State v. Chapman

• Decision Date: 08 December 1995
• Docket Number: No. 569A94,569A94
• Citation: 342 N.C. 330,464 S.E.2d 661
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Glenn Edward CHAPMAN.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 661

464 S.E.2d 661

342 N.C. 330

STATE of North Carolina v. Glenn Edward CHAPMAN.

No. 569A94.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 8, 1995.

W. Thomas Portwood, Jr. and Robert W. Adams, Hickory, for defendant-appellant.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Defendant was convicted of the first-degree murders of Tenene Yvette Conley and Betty Jean Ramseur and sentenced to death for each murder. He appeals from his convictions and sentences. We conclude that defendant received a fair trial, free of prejudicial error, and that the sentences of death are not disproportionate.

The State's evidence tended to show that Conley was a young black female who used crack cocaine daily and paid for her habit through prostitution. Conley's body, naked from the waist down, was found in the basement of a vacant house at 649 First Avenue, S.E., in Hickory on 15 August 1992. There was no sign of a forced entry into the house. Defendant, who had been hired in July 1992 to paint the trim on the outside of the house, had been inside and knew how to get into the house.

Dr. Thomas Clark, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, concluded Conley died as a result of manual strangulation. Dr. Clark opined that the abrasions found about Conley's head and forehead could have been made by contact with any type of blunt object, including the floor. He determined Conley had had sexual intercourse within twelve hours of her death, and DNA analysis of the sperm sample taken from her body matched a sample given by defendant.

Several persons saw defendant and Conley together during the early morning hours of 14 August 1992. Jamar Danner, who sold crack cocaine from his house, saw defendant and Conley together well before daylight. Danner testified that defendant and Conley had come to his house in search of cocaine they left without purchasing any cocaine and walked toward the house where Conley's body was found. Howard Cowans, who lived within a block of the house in which Conley's body was found, testified that defendant, Conley, and Danny Blackburn came to his home around 3:00 a.m. on 14 August 1992. Defendant was trying to sell a lawn mower. The group smoked crack in Cowans' home. A few minutes after defendant, Conley, and Blackburn went outside, Cowans observed a man and a woman exit Blackburn's car and walk toward the house in which Conley's body was found. Cowans could not identify the man but implied it was defendant, stating that Blackburn did not "give up his old lady's car for anything or anybody." Blackburn testified that after the group finished smoking crack, he offered defendant the use of his car for ten dollars; defendant refused, saying, "she is getting out of the car, she knows what the hell she got to do, she knows what she has got to do." Conley got out of the car and began walking up the street, followed closely by defendant.

In a statement made to police on 18 September 1992, defendant acknowledged painting and cleaning the house in which Conley's body was found. However, he stated he went to Sunny Valley, not Cowans' house, on 14 August 1992. He also denied leaving Sunny Valley with Conley, insisting that when he left, Conley and Blackburn were together. Defendant's statement also noted: "When I smoked [sic] rock I don't want to be around women. They are always wanting something and bothering me and s---."

Ramseur, who was white, had been dating Chris Walker for about three years before she died. Ramseur and Walker knew defendant, and the three formerly smoked crack together. Ramseur was on probation and was last seen by her probation officer on 11 June 1992 regarding a probation violation involving the use of controlled substances.

On the morning of 12 June 1992, a fire at 407 Highland Avenue, S.E., in Hickory was reported. Alvin Creasman, a vagrant who had been living in the house, told a fire inspector that he was asleep upstairs when he was awakened by smoke. He noticed a black male and a white female at the house that morning about daybreak. Thomas Rasmussen, an SBI fire investigator, determined that the fire had been caused by human hands, either accidentally or intentionally.

On 22 August 1992 Ramseur's badly decomposed, naked body was found under the house at 407 Highland Avenue. Dr. Brent Hall, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, determined Ramseur had died sometime in June 1992. Although he could not rule out the possibility that Ramseur had been strangled because her body was partially skeletonized, Hall opined Ramseur had died as a result of a blunt-trauma injury to the head consistent with having been struck with a brick.

Defendant told at least three people that he had killed Ramseur. Defendant's cousin, Nicole Cline, testified that in June 1992 defendant told her he had just killed Chris Walker's girlfriend by cracking her in the head with a brick. He pointed from Nicole's residence to the house at 407 Highland Avenue and said he had dragged the body under the house. Brian Cline, Nicole's brother, testified that he overheard this conversation. Following this conversation but before Ramseur's body was discovered, Brian and defendant were driving down Highland Avenue when defendant pointed to the house at 407 and said that if people continued to mess with him, they would "end up like that bitch that was under the house." Lavar Gilliman testified that during the summer of 1992, he overheard defendant say that he had killed someone, that the body was in the house on Highland Avenue, and that defendant was going to burn her body so that it could not be found.

Defendant testified that he knew Conley and had gotten high with her on one occasion. He knew Ramseur through Chris Walker. He admitted having sex with Conley on 13 August 1992 but denied going with her to Cowans' and Danner's houses. Defendant further denied telling Nicole and Brian Cline that he had killed a woman, and he denied ever having seen Lavar Gilliman before Gilliman testified. He denied killing either woman.

At sentencing the State offered evidence that defendant had been previously convicted of common law robbery. The victim of this robbery testified to defendant's actions during the robbery.

Defendant offered evidence that he provided for Gwyn Anderson and their child and that he was helpful toward his friends and neighbors. His father testified that he always counted on defendant to take care of the house and to help with the other children as defendant was growing up.

Dr. Mark Worthing, a psychologist, testified defendant was of low average intelligence. Defendant had been diagnosed with alcohol and cocaine dependency. Dr. Worthing opined defendant could appreciate the criminality of his conduct unless he was very severely impaired. Because defendant denied committing the murders, Dr. Worthing was unable to ask specific questions about what drugs he had used at the time of the offenses and thus was unable to determine the extent of defendant's impairment at that time.

The jury found two aggravating circumstances for both murders: that defendant had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person and that the murder for which defendant stood convicted was part of a course of conduct in which defendant engaged and which included the commission by the defendant of other crimes of violence against another person or persons. Although three statutory and sixteen nonstatutory mitigating circumstances were submitted to the jury, no juror found any mitigating circumstance.

Defendant first assigns as error his absence from the pretrial conference required in capital cases by Rule 24 of the General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts. He contends that his absence from the Rule 24 conference violated his right to be present at every stage of his trial.

The Confrontation Clause in Article I, Section 23 of the North Carolina Constitution " 'guarantees an accused the right to be present in person at every stage of his trial.' " State v. Daniels, 337 N.C. 243, 256, 446 S.E.2d 298, 307 (1994) (quoting State v. Payne, 320 N.C. 138, 139, 357 S.E.2d 612, 612 (1987)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 953, 130 L.Ed.2d 895 (1995). This right to be present extends to all times during the trial when anything is said or done which materially affects defendant as to the charge against him. State v. Brogden, 329 N.C. 534, 541, 407 S.E.2d 158, 163 (1991). A capital defendant may not waive his right to presence. Daniels, 337 N.C. at 257, 446 S.E.2d at 307. However, a defendant's right to be present at all stages of his trial does not arise prior to the commencement of trial. State v. Rannels, 333 N.C. 644, 653, 430 S.E.2d 254, 259 (1993) (citing State v. Cole, 331 N.C. 272, 415 S.E.2d 716 (1992)).

Defendant contends his case must be distinguished from State v. Huff, 325 N.C. 1, 381 S.E.2d 635 (1989), sentence vacated on other grounds, 497 U.S. 1021, 110 S.Ct. 3266, 111 L.Ed.2d 777 (1990). In Huff, where the defendant was absent during a portion of the State's presentation of evidence at the request of defense counsel and with the defendant's agreement, this Court held that the trial court erred in permitting defendant to be absent during his capital trial. However, we found that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the defendant was not prejudiced by his absence. Id. at 35-36, 381 S.E.2d at 654-55. Here, because defendant's attorney objected to his absence at the Rule 24 conference, defendant contends he is entitled to a new trial.

In Huff the defendant was absent in the midst of trial, while the State was presenting evidence. Here defendant was absent during the pretrial conference. We hold that the Rule 24 conference, which takes place before the jury panel is selected and sworn, is not a stage of the trial. See State v. Smith, 326 N.C. 792, 794, 392 S.E.2d 362, 363 (1990) (process of selecting and impaneling the jury is a stage of trial at which d...