State v. Benner

• Decision Date: 11 March 2022
• Docket Number: 133PA21
• Citation: 380 N.C. 621,869 S.E.2d 199
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Matthew BENNER
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

380 N.C. 621

869 S.E.2d 199

STATE of North Carolina

v.Matthew BENNER

No. 133PA21

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Filed March 11, 2022

Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Joseph L. Hyde, Assistant Attorney General, for the State-appellee.

M. Gordon Widenhouse, Jr., for defendant-appellant.

ERVIN, Justice.

¶ 1 The issue before the Court in this case is whether the trial court completely and accurately instructed the jury concerning the extent to which defendant was entitled to exercise the right of self-defense at his trial for first-degree murder. In seeking relief before this Court, defendant contends that the trial court erred by (1) rejecting his request that the jury be instructed in accordance with N.C.P.I. – Crim. 308.10 and (2) failing to instruct the jury that defendant was "presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself" in light of the fact that defendant had been attacked in his own home. After careful consideration of defendant's challenges to the trial court's judgments in light of the applicable law, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.

I. Factual Background

A. Substantive Facts

¶ 2 In January 2017, Samantha Wofford lived in a single-wide mobile home in Davidson County with her mother and fiancé, Russell Gwyn. Defendant resided in an adjacent mobile home, which featured a small deck from which a flight of steps led from the front door to the yard. On the evening of 6 January 2017, when it was snowing, Ms. Wofford and Mr. Gwyn were walking their two dogs when Ms. Wofford noticed an unfamiliar car parked outside defendant's mobile home. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Ms. Wofford reentered her residence with one of the dogs while Mr. Gwyn remained outside with the other.

¶ 3 As Mr. Gwyn walked from the back yard around the side of his residence, he heard loud bickering coming from defendant's mobile home and decided that it was time for him to go back inside. As he walked toward the front steps of his residence, Mr. Gwyn heard a gunshot, at which point he turned and saw a man fall backward from the bottom of the steps leading to defendant's mobile home before hitting the ground. At that point, Mr. Gwyn reentered his own mobile home and told Ms. Wofford to "[c]all 911. Somebody's been shot." After opening the front door and seeing a man lying in the front yard while defendant, who was holding a firearm, looked on, Ms. Wofford returned to her residence and called for emergency assistance.

¶ 4 At the time that Deputy Sheriffs Benjamin Schlemmer and Matthew Higgins of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene, they observed a white male, who was later determined to be Damon Dry, lying on his back at the bottom of the flight of steps leading to defendant's mobile home. As they cautiously approached defendant's residence, Deputy Higgins struck the side of the structure with his flashlight and ordered any occupants to come outside. As he did so, Deputy Higgins heard loud noises emanating from the interior of the mobile home and noted that the steps leading into that structure were covered with blood and snow.

¶ 5 After Deputy Higgins had ordered the occupants of the mobile home to come outside approximately five times, defendant emerged from the front door with his hands in the air and walked down the steps. At that point, Deputy Higgins handcuffed defendant, walked defendant to his patrol vehicle, and secured defendant in the rear seat. As he did so, Deputy Higgins smelled the odor of alcohol on defendant's breath and observed that defendant had blood on his face, arms, and hands and had blood stains on the sweatpants that he was wearing.

¶ 6 Once defendant had been placed in Deputy Higgins’ patrol vehicle, Deputies Schlemmer and Higgins conducted a security sweep of defendant's residence. In the course of determining that defendant's mobile home was unoccupied, the deputies discovered the presence of blood on the front door frame and the screen door. After surveying defendant's residence, Deputy Schlemmer began a crime scene log and secured the premises with security tape, while Deputy Higgins checked on Mr. Dry, who was not breathing, had fixed eyes, and was surrounded with blood and wearing a t-shirt that appeared to be stippled with shotgun pellets. A subsequent autopsy confirmed that Mr. Dry had died from gunshot wounds to the chest.

¶ 7 As the deputies took turns sitting in Deputy Higgins’ patrol vehicle with defendant for the purpose of keeping warm, defendant began behaving in an erratic manner, becoming angry and kicking the patrol vehicle's window. In an effort to stop defendant from engaging in this sort of conduct, Deputy Schlemmer, with the assistance of Sergeant Christopher Stilwell, the supervisor of the patrol unit to which Deputies Schlemmer and Higgins belonged, opened the door of the compartment in which defendant was seated. As he did so, defendant said "You know I shot him. Take me to jail. Take these cuffs off me. Put them up front."

¶ 8 At a later time, investigating officers removed defendant from the patrol vehicle while Deputy Matthew Riddle of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office swabbed defendant's hands for the purpose of determining whether gunshot residue was present. Although defendant was calm and compliant when this process began, he soon became agitated and belligerent, stating that he did not "know why we're doing this" since "I shot the m----f----." After swabbing defendant's hands, Deputy Riddle completed the necessary information sheet and secured the swabbings in his vehicle while defendant continued to scream and yell, "I shot the m-----f-----."

¶ 9 Once they had obtained the issuance of a search warrant authorizing them to enter the residence, investigating officers examined the interior of defendant's mobile home more thoroughly and observed the presence of blood on the steps, the railing, the ground in front of the steps, the screen door, and a stack of newspapers located just inside the front door. In addition, the investigating officers located a silver .38 caliber revolver that contained two spent shells and four live rounds in the kitchen sink, a second revolver in the master bedroom, and a third handgun and six long guns in a gun safe that was situated in the closet of a workout room at the far end of the mobile home.

¶ 10 At trial, defendant testified that he and his friend, William Tuller, had met Mr. Dry several years earlier and that they had discovered that all three of them shared a mutual interest in firearms. As a result, defendant had visited in Mr. Dry's home on several occasions for the purpose of examining Mr. Dry's rifle collection and had shown Mr. Dry how to properly load and shoot these weapons. Eventually, however, defendant lost contact with Mr. Tuller and claimed that he had not been in the physical presence of either Mr. Tuller or Mr. Dry for approximately five years prior to 6 January 2017, although he admitted that he had spoken with Mr. Dry, who had called to inquire if defendant's employer was hiring additional workers, approximately a year and half prior to the date of the shooting.

¶ 11 Defendant testified that he had left work just before noon on 6 January 2017, had completed several errands, and had purchased a bottle of vodka before returning home. After spreading newspapers on the floor adjacent to his front door to prevent the introduction of snow into his residence and sweeping off his front deck, defendant entered the kitchen and poured himself a drink. At approximately 8:00 p.m., defendant answered a knock on his front door and discovered that Mr. Dry had arrived. Although defendant claimed to have been surprised by Mr. Dry's visit given the lengthy period of time that had elapsed since they had last seen each other, defendant invited Mr. Dry to come in for a drink. According to defendant, Mr. Dry claimed that he had recently lost his job and wanted to know whether defendant's employer had any openings. After defendant told Mr. Dry that his employer did not have any vacant positions at that time, the two men continued to converse and walked around defendant's mobile home, during which time defendant pointed out the workbench at which he built items for his home and reloaded ammunition for his firearms.

¶ 12 At approximately 9:30 p.m., after the two men had had a second drink, defendant "started dropping hints" that Mr. Dry should leave in light of the fact that defendant had not showered since getting off work. Although Mr. Dry repeated his earlier question about the possibility that he might find work with defendant's employer, defendant reiterated that there were no open positions at his place of work. Shortly before 10:00 p.m., defendant took Mr. Dry's cup, placed it in the kitchen sink, and told Mr. Dry that "[i]t's time to leave," at which point Mr. Dry "got kind of a wild eyed look on his face"; said "[m]an, I really need a job. I need a job. I need money"; and grabbed defendant's shirt before pushing defendant back against the sink. In response, defendant shoved Mr. Dry, opened the front door, and ordered Mr. Dry to leave. As Mr. Dry rushed at defendant and pushed defendant against the door jamb, he said, "I'm not leaving" and "I need money."

¶ 13 At some point during this altercation, defendant escaped to his bedroom, where he retrieved a revolver from his nightstand before returning to the living room, pointing the gun at Mr. Dry, and threatening to shoot Mr. Dry if he did not leave. After defendant made these comments, Mr. Dry stated that he was going to kill defendant and started moving toward him. As Mr. Dry was about to reach him, defendant fired two shots into Mr. Dry's chest, causing Mr. Dry to stand up and walk out the front door.

¶ 14 Upon making his way to the front door, defendant saw Mr. Dry, who appeared to be dead, lying on the ground outside. Although defendant went down the steps for the purpose of checking on Mr. Dry, he was unable to...