State v. Caudle, COA03-1576.
| Decision Date | 02 August 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. COA03-1576.,COA03-1576. |
| Citation | 616 S.E.2d 8 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Toney CAUDLE. |
Kevin P. Bradley, Durham, for defendant-appellant.
Toney Caudle ("defendant") appeals his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. For the reasons discussed herein, we hold that defendant received a trial free of prejudicial error, but we remand the case for resentencing.
The State's evidence presented at trial tends to show the following: Defendant and Martha Hendricks ("Hendricks") were "[c]lose friends" who had become "intimate" in December 2002 or January 2003. On the night of 9 February 2003, defendant and Hendricks were at a residence occupied by defendant's sister, Mary Jane Caudle ("Mary Jane"). Defendant's cousin, Ronnie Caudle ("Ronnie"), and Mary Jane's boyfriend, Boot Hunter ("Boot"), were also at the residence. According to Hendricks, everyone but defendant was drinking alcohol, and Mary Jane, Ronnie, and Boot were "probably" using crack cocaine. There was no electricity or telephone service at the residence, and the occupants had lit candles in the living room for light.
At some point during the evening, defendant and Hendricks went to the bedroom. According to Hendricks, while she and defendant were in the bedroom, defendant "flipped" and accused Hendricks of "watching" Ronnie. Hendricks denied "watching" Ronnie, but defendant nevertheless "started grabbing and slapping and stabbing [Hendricks] at the same time." Defendant slapped Hendricks one time and stabbed her eleven times with a short-handled kitchen knife. Hendricks recognized the knife as a steel-bladed knife that defendant used to "cut[] his rocks."
Shortly after the altercation began, Hendricks screamed for help. However, "[b]ecause it didn't look like [defendant] was going to stop stabbing" her, Hendricks "had to pretend [that she] was dead." Hendricks "started getting weak" from losing "a lot of blood[,]" so she "just fell to the floor and held [her] breath like [she] was dead." Shortly thereafter, defendant helped put Hendricks in a vehicle and drove her to Halifax Regional Medical Center ("Halifax Regional"). Hendricks lost consciousness on the way to Halifax Regional, but she remembered defendant telling her that "he would see [her] dead before he'd see [her] with anybody else."
During the incident, Mary Jane heard Hendricks "call twice" from the bedroom. When she entered the room, Mary Jane "saw [defendant] standing over top of [Hendricks]." Mary Jane then "saw [defendant's] hand go up like that [indicating], and then it came back down." Mary Jane "saw the blood" but "didn't see no weapon or no nothing." Although there were no candles in the bedroom, "it was light enough" for Mary Jane to see clearly, and she noted "a bottle [that] had been broken on the bed" next to Hendricks.
Hendricks was admitted to Halifax Regional via the emergency room. During her emergency room treatment, Hendricks told police officers that she was assaulted by defendant. Dr. Mark A. Bernat ("Dr. Bernat") treated Hendricks and noted that she had cuts on her cheek, lip, head, neck, shoulder, and hands. Hendricks' wounds required approximately thirty to forty stitches. Dr. Bernat noted on his medical report that Hendricks' heart rate was fast and her blood count was low. After he inquired about her low blood count, Hendricks told Dr. Bernat that she was anemic.
On 31 March 2003, defendant was indicted for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Following presentation of the evidence, the trial court denied defendant's motion to submit to the jury the offense of simple assault. On 10 July 2003, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on the assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury charge. The trial court subsequently found as an aggravating factor that defendant committed the offense while on pretrial release of another charge. The trial court also found defendant to be a prior record level IV offender. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced defendant to fifty-eight to seventy-nine months imprisonment, a term within the aggravated range of N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A-1340.17. Defendant appeals.
We note initially that defendant's brief contains arguments supporting only five of the seven original assignments of error. Pursuant to N.C.R.App. P. 28(b)(6) (2005), the two omitted assignments of error are deemed abandoned. Therefore, we limit our present review to those assignments of error properly preserved by defendant for appeal.
The issues on appeal are: (I) whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury; (II) whether the trial court erred by refusing to submit the lesser-included offense of assault inflicting serious injury to the jury; and (III) whether the trial court erred by sentencing defendant in the aggravated range.
Defendant first argues that the trial court erred in instructing the jury. Defendant asserts that the trial court committed plain error by instructing the jury that the knife allegedly used to commit the assault was a deadly weapon. We disagree.
Our courts apply the plain error rule cautiously and only in exceptional cases. State v. Odom, 307 N.C. 655, 660, 300 S.E.2d 375, 378 (1983). "A prerequisite to [an appellate court's] engaging in a `plain error' analysis is the determination that the instruction complained of constitutes `error' at all." State v. Torain, 316 N.C. 111, 116, 340 S.E.2d 465, 468, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 836, 107 S.Ct. 133, 93 L.Ed.2d 77 (1986). "To reach the level of `plain error'... the error in the trial court's jury instructions must be `so fundamental as to amount to a miscarriage of justice or which probably resulted in the jury reaching a different verdict than it otherwise would have reached.'" State v. Collins, 334 N.C. 54, 62, 431 S.E.2d 188, 193 (1993) (quoting State v. Bagley, 321 N.C. 201, 213, 362 S.E.2d 244, 251 (1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1036, 108 S.Ct. 1598, 99 L.Ed.2d 912 (1988)).
In the instant case, the trial court gave the following pertinent jury instruction:
The defendant has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. For you to find the defendant guilty of this offense, the State must prove three things beyond a reasonable doubt.
....
Second, that the defendant used a deadly weapon. A deadly weapon is a weapon that is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury. A knife with a six-inch blade is a deadly weapon.
Defendant contends that by instructing the jury that "[a] knife with a six-inch blade is a deadly weapon[,]" the trial court "effectively took the deadly weapon element of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury away from the jury." However, in Torain, our Supreme Court recognized that
It has long been the law of this state that "[w]here the alleged deadly weapon and the manner of its use are of such character as to admit of but one conclusion, the question as to whether or not it is deadly ... is one of law, and the Court must take the responsibility of so declaring."
316 N.C. at 119, 340 S.E.2d at 470 (quoting State v. Smith, 187 N.C. 469, 470, 121 S.E. 737, 737 (1924)) (alterations and emphasis in original). After reviewing the record in the instant case, we conclude that the evidence presented at trial leads to only one conclusion: that the knife used by defendant was a deadly weapon.
A deadly weapon "is generally defined as any article, instrument or substance which is likely to produce death or great bodily harm." State v. Sturdivant, 304 N.C. 293, 301, 283 S.E.2d 719, 725 (1981). Id. (citing State v. Brady, 299 N.C. 547, 264 S.E.2d 66 (1980); State v. Lednum, 51 N.C.App. 387, 276 S.E.2d 920 (1981); State v. Parker, 7 N.C.App. 191, 171 S.E.2d 665 (1970)). "[T]he evidence in each case determines whether a certain kind of knife is properly characterized as a lethal device as a matter of law or whether its nature and manner of use merely raises a factual issue about its potential for producing death." Sturdivant, 304 N.C. at 301, 283 S.E.2d at 726. "Only `where the instrument, according to the manner of its use or the part of the body at which the blow is aimed, may or may not be likely to produce such results, its allegedly deadly character is one of fact to be determined by the jury.'" Torain, 316 N.C. at 120, 340 S.E.2d at 470 (quoting State v. Joyner, 295 N.C. 55, 64-65, 243 S.E.2d 367, 373 (1978)). "The actual effects produced by the weapon may [] be considered in determining whether it is deadly." State v. Roper, 39 N.C.App. 256, 258, 249 S.E.2d 870, 871 (1978).
In the instant case, the evidence tends to show that Hendricks was stabbed eleven times and her wounds required approximately thirty to forty stitches. Dr. Bernat testified that when Hendricks was admitted to the hospital, he "noticed [Hendricks] had blood on her head and arms" and that "[t]here was some concern over how much blood she might have lost[.]" Dr. Bernat testified that Hendricks had suffered multiple wounds to her face, shoulder, head, neck, and hands. Mary Jane testified that she saw defendant's hand go up and down while defendant was "standing up over [Hendricks]," and although she admitted to seeing a broken bottle on the bed beside Hendricks, she maintained that Hendricks had been "stabbed" because of the blood she saw. Hendricks testified that she was hospitalized for two days because of her low blood pressure, and she further testified that she...
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