State v. Barnes

• Citation: 430 S.E.2d 914,334 N.C. 67
• Decision Date: 02 July 1993
• Docket Number: No. 287A92,287A92
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina, v. William Thomas BARNES.

Page 914

430 S.E.2d 914

334 N.C. 67

STATE of North Carolina, v. William Thomas BARNES.

No. 287A92.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

July 2, 1993.

Michael F. Easley, Atty. Gen. by David F. Hoke, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Staples Hughes, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

MEYER, Justice.

On 13 November 1990, defendant, William Thomas Barnes, was indicted for the first-degree murder of Jessie William Lemons. Defendant was tried noncapitally in the Superior Court, Rockingham County, in February 1992 and was found guilty. The trial court thereafter imposed the mandatory life sentence.

The evidence presented by the State at trial tended to show the following. On the night of 31 October 1990 at 9:08 p.m., Lieutenant Jerry Pulliam of the Eden Police Department received a call to go to the Central Body Shop on Stadium Drive in Eden, North Carolina. When he arrived at 9:12 p.m., he observed off-duty Officer Ronald Brown kneeling on the ground beside the victim, Jessie William Lemons, who had been shot. Lieutenant Pulliam then saw Ms. Marla Rodgers, ¹ who had placed the call for help, standing in front of the doorway of the body shop, screaming and yelling hysterically.

When Lieutenant Pulliam arrived, the victim could not speak. There was blood on his clothing, and Lieutenant Pulliam concluded from his examination that the victim had multiple gunshot wounds that appeared to have been made by a small-caliber weapon. In the victim's pants pocket, Lieutenant Pulliam found a wallet containing $1,325.59. Lieutenant Pulliam opined that the victim was no longer alive at the time the ambulance arrived.

Ms. Marla Rodgers knew the victim, with whom she had had an ongoing relationship for over ten years. Ms. Rodgers also knew defendant, William Thomas Barnes. She had a relationship with him beginning in the spring of 1990, and she cohabited with him for a short period of time later that summer when she and the victim "had some problems." During the time that Ms. Rodgers was living with defendant in early August of 1990, the victim came to visit her at defendant's mother's convenience store, where she and defendant were working. The victim asked Ms. Rodgers if she would come outside and talk to him, and she did so. While the two of them were outside talking, defendant came outside and asked Ms. Rodgers if everything was okay, and she told him everything was fine.

A few days later, Ms. Rodgers stopped living with defendant in Greensboro and moved back in with the victim in Eden. Ms. Rodgers stayed in Eden with the victim only about a week because defendant began calling and arguing with the victim. There were many calls and arguments between defendant and the victim. After defendant would call and argue with the victim, the victim would argue with Ms. Rodgers. Ms. Rodgers then left the victim and moved back in with defendant in Greensboro.

Around 1 September 1990, Ms. Rodgers took a trip to Florida with the victim. She had learned that she was pregnant with his child, and they took the trip to "sort things out." When they returned from Florida, Ms. Rodgers stayed with the victim at his home in Eden. However, they had an argument about her pregnancy the day after they got back, so Ms. Rodgers left the victim's house again and moved back to Greensboro to stay with defendant.

Ms. Rodgers told defendant that she had decided to abort her pregnancy. Defendant was "very much against" the abortion, believing the child to be his own. Defendant told Ms. Rodgers that if she had the abortion, "[the victim] would have the blood of his [defendant's] child on his hands." In mid-September, Ms. Rodgers aborted the pregnancy at a clinic in Greensboro. She stayed with the victim at his home in Eden after the abortion. After four or five days, Ms. Rodgers went back to defendant's home in Greensboro and stayed there for about a week. Defendant became angry whenever the victim's name was mentioned and said that when the victim had come to the store on that prior occasion, "he should have went ahead and shot him then." Ms. Rodgers then returned to the victim's house.

On 22 October 1990, while Ms. Rodgers was staying at the victim's house, defendant called her several times. Defendant told Ms. Rodgers that he was at the Draper Club Market and that if she would not meet him, he was going to the shop to kill the victim. Ms. Rodgers met defendant at a shopping center. Defendant got in Ms. Rodgers' car with a "pistol-type gun" "wrapped in a cloth with his bag." Defendant said, "Take me to the damn shop.... I want to kill that old son-of-a-bitch." Defendant told her that he knew where the victim lived and that he knew which bedroom the victim and Ms. Rodgers slept in. Ms. Rodgers convinced defendant to drive around and talk for awhile, and then they drove to defendant's home in Greensboro. Ms. Rodgers stayed there with defendant for about a week.

Ms. Rodgers decided to leave defendant on 29 October 1990. When she told him she was leaving, he hit her and choked her in an attempt to prevent her from going. Defendant told Ms. Rodgers that he was going to kill the victim, and he said more than once that she would be "going to a funeral." Defendant jerked some wires out of Ms. Rodgers' car to prevent her from leaving, so Ms. Rodgers ran to a service station and called the victim, who came and picked her up.

On the evening of 31 October 1990, Ms. Rodgers and the victim went to K-Mart to buy some candy and other items for his son's birthday. They left the K-Mart as it was closing at 9:00 p.m. and went to the Central Body Shop, which was owned by the victim. When they were ready to leave, the victim went outside to start the car. Ms. Rodgers remained inside the shop. She heard three "popping sounds" from outside, ran out, and saw the victim lying on the ground on his back. The victim said, "That son-of-a-bitch shot me." Ms. Rodgers called 911 and the victim's daughter.

Ms. Rodgers knew that defendant kept guns in his house. She testified that "he had a small gun that he carried in his pouch, and there were some guns upstairs, like shotgun, rifle-type guns, and then there were other guns, like paint guns." Defendant used the paint guns to play a game called "paintball," about which he had authored a book. The paintball game involves players divided into two teams, each with a base and a flag; the object of the game is to capture the other team's flag and to eliminate opposing players by shooting them with paintballs. Ms. Rodgers once played this game with defendant in some woods in Mebane, North Carolina.

William F. Nicely testified that he worked at Ed's Gun Shop in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Mr. Nicely identified a federal form used when buying a weapon. The form reflected the sale of a Browning .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, serial number 01244PN146, by Ed's Gun Shop to a Charles Howard Lockmuller Jr. on 19 February 1989. Charles Howard Lockmuller testified that he purchased the rifle from Mr. Nicely and that he sold the rifle to defendant in July or August of 1990. The serial number of the rifle, which was listed on the federal form, matched the serial number on a Browning rifle box found in defendant's home.

Dr. Anthony Macri, pathologist at Morehead Hospital in Eden, testified as an expert in forensic pathology. He performed an autopsy on the victim on 1 November 1990. The victim was sixty-five years of age. There were three gunshot wounds. Two bullets had passed through the body. A third bullet had entered and was still lodged in the body. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest and massive injury to the heart. Dr. Macri recovered a bullet lodged in the wall of the abdomen, and another bullet was recovered from the victim's clothing by a nurse in the emergency room. A detective with the Eden Police Department recovered the third bullet when it fell out of the coat worn by the victim on the night of the shooting.

Thomas Trochum, Special Agent with the State Bureau of Investigation and forensic firearms examiner, identified the gold-coated Remington brand, .22-caliber, long rifle-fired bullets that had been retrieved from the victim and submitted to the laboratory on 2 November 1990. In his examination of the bullets, Agent Trochum found that "all were of six lands and grooves; their twist was to the right." Agent Trochum testified that he measured the bullets and that they were all consistent. The land impression was approximately forty thousandths of an inch wide; the groove impression was approximately seventy thousandths of an inch wide. "What that meant is that they could have all been fired from the same firearm." Agent Trochum opined that the bullets could have been fired from the Browning rifle purchased by defendant from Mr. Lockmuller.

A witness testified that on the morning of 30 October 1990, as she was driving down Stadium Drive in Eden below the Central Body Shop, she saw a person walking at a place "you rarely see anyone walking." The individual was wearing blue jeans and a plaid "outdoor-type" shirt. Later, when the witness saw a picture of defendant in the Eden Daily News, she recognized the picture "immediately as the man [she] had seen."

Two witnesses, Timmy Sanders and Billy Richardson testified that on the afternoon of 1 November 1990, they were hunting on Fieldcrest Farm, which is located behind the Central Body Shop. Mr. Sanders found a blue backpack about ten yards from his deer stand. Mr. Sanders thought that the backpack belonged to another hunter and did not open it. Mr. Sanders testified that the blue backpack identified in court by Ms. Rodgers as belonging to defendant looked like the one he had seen in the woods. Mr. Richardson testified that he saw a man coming through the woods wearing "blue jeans and a checked shirt, or either a flannel jacket." The man had a knife on his side, a water bottle,...