State v. Chapman
| Decision Date | 07 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 146A02.,146A02. |
| Citation | 359 N.C. 328,611 S.E.2d 794 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Lemorris J. CHAPMAN, a/k/a Lamorris J. Chapman. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal as of right pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing a sentence of death entered by Judge Jerry Cash Martin on 2 November 2001 in Superior Court, Johnston County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder. On 21 February 2003, this Court allowed defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals as to his appeal of additional judgments. On 1 April 2004, this Court allowed defendant's motion to hold decision pending the United States Supreme Court's decision in State ex rel. Simmons v. Roper, 112 S.W.3d 397 (Mo.2003), cert. granted, 540 U.S. 1160, 124 S.Ct. 1171, 157 L.Ed.2d 1204 (2004). Heard in the Supreme Court of North Carolina 17 November 2003.
Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Robert C. Montgomery, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.
Staples Hughes, Appellate Defender, by Daniel R. Pollitt, and Kelly D. Miller, Assistant Appellate Defenders, Durham, for defendant-appellant.
Seleana Ceana Nesbitt was fatally shot in the head on 9 July 2000, while riding with her friend, Brandy Raquel Smith, in the back seat of a car on the way home from a nightclub. On 24 July 2000, a Johnston County grand jury indicted defendant LeMorris J. Chapman for the first-degree murder of Ms. Nesbitt and attempted first-degree murder of Ms. Smith. On 9 July 2001, a second Johnston County grand jury returned an additional indictment against defendant for discharging a firearm into occupied property.
Defendant was tried capitally before a jury at the 8 October 2001 Criminal Session of the Johnston County Superior Court. On 29 October 2001, a jury returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder on the basis of malice, premeditation, and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. The jury also found defendant guilty of attempted first-degree murder and discharging a firearm into occupied property. On 2 November 2001, following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction, and the trial court entered judgment accordingly. The trial court also sentenced defendant to consecutive prison terms of 157 months to 198 months for attempted first-degree murder and 25 to 39 months for discharging a firearm into occupied property.
Defendant appealed his death sentence to this Court, and on 21 February 2003, the Court allowed defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals as to his appeal of the noncapital convictions and judgments. This Court heard oral argument in defendant's case on 17 November 2003. On 1 April 2004, the Court allowed defendant's motion to hold decision pending the United States Supreme Court's decision in Simmons v. Roper, 112 S.W.3d 397 (Mo.2003), cert. granted, 540 U.S. 1160, 124 S.Ct. 1171, 157 L.Ed.2d 1204 (2004). The United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roper on 1 March 2005. ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005). After consideration of the assignments of error raised by defendant on appeal and a thorough review of the transcript, record on appeal, briefs, oral arguments, and Simmons v. Roper, we find no error in the guilt-innocence phase of defendant's trial but vacate defendant's death sentence as "cruel and unusual" consistent with Roper.
Evidence presented by the State at trial tended to show that on 7 July 2000, defendant's ex-girlfriend Alecia Doughty drove past an apartment where defendant was attending a cookout. Doughty was driving a Nissan Sentra that belonged to Greg Brooks, and Brooks was riding in the passenger seat. Later that night defendant spoke to Doughty by phone and asked about Brooks. Defendant then told Doughty to come pick him up. Doughty did so, and defendant and Doughty spent the night together. On the following day, Doughty dropped defendant off at another house, where defendant called Doughty on the phone and told her, "I ain't f____g with you no more."
On 8 July 2000, defendant and five of his friends decided to go to Club 39, a nightclub near Mudcat Stadium in Wake County. The group included Lee Green, DaJuan Morgan, Jared Clemmons, Donald Lamont Dennis, and Shamarh McNeil. Because they could not all fit into defendant's Honda, the group decided to borrow a vehicle from another friend, Garry Yarborough. Clemmons, McNeil, and Dennis drove defendant's Honda to Yarborough's home in Wilson Mills to exchange it with Yarborough's white Cadillac Seville. There the group talked with Yarborough's wife Mya, as well as defendant's brother, Chris Chapman, and Chris' fiancée, Shenita. Before the group left, Yarborough gave Clemmons a loaded Soviet era SKS Carbine, semi-automatic rifle "for protection in case something happens at the club tonight." Clemmons handed the rifle to McNeil, who placed it in the trunk of Yarborough's Cadillac.
That evening Clemmons drove defendant, Green, Dennis, Morgan and McNeil to Club 39 in the Cadillac. As they approached the club, the group saw security guards stopping vehicles in the club's driveway and checking for weapons. Clemmons turned the car around and defendant told Clemmons to drive into the nearby Mudcat Stadium parking lot. Clemmons testified that upon their arrival at the stadium, defendant called his brother Chris. The group waited, and after approximately fifteen minutes, Chris Chapman arrived at the stadium parking lot. Defendant got out of the Cadillac and spoke with Chris. When defendant returned to the Cadillac, he handed Dennis a brown McDonald's bag containing a black .45 caliber ACP, semi-automatic handgun. McNeil testified that he was not surprised to see Chris Chapman in the stadium parking lot because the meeting had been pre-arranged.
On the way back to the club, defendant instructed Clemmons to stop the car. Then defendant and Dennis stepped out of the vehicle, opened the trunk, and removed the SKS rifle. Defendant and Dennis concealed the rifle and handgun in a ditch beside a light pole in a wooded area. Thereafter, the group proceeded to Club 39, arriving sometime after 10:00 p.m.
Defendant saw Doughty at the club and tried unsuccessfully to speak with her. Brooks, who was also at the club, had not previously met defendant, but spoke with him and shook his hand. Defendant and his friends stayed at the club until after it closed at 3:00 a.m. Brooks, his cousin Lavires Richardson, Seleana Nesbitt, and Brandy Smith left at the same time in Brooks' blue Nissan Sentra. Green testified at trial that he did not speak to Ms. Nesbitt at the club because he knew she was with Brooks. Green also testified that he knew Brooks drove a Nissan Sentra and that he had seen Seleana standing next to that car in the parking lot before leaving the club.
On the way home from the club, defendant and his friends stopped to retrieve the hidden SKS rifle and handgun, placing both weapons in the passenger area. Clemmons drove; defendant rode in the front passenger seat, and Green, Morgan, Dennis, and McNeil sat in the back. After they reached Highway 39, defendant instructed Clemmons to speed up and to pass certain vehicles. As they approached Brooks' car from behind, one of the passengers said, "[T]hat's them right there." Defendant replied, "[L]et's get that m____rf____r." Then defendant told Clemmons not to pass Brooks' car. While the Cadillac was behind Brooks' vehicle, defendant called his brother and instructed him not to pass the car in front of them because defendant was "about to shoot up this car." Defendant began firing the SKS rifle out of the front passenger side window while DaJuan Morgan fired the handgun out of the rear left window. Defendant shot the rifle six to eight times, and Morgan fired the handgun three to four times. Then defendant boasted to his friends that "we wet the car up, the m____rf____r."
After the shooting, defendant told Clemmons to park the Cadillac at Percy Flowers' store, where defendant had seen Garry Yarborough sitting outside. Defendant and his friends, who appeared excited, told Yarborough what had just happened. Defendant and Dennis hid the rifle and handgun in Yarborough's yard and after riding together briefly, the group went their separate ways.
Seleana Nesbitt and Brandy Smith, who were back seat passengers in Brooks' car, were both shot. Brooks immediately drove to Johnston Memorial Hospital in Smithfield, where Ms. Smith was treated for her wounds and Ms. Nesbitt was pronounced dead.
Additional relevant facts will be presented when necessary to resolve specific assignments of error raised by defendant.
In his first argument, defendant assigns error to the State's exercise of peremptory challenges against prospective jurors, Linda Thorne Barbour and Amanda Flonard, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Defendant objected to both peremptory challenges during voir dire. In ruling on each Batson objection, the trial court concluded that "there has not been a prima facie showing by the defendant that the State is exercising a peremptory challenge to exclude jurors on account of race." Defendant contends that the prima facie requirement was met and requests a new trial or, alternatively, an evidentiary hearing. We affirm the trial court's ruling as to both prospective jurors.
In Batson v. Kentucky, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle first announced in Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 25 L.Ed. 664 (1879), that purposeful exclusion of African-Americans from participation as jurors solely on account of race violates a defendant's rights under the...
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