State v. Caddell
| Citation | 215 S.E.2d 348,287 N.C. 266 |
| Decision Date | 06 June 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 40,40 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Willis Tony CADDELL. |
Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen., and Alan S. Hirsch, Associate Atty., Raleigh, for the State.
Wallace C. Harrelson, Public Defender, Greensboro, for defendant.
We find no merit in the defendant's several assignments of error relating to the admission of evidence.
The defendant contends that, upon his trial in Guilford County, on the charge of kidnapping therein, it was error, over his objection, to permit Miss Sutton to testify that, after the car stopped in the wooded area in Randolph County, her assailant beat and attempted to rape her and to permit attending physicians to testify as to the nature and extent of her injuries. The acts of her assailant, to which Miss Sutton so testified, were all parts of a continuous sequence, consuming in its entirety approximately 20 minutes and occurring within a total distance of not over three miles. It is perfectly apparent that the abuse of Miss Sutton for the gratification of her assailant's sexual desires was the purpose of his seizing her and forcibly carrying her from her home to the wooded area.
It is well established that, as a general rule, in a prosecution for a particular crime, the State cannot introduce, as part of its case in chief, evidence tending to show that the accused has committed another distinct, independent, or separate offense, but it is equally well established that this rule does not apply when the two crimes are parts of the same transaction and, by reason thereof, are so connected in time or circumstance that one cannot be fully shown without proving the other. State v. McClain,240 N.C. 171, 81 S.E.2d 364. The State, having introduced evidence of the bare bones of the offense charged in the indictment (kidnapping), is not precluded thereby from showing the entire transaction. Evidence of facts relevant to the crime charged is not inadmissible merely because it also shows the defendant to have been guilty of an additional crime. State v. Arnold,284 N.C. 41, 199 S.E.2d 423; Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, Brandis Revision, §§ 91, 92. The purpose for which her assailant carried Miss Sutton from her home is obviously relevant to the charge of kidnapping. The violence of the assaults upon her and the injuries inflicted thereby are also relevant thereto. The separation of the State into counties has a bearing upon the venue for the trial of criminal offenses, but not upon the relevancy of evidence.
For the same reason, there was no error in permitting the State to introduce in evidence photographs taken of the interior and exterior of the automobile in which Miss Sutton was abducted, the bloody chisel and belt found therein and articles of Miss Sutton's clothing found in and about the automobile in the wooded area to which she was taken and where the beating and the attempted rape occurred. The jury was properly instructed that the photographs were admitted for the purpose of illustrating the testimony of the witness by whom they were identified and not as substantive evidence.
There was no error in admitting into evidence fingerprints lifted from the interior of the vent glass on the driver's side of the automobile and the set of the defendant's fingerprints taken after his arrest. The contention of the defendant is that these prints were lifted and taken by agents of the State Bureau of Investigation, into whose expertise in the lifting and taking of fingerprints he was not permitted to inquire prior to their testimony concerning their search for, lifting and taking of the prints. Neither of these witnesses was asked to express any opinion concerning these matters. Each testified as to what he, himself, did. The defendant had full opportunity to cross-examine each of the witnesses, following his direct testimony, concerning the methods used in lifting and taking the prints. He did not do so.
The subsequent witness, who compared the fingerprints in question and identified a print taken from the car vent glass as that of the defendant, and who, himself, lifted the bloodied palm print from the chisel used in the beating of Miss Sutton and identified it as the palm print of the defendant, was stipulated by the defendant to be an expert in the field of fingerprint examination and identification. There was no objection by the defendant to the admission in evidence of this far more damaging print taken from the chisel. Obviously, some expertise is desirable in the lifting and taking of fingerprints, in order to assure usable prints, but a fingerprint, which was, in fact, properly lifted or taken, may be used by an expert for comparison, regardless of the previous training and experience of the person who lifted or took it. We do not perceive how an inexpertly lifted fingerprint could be transformed by that process into the fingerprint of a person who did not make it.
The defendant next contends that the court violated the hearsay rule in admitting into evidence certain out-of-court statements. In the first place, some of these statements are not hearsay at all. The cry of the badly battered girl to Mr. Whitt, 'Please help me,' his exclamation, 'Oh, my God!' upon his discovery of her and Mr. Sutton's words of comfort to his stricken daughter, when he came to her in the Whitt home, could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be deemed to have been offered to prove the truth of the matters so stated. Thus, they are not objectionable as hearsay. State v. Crump, 277 N.C. 573, 585, 178 S.E.2d 366; State v. Griffis, 25 N.C. 504; Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, Brandis Revision, § 141.
Testimony of Officer Marshall concerning statements made to him by Miss Sutton on the night of the offense were admitted for the purpose of corroborating her previous testimony and the jury was so instructed. It was competent for that purpose. Likewise, it was not error to refuse to strike Mr. Whitt's testimony that when he discovered Miss Sutton in the woods she said, 'Please help me; there is a man going to kill me,' her prior testimony having been that she asked Mr. Whitt for help and told him she was 'being raped.' In this connection, the discrepancy is of no consequence. Either version tended to show she was being feloniously assaulted by a mam and was in need of assistance. To be admissible for corroborative purposes it is not necessary that the prior statement of a witness be in the exact words of her testimony at the trial, it being sufficient that the two are consistent. See, Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, Brandis Revision, § 52.
Technically, it was error to permit the State, over objection, to show by cross-examination of the defendant that he was arrested eight times after he left North Carolina. State v. Williams, 279 N.C. 663, 185 S.E.2d 174. However, the court, almost immediately, reversed its ruling and directed the jury to dismiss that matter from their minds as if they had never heard it. It was also technical error to permit Officer Marshall, called as a witness for the State in rebuttal, to testify that the defendant, while Officer Marshall was bringing him from Michigan to North Carolina, voluntarily told the officer that he, the defendant, had been arrested in St. Louis in connection with larceny of an automobile, the defendant, on direct examination, having testified that the arrest in St. Louis was for a traffic violation. However, in view of the record of the defendant's former arrests, convictions, imprisonments and escapes introduced in evidence by the defendant, himself, through Dr. Rollins, it is inconceivable that this testimony by Officer Marshall contributed, to any appreciable degree, to the defendant's conviction in this case. It must be deemed harmless error. These technical errors do not afford any basis for the granting of a new trial.
Over objection, Officer Marshall testified, in rebuttal, concerning the manner in which the defendant talked and acted on their trip together from Michigan to North Carolina, as compared with his manner on the witness stand, testifying specifically that, en route from Michigan, he did not 'roll his eyes or roll his head.' Dr. Rollins, the defendant's witness, had previously testified that the defendant 'on occasion seeks to * * * present himself as mentally not responsible * * * in order to escape the consequences of his behavior.' A reasonable inference from the question of the prosecuting attorney to Officer Marshall is that, while the defendant was testifying, he rolled his eyes and head in such a manner as to cause the District Attorney to believe he was putting on a show in an effort to convey to the jury the impression that he was not sane. The trial judge was, of course, in a position to know whether the defendant's performance on the witness stand afforded basis for such belief. If so, the testimony of Officer Marshall in this connection was relevant and competent. If not, it would not be relevant but would seem, beyond question, to be harmless. We note that Officer Marshall did not express any opinion concerning the defendant's sanity while he and the defendant traveled together. He merely stated facts observed by him, from which facts the jury could draw its own conclusion as to the defendant's performance on the witness stand.
Clearly, there was no error in the denial of the defendant's motion for judgment of nonsuit. Considering the State's evidence in the light most favorable to the State, as must be done upon such a motion, Strong, N.C.Index 2d, Criminal Law, § 104, it is abundantly sufficient to support findings that the offense of kidnapping was committed and that the defendant was the perpetrator of it. This being true, the motion for judgment of nonsuit was properly denied. State v. Roseman, 279 N.C. 573, 184 S.E.2d 289; State v. Bass, 253 N.C. 318, 116 S.E.2d 772. As Justice Sharp, now Chief Justice,...
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