State Of North Carolina v. Windsor
| Decision Date | 03 August 2010 |
| Docket Number | NO. COA09-713,No. 05 CRS 56577,COA09-713,05 CRS 56577 |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ROBERT LANE WINDSOR |
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General John G. Barnwell, for the State.
Appellate Defender Staples Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender Constance E. Widenhouse, for Defendant-Appellant.
Robert Lane Windsor (Defendant) was indicted for murder on 19 September 2005. Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder. In a judgment entered 24 March 2008, Defendant was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Defendant filed a motion for appropriate relief on 3 April 2008, which the trial court denied in an order dated 18 June 2009. Defendant appeals from both the judgment and the order.
The evidence at trial tended to show that Defendant and Stepheny White (White) had lived together for several years. They experienced relationship problems due, in part, to Defendant's useof drugs. In 2005, Defendant was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle and served seventeen days in jail. He was released on 15 August 2005. White began dating Dean Frasure (Frasure), her minister's son, while Defendant was in jail. White and Frasure saw each other almost every day from their first date until 17 August 2005. White attempted to end her relationship with Defendant. White told her minister that Defendant "wouldn't accept the fact that she wanted [their relationship] to be over" and that Defendant continued to call her from jail.
After Defendant was released from jail, he went to his parents' house. Defendant's mother took him to White's trailer on 16 August 2005, and Defendant collected some of his personal items and spoke with White. Defendant testified at trial that he explained to White why he had been in jail and that, after their discussion, he felt their relationship was improving.
Defendant was at his parent's house on 17 August 2005, and asked around the neighborhood for a ride to White's trailer. A neighbor's relative gave Defendant a ride and dropped him off near the trailer park where White lived (the trailer park), around 7:00 p.m. on 17 August. Defendant testified that he spent the night with White in her trailer. However, Frasure testified that he had been with White until approximately midnight and did not see Defendant. Frasure also testified that White had not been concerned about Defendant.
Sharon Forester (Forester), White's neighbor, testified she saw White arrive at her trailer at around 4:00 p.m. on 18 August 2005, which was the usual time White came home from work. Forester said that White normally went into her trailer and then came back out to feed her cat, but she did not do so on 18 August 2005. Instead, Forester heard "thumping noises" coming from inside White's trailer. Forester later saw Defendant leave White's trailer and get into White's vehicle. Forester watched Defendant as he moved White's car around to the back of the trailer. Defendant later drove White's car away from the trailer and Forester called the police.
Wilbert Abram (Abram) testified he was visiting his aunt, who was also White's neighbor, on 18 August, when he observed Defendant parking White's car, with the trunk open, behind White's trailer. Abram watched as Defendant went into White's trailer and came back out dragging a body. Defendant placed the body in the trunk of White's car. Defendant made one more trip into the trailer, and then drove away in White's car.
Police arrived at the trailer park, talked with Forester, and briefly investigated White's trailer. They found no signs of forced entry or struggle. White's trailer was again searched on 19 and 20 August 2005.
Charles Hall (Hall) testified that Defendant came to the house of a mutual acquaintance around 5:00 p.m. on 18 August 2005. Hall did not know Defendant prior to that date, but Hall and Defendant spent the next several days together using drugs, along with Hall's sister, Christina. Defendant used White's bank card to get money to fund their drug use until White's bank cancelled the card.
While they were driving on Interstate 77 near Charlotte, the car ran out of gas. Hall jumped out of the car and ran. Defendant was arrested on the campus of UNC Charlotte on 29 August 2005. Police discovered White's car abandoned on the side of Interstate 77, with White's body still in the trunk with a black garbage bag taped around White's head and neck.
Defendant testified that, after being dropped off near the trailer park around 7:00 p.m. on 17 August 2005, Defendant walked to White's trailer. Defendant found White at the trailer and they were glad to see each other. White told Defendant that she had a date with Frasure that evening. She asked Defendant to find something to do for a couple of hours because she did not want a confrontation between Defendant and Frasure. Defendant left White's trailer and returned around 10:00 p.m. He did not see Frasure that evening. When Defendant returned to White's trailer, she gave him a gift card and Defendant and White spent the night together in White's trailer.
Defendant testified that the next morning, White asked Defendant to fix a clothes dryer for her and gave him her bank card to pay for the repair parts. White then went to work. Defendant testified that he already knew the PIN for White's bank card. When White returned from work, the two argued about the dryer and other issues. White "blew up" and began hitting Defendant. Defendant testified that he put his arms around White in order to calm her. White began gasping and struggling to breathe. Defendant laid White on the floor and she stopped breathing.
Defendant placed White on a couch. White's eyes were open, and Defendant testified that he put a garbage bag over her head because "she kept looking at [him]." When Defendant lifted White, the bag came off, so he taped it on. Defendant carried White to her car, put her in the trunk, and drove away from the trailer park. Defendant went on a drug binge "to take the pain away," using White's bank card to get money from White's account.
Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Defendant appeals. Further facts will be discussed as needed.
Defendant first argues that the trial court erred by not granting his motion to dismiss for insufficiency of the evidence. Defendant makes three arguments with respect to his motion to dismiss: (1) the State's expert testimony concerning the cause of White's death was "in conflict with indisputable physical facts" and "inherently incredible" and therefore insufficient to submit to the jury; (2) there was insufficient evidence that Defendant killed White after premeditation and deliberation; and (3) there was insufficient evidence that Defendant killed White after lying in wait.
When ruling on a defendant's motion to dismiss, "the trial court must determine 'whether there is substantial evidence of each essential element of the offense charged and of the defendant being the perpetrator of the offense.'" State v. Garcia, 358 N.C. 382, 412, 597 S.E.2d 724, 746 (2004) (citation omitted).
The reviewing court considers all evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and the State receives the benefit of every reasonable inference supported by that evidence. Evidentiary "[c]ontradictions and discrepancies are for the jury to resolve and do not warrant dismissal." Finally, sufficiency review "is the same whether the evidence is circumstantial or direct, or both."
Id. at 412-13, 597 S.E.2d at 746 (internal citations omitted). "Circumstantial evidence may withstand a motion to dismiss and support a conviction even when the evidence does not rule out every hypothesis of innocence." State v. Stone, 323 N.C. 447, 452, 373 S.E.2d 430, 433 (1988) (citation omitted). The trial court is to determine whether reasonable inferences of a defendant's guilt can be drawn from the circumstances, and if so, to submit the question to the jury for final determination. Id.
At trial, the State tendered Dr. Thomas Owens (Dr. Owens), a forensic pathologist and medical examiner at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner's Office, as an expert witness. Dr. Owens performed an autopsy on White and it was his opinion that the cause of White's death was asphyxiation by the plastic bag taped around her head. Defendant presented the testimony of two expert witnesses who questioned Dr. Owens' conclusions: Dr. Page Hudson (Dr. Hudson), retired Chief Medical Examiner for the State of North Carolina, and Dr. Donald Jason (Dr. Jason), a pathologist and associate professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Drs. Hudson and Jason disapproved of Dr. Owens' autopsy methodology and conclusions. Dr. Jason testified that "[White's death] couldn't have happened that way." Likewise, Dr. Hudson agreed thatasphyxiation as a cause of death was "enormously unlikely."
Defendant did not contend at trial that Dr. Owens was unqualified to testify as an expert as to the cause of White's death. Defendant now contends that there was insufficient evidence to show that Defendant caused White's death. Defendant argues that the autopsy was incomplete and was performed by a pathologist who was not board-certified. Defendant further argues that Dr. Owens' testimony that White was "most likely" suffocated with a plastic bag was "too unreliable" to support a finding that Defendant caused White's death.
However, in ruling on a motion to dismiss, the trial court is to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, recognizing that inconsistencies and issues of credibility are better left for the jury's consideration and determination. Garcia, 358 N.C. at 412, 597 S.E.2d at 746. Defendant argues that "this rule does not apply when the only evidence justifying sending the case to the jury is inherently incredible and in conflict with physical conditions established by the [S]tate's own evidence." Defend...
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