State v. Arnold

• Decision Date: 05 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. 894SC344,894SC344
• Citation: 98 N.C.App. 518,392 S.E.2d 140
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Donna Jones ARNOLD.

Page 140

392 S.E.2d 140

98 N.C.App. 518

STATE of North Carolina v. Donna Jones ARNOLD.

No. 894SC344.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

June 5, 1990.

Gerald L. Bass, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

GREENE, Judge.

The defendant, Donna Jones Arnold, appeals her convictions of second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder of her husband Robert Daniel Arnold. The defendant's indictment for murder reads in pertinent part that she "unlawfully, willfully and feloniously and of malice aforethought did kill and murder Robert Daniel Arnold." Her indictment for conspiracy reads in pertinent part that she "unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did combine and conspire with Carl Edward Stuffel to commit the felony of First Degree Murder, G.S. 14-17, against Robert Daniel Arnold." On the murder charge the State prosecuted the defendant on a theory of accessory before the fact of murder.

The principal perpetrator of the murder, Carl Stuffel, pled guilty to second degree murder. Stuffel testified that he was a drug addict and habitual criminal. He began taking drugs when he was ten years old. He has engaged in numerous larcenies and has been convicted of conspiracy to break and enter and felonious possession of a handgun. The deceased, Robert Daniel Arnold (Dan), first met Stuffel on Valentines Day 1984 at the Valley Style Shop in Raleigh where Stuffel worked as a barber. Stuffel had learned his trade in prison from which he recently had been released. Stuffel cut Dan's hair and later joined him for dinner. Upon Dan's invitation, Stuffel joined him for that night at a cheap motel where they engaged in a homosexual relationship. In the following weeks, Dan stopped by the shop from time to time to talk to Stuffel, but Stuffel testified that he and Dan did not engage in further homosexual acts. At this time, Stuffel was twenty-two years old and Dan was in his early thirties.

Dan later brought his wife (the defendant) and their two children from their home in Clinton, North Carolina to meet Stuffel in Raleigh. In April 1984, Dan invited Stuffel to Easter Services at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Clinton where Dan acted as Minister of Music. Shortly thereafter, at the end of April, Stuffel moved into the Arnold's house which was close to the church. The defendant testified that she opposed this move because Stuffel was a criminal and a drug addict, and she did not want him in the house with her two little girls. However, at Dan's insistence, she acquiesced in his purported desire to help Stuffel overcome drugs.

A few days before Stuffel joined them, Dan also expressed his desire that the defendant allow herself to be impregnated by Stuffel. Although her initial refusal brought forth Dan's anger and tears, he later agreed to drop the idea. Stuffel testified that the defendant agreed to have a child by him, but that Dan later changed his mind.

On the day that Stuffel moved in with the Arnolds, the defendant confronted Dan with the canceled check with which Dan had paid for the motel room earlier shared with Stuffel. At that time Dan lied to his wife about it, but the next day he gave her a letter in which he not only divulged the details of his relationship with Stuffel, but he also informed her that he had been a homosexual since childhood. He finally admitted to having male lovers wherever they had lived, including Clinton. The defendant testified that she was stunned by these revelations, but she eventually decided that her relationship with Dan was worth working on.

The next day Stuffel began a sexual relationship with the defendant. Stuffel testified that it was voluntary and that they engaged in sexual intercourse about every other day for the next few weeks. The defendant testified that he coerced her to have sexual intercourse three times by threatening to tell the community about Dan's bisexuality and by insinuating threats against her children. The defendant's statements to the police about the nature of her relationship with Stuffel lend themselves to varying interpretations.

The Arnold household deteriorated such that by May 22, 1984 Dan threw Stuffel out, resulting in an angry confrontation. Stuffel went to Raleigh, but by early June he returned to the Arnolds seeking assistance since he was ill from drug abuse. They took him into their house again briefly, and then at his request committed him to Dorothea Dix Hospital for a month to detoxify. The Arnolds visited Stuffel at Dix together several times a week. Stuffel's therapist at Dix observed that both the Arnolds were frequently engaged with Stuffel in physical contact which he described as a "sexual feeling type of thing." Since their behavior was so inappropriate as to be distracting to other patients, Stuffel's therapist asked them to cease their displays of affection.

The Arnolds planned to entertain Stuffel at their home on a weekend pass from Dix, but on the preceding Thursday Dan called Stuffel's therapist to cancel the plans. Dan told the therapist that the defendant had told him of the sexual relationship between her and Stuffel. Although Dan had been "hysterical, shouting, [and] crying" when calling that night, he called back the next day to say he had changed his mind. Stuffel's therapist, having learned that Stuffel had homicidal ideations about Dan, had encouraged Dan to terminate the Arnolds' relationship with Stuffel. Dan had replied that in spite of the fact that his church told him he would lose his position if he did not give up Stuffel, he did not care. He would work elsewhere rather than terminate the relationship. However, Dan soon changed his mind again, and he brought Stuffel's belongings and car to Dix, telling Stuffel never to return to Clinton. Stuffel was discharged from Dix around July 12, 1984.

Stuffel testified that before his discharge from Dix, he had, at the defendant's request, asked his friend Jerald Junius Tart (Tart) to murder Dan on July 4, 1984. Although Tart purportedly agreed to do so, he did not carry it through because a police officer had noticed him loitering near the Arnold home.

After his discharge Stuffel resided with Tart. Tart and Stuffel had been friends since their teen years. Together they had engaged in various criminal acts. Stuffel testified that a few days after moving in with Tart, they broke into a scuba diving shop, stealing an assortment of equipment including knives and spear guns. According to Stuffel they intended to murder Dan with spear guns, but after target practice in Tart's yard they deemed the weapons unsuited to the task. Tart swore that he did not participate in Stuffel's burglary of the scuba shop, and that he never had any spear guns at his house. However, Tart's former girl friend testified that Tart and Stuffel visited the scuba shop the day before the burglary, and she saw a spear gun in Tart's closet.

Stuffel testified that he, Tart and the defendant plotted to kill Dan both before and after Stuffel's release from Dorothea Dix Hospital. By at least July 17, 1984, Dan apparently also plotted to kill Stuffel. On that day he sent a letter to his friend Bill Poole stating that he would kill Stuffel if he thought he could get away with it. Dan asked his friend to contact various drug dealers on a list drawn up by Stuffel in anticipation of Stuffel's assistance to the police. Stuffel intended to aid in the prosecution of these drug dealers to gain a more favorable sentence in a pending firearms prosecution against him. Dan hoped the drug dealers would kill Stuffel. Dan concluded: "I want him [Stuffel] dead and I will not rest until he is." On July 18, while in his church, Dan asked his friend Daniel Staten (Staten) to kill Stuffel. Upon Staten's refusal, Dan informed him that he intended to contact the drug dealers on Stuffel's list so that they would kill Stuffel. Staten discouraged Dan from this pursuit telling Dan that he would more likely end up dead himself.

On the evening of July 18, 1984 Dan and the defendant participated in a service at Emmanuel Baptist Church, after which they returned to their home nearby. Michelle Honeycutt (Honeycutt) joined them to receive a piano lesson from the defendant. Honeycutt testified that during the lesson the defendant sought her contact lens materials to soothe her irritated eyes. Upon discovering that she had left her pocketbook, containing the desired materials, at the church, she informed Dan. According to Honeycutt:

Dan said he would go back to the church and get her pocketbook, and Donna, she offered first, she said she would go with him, and he said, "no, you say [sic] here and you and Michelle practice," and then she said, "well, I don't have to have it tonight, I have some stuff in the bathroom."

Dan then went to the church by himself anyway. About forty-five minutes later, after making some phone calls trying to locate Dan, the defendant and Honeycutt, with the defendant's children drove to the church. There they noticed on the ground what appeared to be the crumpled figure of a man. The defendant began screaming and wanted to get out of the car, but Honeycutt, who was driving, immediately put the car in reverse and pulled away not allowing the defendant to exit. They went to a nearby gas station, called the police and then returned to the scene. The police arrived and found Robert Daniel Arnold dead from numerous knife wounds including a slashed throat.

Stuffel testified that he and Tart killed Dan. He stated that he and the defendant were in love and that she asked him to kill Dan because she feared that a divorce would be too hard on the children. He agreed to kill Dan only because he loved the defendant.

Stuffel further testified that he and the defendant agreed that she would leave her pocketbook at her church on the evening of July 18 and then send Dan for it, giving Stuffel an opportunity to attack. On that evening Stuffel and Tart lay in wait in the woods near the church until Dan appeared. Tart first...