State Of North Carolina v. Walker
| Decision Date | 15 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. COA09-977.,COA09-977. |
| Citation | 694 S.E.2d 484 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolinav.William Tynell WALKER. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
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Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 15 May 2009 by Judge Charles H. Henry in Onslow County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 10 December 2009.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Catherine F. Jordan, for the State.
Irving Joyner, Cary, for Defendant.
Defendant William Tynell Walker appeals from a judgment in which the trial court sentenced Defendant to a minimum of 41 months and a maximum of 59 months imprisonment in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Correction and recommended the entry of a “civil judgment” against Defendant for “prior attorney fees” in the amount of $1,762.50 based on his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. After careful consideration of Defendant's challenges to the trial court's judgment in light of the record and the applicable law, we find no basis for disturbing Defendant's conviction and conclude that we lack jurisdiction to address Defendant's challenge to the trial court's attorney's fee “recommendation.”
Rodney Maurice Sanders, Jr., and Leticia Williams lived together with their child in Jacksonville, North Carolina. On the early afternoon of 24 June 2008, Mr. Sanders was watching television in the bedroom of their home while their child, who was only a baby, was in a crib “[i]n the front room[.]”
According to Ms. Williams, Defendant was her “cousin.” However, she had not seen him since “[she] was younger.” At around 1:00 p.m., Defendant knocked at the front door of the home occupied by Ms. Williams and Mr. Sanders. After Ms. Williams allowed him to enter, Defendant told Williams that he “wanted to see the baby[.]” In light of that request, Ms. Williams testified that “we sat down [and] played with the baby for a while.”
During their conversation, Ms. Williams told Defendant that she and Mr. Sanders had been “arguing[.]” Defendant replied that “he wanted to talk to [Mr. Sanders].” Ms. Williams said Defendant “knocked on the [bedroom] door [,]” which was already broken and not supported by hinges, and “the door fell in.” Mr. Sanders “stood up,” at which point “they started fighting.” Ms. Williams testified that Defendant had a “small” knife in his hand, which was “about three inches” long.
Mr. Sanders testified that Defendant knocked on the bedroom door and that “[he] just remember[ed] the door [to the bedroom] coming down, because it was already broken.” Mr. Sanders stood up as soon as the door fell. Defendant and Mr. Sanders “immediately ... started wrestling around[.]” Mr. Sanders did not have a weapon and did not recall seeing one in Defendant's possession. In the course of the fight, both Mr. Sanders and Defendant fell and a window in the bedroom shattered. Although Mr. Sanders was “cut” during the fight, he did not realize he was injured until the fight was over, when he noticed that he was bleeding.
After the fight ended, Defendant “ran out of the house[.]” Ms. Williams noticed that Mr. Sanders was “bleeding a lot[.]” More particularly, Mr. Sanders was bleeding from his back, his face, and his arm. Mr. Sanders and Ms. Williams called 911, while a neighbor applied pressure to Mr. Sanders' wounds in an attempt to slow the bleeding until emergency medical service personnel arrived and took him to Onslow Memorial Hospital. At the hospital, the examining physician determined that Mr. Sanders had been “cut” a number of times and had sustained a “puncture wound in [his] lung[.]” For that reason, Mr. Sanders was placed on a ventilator. Although Mr. Sanders thought that he had been stabbed about five times, an examination of photographs taken at the hospital revealed that he had been “stabbed” or cut approximately “eight or nine” times.
Officer Daniel Gallardo of the Jacksonville Police Department was dispatched to the residence occupied by Mr. Sanders and Ms. Williams on 24 June 2008. As Officer Gallardo “walked up to the front door[,]” he “observed the victim lying on the [kitchen] floor” in pain and “spitting up blood[.]” Officer Gallardo noticed blood in the bathroom, in the kitchen sink, on the kitchen floor, and on the front steps. In addition, Officer Rodney Dorn of the Jacksonville Police Department noticed “a large amount of blood” on the kitchen floor and blood on the bathroom sink, the bathroom walls, and some glass on the bedroom floor.
On 24 June 2008, a warrant for arrest charging Defendant with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and attempted murder was issued by Magistrate Christopher T. Riggs. On 7 April 2009, the Onslow County grand jury returned a bill of indictment charging Defendant with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. The charges against Defendant came on for trial before the trial court and a jury at the 11 May 2009 criminal session of the Onslow County Superior Court. After the presentation of the State's evidence and after Defendant elected to rest without presenting any evidence, the trial court allowed Defendant's motion to dismiss the attempted murder charge and concluded that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that Defendant acted with the intent to kill.1 On 13 May 2009, a jury returned a verdict finding Defendant guilty of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. At the ensuing sentencing hearing, the trial court found that Defendant should be sentenced as a Level IV offender and ordered that Defendant be imprisoned in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Correction for a minimum term of 41 months and a maximum term of 59 months. In addition, the trial court's judgment “recommends” the entry of a “civil judgment” for “prior attorney fees” in the amount of $1,762.50. Defendant noted an appeal to this Court from the trial court's judgment.
First, Defendant contends that the trial court erred by allowing Officer Dorn to testify concerning an out-of-court statement made by Ms. Williams. In essence, Defendant argues that the trial court's ruling contravened N.C. Gen.Stat. § 8C-1, Rule 607, by allowing the State to impeach Ms. Williams through the introduction of prior inconsistent statements into evidence despite the fact that those statements were “collateral” testimony rendered inadmissible by virtue of decisions such as State v. Hunt, 324 N.C. 343, 348, 378 S.E.2d 754, 757 (1989) (). We disagree.
“Prior consistent statements of a witness are admissible for purposes of corroboration even if the witness has not been impeached.” State v. Swindler, 129 N.C.App. 1, 4, 497 S.E.2d 318, 320 aff'd, 349 N.C. 347, 507 S.E.2d 284 (1998), (citing State v. Riddle, 316 N.C. 152, 157, 340 S.E.2d 75, 78 (1986)). “When so offered, evidence of a prior consistent statement must in fact corroborate a witness's later testimony [;] [h]owever, there is no requirement that the rendition of a prior consistent statement be identical to the witness's later testimony.” Swindler, 129 N.C.App. at 5, 497 S.E.2d at 320. “ ‘[S]light variances in the corroborative testimony do not render it inadmissible.’ ” Id. (quoting State v. Covington, 290 N.C. 313, 337, 226 S.E.2d 629, 646 (1976)). “In order to be corroborative and therefore properly admissible, the prior statement of the witness need not merely relate to specific facts brought out in the witness's testimony at trial, so long as the prior statement in fact tends to add weight or credibility to such testimony.” State v. Ramey, 318 N.C. 457, 469, 349 S.E.2d 566, 573 (1986) (citing Riddle, 316 N.C. at 156-57, 340 S.E.2d at 77-78; State v. Higginbottom, 312 N.C. 760, 768-69, 324 S.E.2d 834, 840 (1985); State v. Burns, 307 N.C. 224, 231, 297 S.E.2d 384, 388 (1982); State v. Ollis, 318 N.C. 370, 348 S.E.2d 777 (1986)).
In order to be admissible as corroborative evidence, a witness' prior consistent statements merely must tend to add weight or credibility to the witness' testimony. Further, it is well established that such corroborative evidence may contain new or additional facts when it tends to strengthen and add credibility to the testimony which it corroborates.
State v. Walters, 357 N.C. 68, 89, 588 S.E.2d 344, 356 cert. denied, 540 U.S. 971, 124 S.Ct. 442, 157 L.Ed.2d 320 (2003) (quoting State v. Farmer, 333 N.C. 172, 192, 424 S.E.2d 120, 131 (1993) (internal citations omitted)). “Moreover, ‘if the previous statements are generally consistent with the witness' testimony, slight variations will not render the statements inadmissible, but such variations ... affect [only] the credibility of the statement.’ ” Walters, 357 N.C. at 89, 588 S.E.2d at 356 (quoting State v. Martin, 309 N.C. 465, 476, 308 S.E.2d 277, 284 (1983)). On the other hand, “the witness's prior statements as to facts not referred to in his trial testimony and not tending to add weight or credibility to it are not admissible as corroborative evidence[;] [a]dditionally, the witness's prior contradictory statements may not be admitted under the guise of corroborating his testimony.” Ramey, 318 N.C. at 469, 349 S.E.2d at 573 (emphasis in original). “A trial court's determination that evidence is admissible as corroborative evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion.” State v. Cook, 195 N.C.App. 230, 243, 672 S.E.2d 25, 33 (2009) (citing Covington, 290 N.C. at 337, 226 S.E.2d at 645-46).
At trial, Ms. Williams testified on direct...
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