State v. Bishop
| Decision Date | 24 July 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 32A93,32A93 |
| Citation | 346 N.C. 365,488 S.E.2d 769 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina, v. Mamie Delois Jean BISHOP |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by John G. Barnwell, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.
Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Daniel R. Pollitt, Assistant Appellate Defender, Durham, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant Mamie Delois Jean Bishop was tried capitally on indictments charging her with first-degree murder and first-degree arson. The jury found defendant guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree arson. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of life imprisonment; and the trial court entered judgment accordingly. The trial court also imposed a consecutive sentence of forty years' imprisonment for second-degree arson. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that defendant's trial was free from prejudicial error.
The State's evidence tended to show the following. On 24 or 25 July 1988 defendant and her boyfriend, Arthur John Boergert, killed Glenda Sue Nelson ("victim") at the Buncombe County home of the victim's mother and stepfather, Ava and Vonno Payne.
The victim was an accountant who worked and lived in New Jersey. On the weekend of the killing, she was staying at the Paynes' house while they were out of town. The victim had been a close friend of defendant's since 1984, and defendant had handled real estate transactions and horse sales for the victim. Between 1986 and 1988 the victim transferred to defendant approximately $30,000 by check, money order, and wire transfer; and the victim apparently considered these transfers to be cash advances. In early 1988 the victim made statements indicating that she was concerned that defendant had been stealing money from the sale of her property and that the victim had not been paid for horses that defendant had sold for her. The victim made statements to Dee Dickerson and Joseph Nelson indicating that she was attempting to document the amount owed her by defendant and that she intended to confront defendant about the debt. On 7 March 1988 the victim asked defendant to sign a promissory note in the amount of $40,753, and defendant did so.
On Sunday, 24 July 1988, defendant told Boergert that the victim had been harassing her, that the victim wanted money for a $10,000 check, and that she wanted to get the victim "off her back." Defendant asked Boergert to help her "rough [the victim] up a little bit and that would be the end of it."
At some time after 11:00 p.m. on 24 July, defendant met the victim at the J & S Cafeteria. From that location they took the victim's car to the Paynes' house. Following defendant's instructions Boergert drove his truck to the J & S Cafeteria, left his truck in the parking lot, took defendant's car, and proceeded to the Paynes' house. Boergert entered the house and saw defendant and the victim fighting. Using a wooden baton given to him by defendant earlier in the evening, Boergert hit the victim on the back of the head. Defendant took the baton from Boergert and beat the victim until the baton broke.
Defendant tossed Boergert a folding, lock-blade knife and told him to open it. Boergert opened the knife and stabbed the victim twice. Defendant then grabbed the knife and stabbed the victim repeatedly, inflicting Defendant retrieved two oil lamps from a bedroom. She poured oil from one of the lamps onto the victim's body, smashed the other lamp on the floor, and rolled the victim's body into the resulting puddle of oil. She then started a fire which charred the victim's body and damaged the Paynes' house.
numerous stab wounds including several to the victim's neck. The medical examiner testified that stab wounds to the victim's neck were the cause of death.
Defendant and Boergert left the Paynes' house in defendant's car and drove to her trailer. They put their bloody clothes in a garbage bag which they later threw into a river. Defendant told Boergert that they had to concoct an alibi in order to avoid arrest. They decided to say that they took a ride in defendant's car after working late Sunday evening, returned to defendant's trailer, and then went to the J & S Cafeteria to retrieve Boergert's truck.
The following day defendant and Boergert talked with defendant's mother, and she agreed to confirm any story defendant and Boergert might tell. Defendant and Boergert were interviewed by law enforcement officers two or three days after the murder, and they gave statements consistent with their story. A week or two after the murder, defendant and Boergert refined the story and had it transcribed. The State's evidence suggested that defendant took the lead in developing and refining the "alibi story" and that she later encouraged Boergert to "stick" to the story.
A short time after the murder, defendant ended her relationship with Boergert and moved into a house owned by her former boyfriend, Howard Treadway. Defendant told Boergert that she was the beneficiary of a $100,000 life insurance policy on the victim's life and promised to give Boergert $25,000 from the proceeds.
Defendant was a life insurance agent, and the evidence showed that she sold the victim two life insurance policies several years before the killing. In 1987 the policies were amended with defendant's knowledge to make defendant the primary beneficiary and defendant's daughter the contingent beneficiary. A short time after the murder, defendant filed a claim against Home Beneficial Insurance Company seeking $300,000 on the life insurance policies.
In May 1989 Boergert made a statement to law enforcement officers which implicated defendant. He subsequently agreed to meet with defendant, to wear a "wire," and to record their conversation. During this meeting defendant assured Boergert that the police did not have any evidence against them and urged him to "stick" to their story. Defendant was arrested and charged with the victim's murder a short time later.
Defendant testified that Boergert killed the victim in a jealous rage. She stated that she and the victim were alone at the Paynes' house when Boergert entered the house and angrily made a statement suggesting that he believed that defendant and the victim were having a lesbian affair. Over defendant's protests Boergert killed the victim and set the house ablaze. Defendant stated that she owed the victim only $3,500 at the time of the murder. She explained that she loaned the victim $30,000 in 1986 and that the victim repaid that loan over the next few years. She stated that the reason she did not contact the police or reveal her presence at the murder scene was that Boergert threatened her and members of her family. Defendant's evidence suggested that an attorney advised her to file a claim against the insurance company that issued the victim's life insurance policies to find out whether she was a suspect in the victim's death.
Additional facts will be presented as necessary to address specific issues.
By her first assignment of error, defendant argues that statements made by the victim to three witnesses constituted inadmissible and irrelevant hearsay. She also argues that the trial court erred by admitting various writings related to the victim's finances.
Dee Dickerson testified that Commercial Credit Corporation made a $5,000 loan to the victim. She stated that she distributed the Joseph Nelson, the victim's brother, testified that the victim told him that "she was concerned that [defendant] was stealing the money ... from the real estate sale of her property." The victim also told Nelson that she was "planning to get an injunction against [defendant] to collect the money that she owed her." Nelson further testified that the victim stated that she had not been paid for horses that defendant had sold for her.
proceeds of this loan to the victim by giving the victim two checks. The checks were introduced into evidence and tended to show that the proceeds of the loan were ultimately transferred to defendant. One of the checks was made payable to defendant; the other was made payable to the victim. The victim endorsed the check made payable to her and gave it to defendant, and defendant cashed it. Eight weeks before she was killed, the victim called Dickerson and requested copies of both checks. Dickerson testified that the victim told her that she needed the copies "because [defendant] was saying [346 N.C. 379] that she did not owe her any money and she needed the documents to prove ... that [defendant] did, indeed, owe her this money plus other monies."
Ava Payne, the victim's mother, gave testimony during the State's rebuttal case with respect to a 7.3-acre parcel of land owned by the victim. The victim told Payne that defendant had not sold the land "because there was some restrictions on the land and she had to send ... [defendant] money to lift" the restrictions.
Defendant argues that these statements constituted irrelevant and inadmissible hearsay. " 'Hearsay' is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted." N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 801(c) (1992). "[W]henever an extrajudicial statement is offered for a purpose other than proving the truth of the matter asserted, it is not hearsay." State v. Maynard, 311 N.C. 1, 15-16, 316 S.E.2d 197, 205, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 963, 105 S.Ct. 363, 83 L.Ed.2d 299 (1984).
The trial court determined that the victim's statements fell within the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule, N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 803(3) (1992), which provides that "[a] statement of the declarant's then existing state of mind" is not excluded by the hearsay rule. "Evidence tending to show the victim's state of mind is admissible so long as the victim's state of mind is relevant to the case at hand." State v....
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...as to show that on another trial a different result will probably be reached and that the right will prevail. State v. Bishop, 346 N.C. 365, 403, 488 S.E.2d 769, 790 (1997). He contends that he met all of these criteria and the MAR court's denial constitutes an unreasonable determination of......
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...between the victim and defendant at the time of the killing and [was] relevant to show a motive for the killing." State v. Bishop, 346 N.C. 365, 380, 488 S.E.2d 769, 776 (1997). Statements from the victim indicating that she intended to end the marriage reflected her state of mind and were ......
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