neighborhood to pick up two men: Kendue Brown, also known as "Bumpy," and Santee Coleman. Defendant sat in front with Wilson, while Bumpy and Coleman sat in the back seat.
Wilson then drove to the Light Oak neighborhood to a liquor house. By the time they arrived in Light Oak, it was dark outside. The other three men got out of the truck and spoke to a few men at the liquor house. Wilson stayed in the truck because he was considered "a Shelby person... and Shelby people just didn't go into Light Oak at that time for previous beef." After about 20 minutes, defendant told Wilson he wanted to leave and go to one other place.
After all four men were back in the truck, defendant had Wilson drive to the Holly Oak apartments. Defendant wanted to meet a man named Julian Roseboro, also known as "J." Wilson parked the truck in front of the Holly Oak apartments, and all four men got out. Four other men from Light Oak, including Derrick Goodson, also drove to the Holly Oak apartments in a Mercury Cougar. The Mercury Cougar was parked next to a phone booth near the "J" building.1
Wilson went over and stood near the phone booth with a group of people, including the men from the Mercury Cougar and some Holly Oak residents. Defendant went directly to the phone booth and began talking on the phone. Wilson stood drinking liquor with some of the men from the Mercury Cougar, but he got tired of waiting. He asked Bumpy to tell defendant, who was still on the phone, that Wilson was leaving. After defendant did not respond when Bumpy gave him the message, Wilson walked up to defendant who put down the phone and asked Wilson to give him 10 more minutes.
At that time, a gray Jeep pulled up, and Roseboro got out. Roseboro walked toward Wilson and defendant and then stopped. Wilson felt that something was wrong, so he started walking away. Defendant looked back at Roseboro and hung up the phone. Defendant pulled out a.9 millimeter gun and asked Roseboro "where his money was at." Although Roseboro lifted up his shirt to show he was not armed, defendant shot Roseboro who collapsed. Then, defendant walked up to Wilson and said, "[L]et's go." Wilson, defendant, Bumpy, and Coleman all got into the truck.
Defendant told Wilson to turn left and drive toward the lower part of the apartment complex, which was a dead end. Some people had run in that direction. Defendant now had two.9 millimeter guns. As Wilson was driving toward the dead end, defendant openedthe truck door, stuck his head and arms out of the truck, and started shooting. Wilson "stomped on the brakes," put the truck in reverse, and backed up. As they were going in reverse, Wilson heard "a whole bunch of shots and [the] window shattered." Coleman yelled, "I'm hit, I'm shot."
Merrill Baker was sitting on his porch talking to Goodson, one of the men from the Mercury Cougar, when they heard the sound of a gunshot coming from the other side of the building. Baker said they did not pay any attention to it at first because "[s]omething was always happening out there." Suddenly, a dark colored truck came around the corner, and a man got partially out of the truck. The man, holding a gun in each hand, started shooting and shot Goodson twice. Baker did not recognize the person shooting from the truck.
Wilson turned the truck around, left the complex, and headed toward the highway. Coleman was yelling, and there was a lot of commotion in the truck. When Wilson eventually pulled off of the highway into the parking lot of a store, Coleman asked to be taken to the hospital. Defendant took out his gun, pointed it at Coleman, and said, "Man, just get out." Coleman got out of the truck and fell down. The other three men drove to Gastonia, about 40 minutes away, where Wilson's sister lived. When they arrived, Wilson went into the kitchen and "just paced" while the other two sat outside. Wilson joined them outside, and after a couple of hours, they headed back to Shelby. Wilson dropped defendant and Bumpy off and returned the truck to McCloud. Defendant immediately went to Charlotte to catch a bus to New York.
At approximately 12:50 a.m., Detective Randy Conner of the Shelby Police Department responded to the crime scene at the Holly Oak apartments. When he arrived, he was motioned by bystanders to go to an area near the "J" building where he found Roseboro lying near the phone booth at the end of the building. Roseboro was on his left side, propped up against a vehicle. There was a large amount of blood coming from Roseboro's chest, but he was still breathing.
Officer Danny Halloran located Goodson, who had been shot in the stomach, lying on the ground by an apartment in the "L" building. Goodson was transported to the hospital. Police also found Coleman at the convenience store where he had been left by Wilson. Coleman told officers he had been shot in the knee at Holly Oak, but he did not know who shot him. He also was transported to the hospital. Both Coleman and Goodson survived their injuries although they later died from unrelated causes prior to the trial in this case.
Roseboro died on 3 September 1999 from multi-organ system failure caused by the gunshot wound. The autopsy revealed that he had a gunshot graze wound to his left wrist and a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The same bullet could have caused both wounds. The bullet traveled from the left-upper side of the abdomen toward the middle of the body and the back and lodged in the spine, just belowthe level of the belly button. The bullet removed from Roseboro's body was a Federal hollow point.9 millimeter Luger.
Sergeant Craig Earwood collected evidence at the crime scene. Among other items, he found 14 shell casings in the parking lot at both shooting locations, with the majority of them being found in front of the buildings where Goodson was shot. Only two firearms were responsible for the 14 shell casings. Four of the casings were fired from one.9 millimeter firearm, and the other 10 were fired from a second.9 millimeter firearm. Police also found a bullet hole in the truck driven by Wilson that night.
Wilson was subsequently brought in by police for questioning about the incident. At first, Wilson told the officers that he had been in a shootout, and somebody had tried to rob him. Once he learned that the owner of the truck, McCloud, had given a statement to police, Wilson decided to make up a story to "put [himself] far away from it." He then claimed that he had tried to buy some marijuana at Holly Oak that evening, and, while he was standing there, he saw defendant shoot Roseboro. At trial, he admitted signing a statement to that effect, but testified that he "told the truth to the extent that [he was] at Holly Oak Apartments," but he "did not tell the truth about why [he was] there or what [he] did while [he] was there." Wilson gave another statement on 16 August 2005 that matched his subsequent trial testimony.
An arrest warrant charging defendant with first degree murder was issued on 7 September 1999. On 10 August 2001, an application for requisition of defendant from the State of New York was issued.
On 31 March 2004, because defendant could not be found for service of the arrest warrant, the State dismissed with leave the first degree murder charge. On 26 August 2005, defendant waived extradition from the State of New York, and on 29 August 2005, the first degree murder charge was reinstated. Defendant was indicted for first degree murder on 10 October 2005.
At trial, William Hall, an inmate incarcerated with defendant, was called by the State. Hall had written a letter to the district attorney's office on 25 September 2007. In the letter, Hall stated that while they were incarcerated together, defendant told him what happened on the night of the shooting. The letter largely corroborated the version of events given by Wilson at trial. At trial, however, Hall denied that the letter was true. He admitted that he had visited with defendant's attorney before the trial and that, until trial, he had never indicated to any law enforcement officer or to the district attorney's office that the letter was not true. He further explained, however, that he had been incarcerated with Wilson, and Wilson told him that if he wrote a copy of a letter that Wilson gave him and sent it to the district attorney, that would help get Hall's bond...
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