State v. Bacon
| Decision Date | 05 April 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 364A87,364A87 |
| Citation | 390 S.E.2d 327,326 N.C. 404 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Robert BACON, Jr. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by David Roy Blackwell, Sp. Deputy Atty., Gen., Raleigh, for State.
Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by David W. Dorey, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and common law conspiracy to commit murder. The jury recommended the death sentence and the trial court sentenced accordingly. The trial court further imposed a sentence of three years imprisonment for the conspiracy. Having performed a careful and thorough review of the record, we conclude that as to the guilt phase defendant received a fair trial free of prejudicial error. However, with respect to his sentencing hearing, defendant contends that the trial court failed to submit a statutory mitigating factor. We agree and conclude that this constituted prejudicial error in the penalty phase of The state's evidence tended to show the following:
defendant's trial. Thus, we remand for a new capital sentencing hearing. We find no error on the conspiracy charge.
On 1 February 1987, the body of Glennie Leroy Clark, a United States Marine Corps staff sergeant, was discovered at approximately 11:00 p.m. in a gray Pontiac Sunbird parked in the lot of Cinema Six Theater in Jacksonville, North Carolina. A taxi driver had noticed the vehicle with the passenger door open and notified the police. Officer J.J. Phillips, the first officer to arrive at the scene, noticed a white male lying on his left side between the bucket seats and a white female sitting in the driver's seat with her head resting on the steering wheel. As another police officer reached into the automobile to check the occupants, the female regained consciousness and started screaming, It was later determined that the occupants were Glennie Clark and his estranged wife, Bonnie Sue Clark. Clark had apparently died of numerous stab wounds. An autopsy was performed which revealed that the victim had been stabbed sixteen times. The three most serious wounds consisted of a one inch deep wound in the chest and two in the abdominal cavity, each approximately one and one-half inches in depth. The chest wound was fatal.
David Black, also a member of the United States Marine Corps, had taken his fiancee to dinner and the couple was planning to go to a movie. Arriving at the theater at 8:30 p.m., Mr. Black noticed a yellow Camaro or Firebird driven by a black male pull into the parking lot followed by a small gray car driven by a white female. He later identified the two drivers as the defendant, Robert Bacon, and Bonnie Sue Clark. Defendant got into the gray car with Bonnie Sue and they drove away. After the movie, Mr. Black noticed several police cars surrounding the gray car which had been returned to the parking lot. While speaking with the investigating police officers, he further noticed that the windshield of the gray car had a fresh crack in it which had not been present earlier in the evening.
Deputy Chief of Police Delma G. Collins and several officers proceeded to 121 Shadowbrook Road where defendant currently lived with Bonnie Sue Clark. Upon arrival, they noticed a yellow Pontiac Firebird parked in the garage. Defendant answered the door. He was wearing a shower cap and a bathrobe and appeared to have just showered. Chief Collins identified himself and defendant invited the officers into his home. Defendant led the officers into his bedroom when asked if they could speak privately. Defendant also agreed to allow the officers to look around the room. Commander Buchanan found a pair of dark trousers with a dark stain on them. Chief Collins told defendant, Defendant replied that the victim had become belligerent while he and Bonnie Sue were discussing a problem and that the victim called him a "nigger" and pulled a knife on him. Defendant stated that he acted in self-defense and grabbed the knife and stabbed the victim sixteen times. Defendant then directed the officers to the remainder of the clothing he had been wearing when the incident occurred. At this point, defendant was placed under arrest.
Defendant was advised of his Miranda rights but later signed a waiver and gave a statement to the police including the following information: Earlier in the evening of 1 February 1987 he intended to demonstrate a Kirby vacuum cleaner to a family but they were not at home; he drove to the Cinema Six Theater parking lot to meet Bonnie Sue and got into her car; they drove to pick up the victim to discuss some problems; defendant got into the back seat and allowed the victim to get into the front seat with Bonnie Sue; as the victim got into the car he looked at defendant and asked, "What's this shit?"; the three people entered into a heated discussion concerning Bonnie Sue's relationship with defendant Later defendant revised his statement to include the following: The knife which was used to kill Glennie Clark actually came from a box in the garage of 121 Shadowbrook Road; and, defendant and Bonnie Sue Clark had planned to kill the victim on 31 January 1987 but defendant had "chickened out." Defendant then directed the police to the area where he claimed to have thrown out the knife, and it was located in that general area.
the victim pulled a knife with a camouflaged handle and began waving it around in his wife's direction; defendant told the victim to put it away or he [defendant] would kill him; defendant took the knife away from the victim and began stabbing him; as they drove through the Piney Green Road section of town, defendant threw the knife away; Bonnie Sue kept driving and asked if her husband was dead; defendant checked the victim's pulse and found none; upon returning to the theater parking lot, defendant pushed Bonnie Sue's head into the windshield and drove himself home in the yellow Firebird.
Dale Evans, who worked and resided with defendant and Bonnie Sue Clark, testified that defendant had told him that he would receive $250,000 in February. On 31 January, he stated that defendant told him that Bonnie Sue was going out with her husband. Earlier that day, Mr. Evans recalled that defendant and Bonnie Sue stayed in the bedroom a long time and that Bonnie Sue called and asked someone if they still wanted to go out that night. Mr. Evans assumed that the person on the other end of the telephone said yes because Bonnie Sue then suggested they see a movie. That evening defendant left the house around 7:00 p.m. to make a sales presentation and Bonnie Sue Clark left at approximately 7:30 p.m. Defendant drove the yellow Firebird and Bonnie Sue was driving a gray Buick Skylark. Mr. Evans testified that it was his belief that a Saturday night sales presentation was highly unusual. After defendant and Bonnie Sue were arrested for the murder of Glennie Clark, Mr. Evans went through some papers and found an insurance policy in the amount of $50,000 on the life of Glennie Clark with Bonnie Sue Clark as the named beneficiary. Another policy in the amount of $80,000 was later discovered which also listed Bonnie Sue Clark as the beneficiary.
The state produced extensive corroborating evidence including a forensic serologist who found the blood on defendant's clothing to be that of the victim; a fingerprint and footprint expert who determined that it was defendant's bloody shoe print on the seat of the car; a fiber analyst who determined that the fibers removed from the knife came from the victim's shirt; and, a pathologist who testified that the cause of death was a stab wound which penetrated the heart and that the time of death was approximately 9:30 p.m.
Defendant did not testify and presented no additional evidence. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and felonious conspiracy to commit murder.
At the sentencing hearing, the state introduced no further evidence. The defendant testified in his own behalf that: he met Bonnie Sue Clark in 1986 when they were both working for the Kirby Company; they shared a house and finally a bedroom but he denied any romantic involvement; he knew of her difficulties with her husband (particularly his drinking and abuse of Bonnie Sue and the children); Bonnie Sue at some point had told him that she wished her husband was dead and did he know of anyone who would kill him; he knew the victim possessed insurance but denied killing him for the proceeds of the policies; he finally agreed to kill the victim; the two planned the murder for the night of 31 January 1987 but he found he could not do it; he told Bonnie Sue that the presence of police and other persons prevented it; he and Bonnie Sue did not discuss the murder plan on Sunday (the day of the actual murder); they met with the victim on that night merely to discuss the problem of his numerous telephone calls to Bonnie Sue; the attack occurred as previously described except that the victim never had the knife; they returned to the parking lot; defendant faked a robbery and he returned home. Defendant further testified The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances and recommended the death sentence. The trial court duly sentenced defendant to death on 4 June 1987.
that he killed the victim out of anger--not for money. He denied being in love with Bonnie Sue and stated that he disliked her two children. Nineteen additional witnesses testified in defendant's behalf including his parents and sister. They stated that he was well-behaved, hard working and a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Martini
... ... At best, the evidence shows that defendant had merely informed Afdahl that he planned to confess ... We further find that even if the court erred in failing to instruct the jury on mitigating factor c(5)(g), the error was harmless. In State v. Bacon, 326 N.C. 404, 390 S.E.2d 327, 335 (1990), the court held that in order to show that a trial court's omission of a statutory mitigating circumstance was harmful, defendant must establish three things: ... (1) that the particular factor was one which the jury could have reasonably deemed to have ... ...
-
State v. DeCastro
...v. Jones, 336 N.C. 229, 260, 443 S.E.2d 48, 64, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1003, 115 S.Ct. 518, 130 L.Ed.2d 423 (1994); State v. Bacon, 326 N.C. 404, 390 S.E.2d 327 (1990). As defendant has cited no new argument persuading this Court to overrule its established precedent, this assignment of err......
-
State v. Hill, 233A91
...about capital punishment. The defendant concedes that this Court has rejected this argument many times. E.g. State v. Bacon, 326 N.C. 404, 414, 390 S.E.2d 327, 333 (1990); State v. Spangler, 314 N.C. 374, 380, 333 S.E.2d 722, 727 (1985). We continue to adhere to our prior holdings on this T......
-
State v. Jones, 395A91
... ... Allen, 323 N.C. 208, 372 S.E.2d 855 (1988), vacated on other grounds, 494 U.S. 1021, 110 S.Ct. 1463, 108 L.Ed.2d 601 (1990), judgment reinstated, 331 N.C. 746, 417 S.E.2d 227 (1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 967, 113 S.Ct. 1402, 122 L.Ed.2d 775 (1993); State v. Bacon, 326 N.C. 404, 390 S.E.2d 327 (1990). We find no error ... [336 N.C. 261] The defendant asserts the trial court improperly instructed the jury that if they answered Issue Four "yes," it would be their duty to recommend the death sentence. This issue was heard and decided ... ...