State v. Chandler

• Decision Date: 08 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 343A93,343A93
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Frank Ray CHANDLER.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 636

467 S.E.2d 636

342 N.C. 742

STATE of North Carolina v. Frank Ray CHANDLER.

No. 343A93.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

March 8, 1996.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Chief Justice.

This case arises out of the death of Doris Poore, a ninety-year-old widow who was killed during a burglary of her home on 11 December 1992.

Defendant was indicted for first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, attempted larceny, attempted first-degree rape, and attempted first-degree sexual offense. He was tried before a jury, which found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Doris Poore under the felony murder rule, with first-degree burglary as the underlying felony. The jury also found him guilty of attempted larceny, but not guilty of attempted first-degree rape or first-degree sexual offense. After a separate capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended and the trial court imposed a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction and a three-year prison sentence for the attempted larceny conviction.

The State presented evidence at trial tending to show that on 10 December 1992, Mrs. Poore talked by telephone with Grace Vaughn, a friend, until approximately 10:30 p.m. The next day at 8:00 a.m., Lea Quiros, the victim's housekeeper, arrived at Mrs. Poore's house and knocked on the front door. When Mrs. Poore did not answer the door, Mrs. Quiros attempted to call her on the telephone. Again, no one answered. Mrs. Quiros contacted Mr. Jack Leach, Mrs. Poore's son-in-law, who, on arrival, entered the house by the back door. Mr. Leach let Mrs. Quiros in the house. Mr. Leach found Mrs. Poore dead in her bed in a pool of blood.

Special Agent R.D. Melton of the SBI testified that during the investigation of Mrs. Poore's death, he observed that the screen door at the back of her house had been cut with two "L"-shaped cuts above the center support strut on the right side of the door where a latch was located. The screen was slightly pushed in. The wooden door was open, and the screws from the chain lock were pulled from the wall and left hanging on the door.

After entering Mrs. Poore's house, Melton found Mrs. Poore's glasses and hearing aids on the dining room table. Upon entering Mrs. Poore's bedroom, he found bed clothing on the bed, a sheet pulled up over the victim, and an area of pooled blood underneath her head. The victim was lying on the bed with her pajama top open and her body was nude from the waist down; smeared bloody fingerprints were on her abdomen. A pair of pajama bottoms and a pair of panties were wadded together at the foot of the bed between the victim's legs, but slightly beneath her right foot. He also noted that an electric heating pad was on the bed.

Dr. Gregory James Davis, a forensic pathologist, testified that Mrs. Poore died from a single "massive blow" to the head. The blow resulted in a hinge fracture to the scalp, which effectively caused the skull to snap in two resulting in extensive swelling and hemorrhaging of the brain. Mrs. Poore had numerous abrasions, lacerations, and bruises.

Special Agent Ricky Navarro, a latent evidence specialist with the SBI, testified that palm and fingerprints matching the defendant's were found on the wooden door leading into the kitchen.

Special Agent J.L. Eddins testified that after he took defendant's fingerprints, he asked defendant to sign a consent to search form. Defendant signed the fingerprint card, but refused to sign the other related documents. After defendant asked to make a phone call, he proceeded to destroy all of the documents and the card.

Jeffrey Kyle Wilson, defendant's cellmate from January 1993 until April 1993, testified that while defendant was in jail, defendant asked him what he should do. Wilson told him to tell the truth so that he would not get the electric chair. Wilson said that defendant replied that "they" did not have the evidence to convict him. Then, defendant described how he had committed the murder and that as a defense, he planned to "play crazy."

Defendant took the stand as the only defense witness and testified that he left his aunt's house between midnight and 12:30 a.m. on 11 December 1992 and walked to the victim's house. After knocking on the window, back door, and garage door, and not getting an answer, he entered the house through the unlocked basement door. He proceeded up the stairs, cut the screen door with a pocketknife, and opened the back door leading to the kitchen. He testified that as he started to walk through the house, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he started to leave, somebody behind him screamed. He then turned and swung, making the victim fall against him. He testified that as Mrs. Poore was falling, he caught her; he then carried her to her bed, put her in the bed, and went to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hand. He saw Mrs. Poore's clothes at the front of the toilet, picked them up, put them next to her in her bed, and covered her up.

Defendant testified that he had not known who lived in the house, but thought that a man lived there because he had seen a blue pickup truck parked in front of the house before and had seen a man smoking "reefer" or marijuana there. Defendant testified that after he left the house, he washed his clothes and that he still had them. On cross-examination, defendant testified that after he killed Mrs. Poore, he did not look for the marijuana as he had originally planned.

By his first assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying his pretrial motion to conduct voir dire regarding prospective jurors' beliefs about parole eligibility. This Court has consistently decided this issue against defendant. State v. Powell, 340 N.C. 674, 687-88, 459 S.E.2d 219, 225 (1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 739, 133 L.Ed.2d 688 (1996); State v. Price, 337 N.C. 756, 762-63, 448 S.E.2d 827, 831 (1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1368, 131 L.Ed.2d 224 (1995); State v. Payne, 337 N.C. 505, 516, 448 S.E.2d 93, 99 (1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1405, 131 L.Ed.2d 292 (1995). As we explained in Payne, the recent decision in Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994), does not affect our position on this issue when, as here, the defendant remains eligible for parole if given a life sentence. Payne, 337 N.C. at 516-17, 448 S.E.2d at 99-100. We continue to adhere to our prior rulings on this issue. This assignment of error is overruled.

By his next assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred by instructing the jury that defendant could be found guilty of burglary if it found he entered the occupied dwelling with the intent to commit the offense of attempted larceny, a misdemeanor, rather than with the intent to commit larceny, a felony. The trial court instructed the jury as to the first-degree burglary charge as follows:

Now, the defendant has also been accused in another case of burglary in the first degree, which is the breaking and entering of an occupied dwelling house of another without his or her consent, in the nighttime, with the intent to commit either the felony of attempted first degree rape, felony of attempted sexual--first degree sexual offense, or the felony of attempted larceny, or the felony of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon.

(Emphasis added.)

The trial court repeated this instruction when it listed the sixth element of the offense of first-degree burglary and sixth, that at the time of the breaking and entering the defendant intended to commit either the felony of first degree--attempted first degree rape, attempted first degree sexual offense, attempted larceny or attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon.

(Emphasis added.)

The trial court then, for the third time, told the jury that defendant could be found guilty of first-degree burglary if he acted with the intent to commit attempted larceny.

So I charge that if you find from the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the alleged date the defendant broke and entered an occupied dwelling house without the owner's consent, during the nighttime, and that at that time the defendant intended to commit either attempted first degree rape, attempted first degree sexual offense, attempted larceny or attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, it would be your duty to return a verdict of guilty of first degree burglary.

(Emphasis added.)

In this case, defendant was charged with attempted larceny, attempted first-degree rape, and attempted first-degree sexual offense, in addition to the first-degree burglary and murder charges. As to the burglary charge, the trial court should have instructed that if defendant had the intent to commit a rape, sexual offense, or larceny at the time of the breaking and entering, then he should be convicted of first-degree burglary. The crime of first-degree burglary is "complete when an occupied dwelling is broken and entered in the nighttime with the intent to commit larceny therein, whether or not anything was actually stolen from the house." State v. Coffey, 289 N.C. 431, 437-38, 222 S.E.2d 217, 221 (1976).

At the conclusion of the trial court's instructions, the prosecutor suggested that they might have been erroneous. The trial court then told the jury that it was going to correct that error and gave the jury supplemental instructions, inter alia, on the elements of first-degree burglary. During the supplemental instructions, the trial court replaced the phrase "attempted larceny" with the word "larceny" in describing the intent element of first-degree burglary. Defendant argues, nevertheless, that the effect of the supplemental instructions was to leave the jury with the impression that attempted larceny and larceny had the same definition. Therefore, defendant contends the jury convicted him of attempted larceny and...