State v. Blurton
| Decision Date | 07 August 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 3236.,3236. |
| Citation | 342 S.C. 500,537 S.E.2d 291 |
| Parties | The STATE of South Carolina, Respondent, v. Gregory R. BLURTON, Appellant. |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
Tara Dawn Shurling, of Columbia, for appellant.
Attorney General Charles M. Condon, Chief Deputy Attorney General John W. McIntosh and Senior Assistant Attorney General Harold M. Coombs, Jr., all of Columbia; and Solicitor Walter M. Bailey, Jr., of Summerville, for respondent.
A jury convicted Gregory R. Blurton of two counts of armed robbery, kidnapping, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and failure to stop for a blue light. The trial court sentenced Blurton to three life sentences for the kidnapping and armed robbery convictions, ten years for grand larceny, and three years for failing to stop for a blue light, with all sentences running concurrently. Blurton appeals. We reverse and remand for a new trial.
On April 6, 1997, Blurton entered the Orangeburg Wal-Mart between 11:30 p.m. and 12:00 midnight. After asking for Roger, an assistant manager who was not working that night, Blurton told assistant manager Brandon Beckman he needed access to the electrical room to do some work.1 Beckman tried to open the room but did not have a key to the lock.
As Blurton and Beckman walked away, Blurton pulled out a gun and demanded that Beckman take him to the cash office and give him the money inside. Brenda Arant, the cash office clerk, was still inside the office. Blurton ordered Beckman to get on the floor and demanded Arant fill a shopping bag with money. Blurton screamed his orders and threatened to shoot Beckman and Arant if they did not cooperate. Blurton told Beckman he needed Beckman to drive him down the road. After Beckman responded that he did not have a car at the store, Blurton demanded Arant's keys. When Arant informed Blurton her car keys were in her locker, Blurton bit off the end of the phone cord, told Arant not to call anybody for at least five minutes, and pushed Beckman out of the office. Although there was in excess of $200,000 in the cash office, Blurton left with only $8,500.
After leaving the cash office, Blurton put the gun in his pocket and forced Beckman to walk outside the store with him. Once outside, Blurton chose the car of a female customer who had just arrived in the parking lot. As the men approached the woman, Blurton pulled the gun out again. The woman threw down her purse, screamed, and started to run away. While pointing the gun at her, Blurton demanded her keys. The woman threw them at him, whereupon Blurton climbed into her car and drove away. A short time after leaving the parking lot, Blurton ran a red light, attracting the attention of a police officer. When the officer attempted to stop Blurton, Blurton led the police on a high speed chase which ended after he wrecked the customer's car.
At trial, Blurton did not deny committing the acts of which he was accused, but argued a lack of criminal intent. During his testimony, he explained that James Mayfield, another assistant manager of the Orangeburg Wal-Mart, was a former Navy SEAL who also worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He further explained that Mayfield recruited him to assist the CIA in its effort to infiltrate a drug cartel. In exchange for his assistance, Blurton was promised a new identity and a presidential pardon for several bank robberies he committed in the 1970s. Blurton claimed Mayfield gave him surveillance and firearms training and loaned him hand to hand combat videos developed by a Navy SEAL instructor. Additionally, Blurton testified he had completed several assignments in relation to the CIA's infiltration plan, codenamed "Operation Double White."
The "staged" robbery of the Wal-Mart was Phase Three of the operation, an attempt to convince the drug cartel that Blurton was a wanted and dangerous man, thereby facilitating his infiltration of the group. He explained the robbery was fake and, according to Mayfield, both Beckman and Roger were aware of the plan. Mayfield furnished the gun for Blurton to use during the staged crimes. While in the cash office, Blurton claims he decided to have Arant fill the bag with one dollar bills, rather than with the sizeable completed deposits, as Mayfield had instructed, because he did not want to be responsible for a large sum of money. Blurton was supposed to leave the money at a specific drop location at the back of a hotel, where Mayfield would retrieve it and promptly return it to Wal-Mart on behalf of the CIA. According to Blurton, he had to pretend the robbery was real to put on a "show" for the security cameras and members of the local sheriffs department who, according to Mayfield, were involved with the drug cartel.
Blurton stated that when he saw the customer's car in the parking lot, he assumed it was his "ride." He thought the customer was cooperating with the CIA and that her show of fear and panic was an act. He testified that he evaded police officers because he was waiting for the CIA to intercede on his behalf, so he would not get caught.
Although Blurton consistently maintained that he was working for the CIA when he committed the acts involved in each of the charged offenses, his trial counsel simply attempted to prove Blurton genuinely believed he was a CIA operative at the time of the alleged crimes and thus lacked criminal intent.
Blurton's trial counsel attempted to present evidence which would corroborate his explanation of events and support his defense of lack of criminal intent. The evidence included (1) taped telephone conversations between Blurton and Mayfield; (2) testimony that the investigating officer thought Blurton actually believed he was part of a CIA operation; (3) testimony that others heard and believed Mayfield's claim that he was a former Navy SEAL; and (4) two newspaper articles which showed Mayfield convinced the local newspaper he was a Navy SEAL. The trial court excluded this evidence. Blurton argues this was error.
Decisions regarding the admissibility of evidence are within the trial court's sound discretion and will not be reversed on appeal absent a prejudicial abuse of that discretion. State v. Smith, 337 S.C. 27, 522 S.E.2d 598 (1999) (citing State v. Nance, 320 S.C. 501, 466 S.E.2d 349 (1996)); State v. Fulton, 333 S.C. 359, 509 S.E.2d 819 (Ct.App.1998).
Blurton's counsel sought to admit taped telephone conversations between Blurton and Mayfield which were made without Mayfield's knowledge. Blurton made the tapes after the police investigator concluded Mayfield was also a suspect based on interviews with Blurton. During the conversations, Mayfield repeatedly affirmed or failed to deny Blurton's statements that Mayfield had involved him in the CIA operation and that the robbery was staged. The trial court excluded the tape recordings as inadmissible hearsay, but allowed the defense to proffer the tapes and transcripts prepared from them into evidence.2 We agree that this evidence should have been admitted.
Hearsay is generally inadmissible. Rule 802, SCRE. "Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered in court to prove the truth of the matter asserted." Jackson v. Speed, 326 S.C. 289, 304, 486 S.E.2d 750, 758 (1997); see also Rule 801(c), SCRE (). A statement that is not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted should not be excluded as hearsay. See State v. Blackburn, 271 S.C. 324, 247 S.E.2d 334 (1978) (); Hawkins v. Pathology Assocs. of Greenville, P.A., 330 S.C. 92, 498 S.E.2d 395 (Ct.App.1998) ().
In this case, the tapes were not offered to prove the veracity of any statements made during the conversations between Blurton and Mayfield. Rather, they were offered to show that Blurton had been led to believe the robbery was staged and that his actions were sanctioned by the CIA. Because these conversations would have added credence to Blurton's defense that he lacked criminal intent and were not hearsay, the trial court erred in excluding them. See State v. Harris, 311 S.C. 162, 167, 427 S.E.2d 909, 912 (Ct.App.1993) ().
In a preliminary hearing, Detective Jack Coleman, the investigator in this case, said he was convinced Blurton believed he was involved in a CIA operation when he robbed the Wal-mart. The court excluded the testimony, determining it was the province of the jury to determine whether Blurton believed he was working for the CIA when he committed the charged crimes.3 We find no abuse of discretion.
Richmond v. Tecklenberg, 302 S.C. 331, 334, 396 S.E.2d 111, 113 (Ct.App.1990) (citing State v. Moorer, 241 S.C. 487, 129 S.E.2d 330 (1963), overruled on other grounds by State v. Torrence, 305 S.C. 45, 406 S.E.2d 315 (1991)); see also State v. Koon, 278 S.C. 528, 298 S.E.2d 769 (1982), overruling on other grounds recognized by State v. Matthews, 291 S.C. 339, 353 S.E.2d 444 (1986) (...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
VULCAN MATERIALS v. GREENVILLE CTY. BD.
... ... While the mining plan was being developed, Vulcan simultaneously pursued the various permits and studies required by state and federal regulators to mine the site. These efforts produced the following results: (1) an archeological survey of the site, completed in June of ... ...
-
State v. Blurton
...errors, but held the jury charge that "orders of another" is no defense to a crime was proper in this case. State v. Blurton, 342 S.C. 500, 537 S.E.2d 291 (Ct.App.2000). We denied the state's petition for certiorari to review the Court of Appeals' reversal of evidentiary rulings. We granted......