State v. Coker
| Decision Date | 07 December 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 298A88,298A88 |
| Citation | 325 N.C. 686,386 S.E.2d 196 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Bill Vester COKER. |
| 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 life imprisonment entered by Stevens, J., at the 11 January 1988 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Wayne County, upon a jury verdict of guilty of first-degree murder. Heard in the Supreme Court 12 October 1989.
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Reginald L. Watkins, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.
Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Staples Hughes, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant's case was consolidated for trial with that of his codefendant, Ralph Harvey Barfield. The cases were tried as noncapital cases. Both defendants pled not guilty; however, after trial to a jury, defendant Bill Vester Coker was found guilty as charged and Barfield was acquitted. Defendant received the mandatory life term. In his appeal to this Court, defendant brings forward only one assignment of error. We have performed a careful and thorough review of the record, and we conclude that this assignment of error should be overruled and that defendant received a fair trial free of prejudicial error.
The murder of which defendant was convicted grew out of a confrontation on a dirt road in Wayne County in the late afternoon. Defendant does not take issue with the presentation of the evidence in his case, and we perceive no need to discuss the facts of the case for purposes of this appeal. Defendant brings forth no assignment of error arising from his actual trial. The State's evidence of defendant's killing of an SBI informant whose testimony had been instrumental in defendant's arrest for a drug offense was overwhelming and included the testimony of numerous eyewitnesses. Defendant's argument relates to the trial court's decision to deny his pretrial motion to dismiss for violation of his right to a speedy trial under the Speedy Trial Act (the Act), N.C.G.S. ch. 15A, art. 35 (1988). 1 Defendant contends that the transcript of the hearing on his motion shows a summary denial by the trial judge despite the State's failure to meet the evidentiary burden placed on it by the Act, which specifies that the burden is upon the State to go forward with evidence concerning whether certain periods of time may properly be excluded in determining whether the State has exceeded the 120-day limit mandated by the Act.
Defendant places great emphasis on the fact that the transcript of the trial judge's consideration of defendant's motion to dismiss is brief and on the fact that the judge made no findings of fact to support his ruling. Essentially, the hearing on the motion to dismiss consisted of defense counsel's statement to the court, the district attorney's offering into evidence eighteen marked exhibits, the admission of these documents, and the court's ruling on the motion.
Our review of these exhibits reveals that the majority of them were superior court docket sheets. These docket sheets indicate, inter alia, the dates on which the orders on the State's motions to continue were signed and filed during the court sessions indicated. Our comparative analysis reveals that Exhibits 1 through 15 are docket sheets which directly correspond with the copies of the motions and orders for continuance (excluding 170 days) that were filed in the court file which was maintained for defendant's case. State's Voir Dire Exhibits 16 and 17 are copies of letters which relate to two conferences the district attorney apparently attended in September and October of 1987. State's Voir Dire Exhibit 18 is a clerk's minutes sheet and a marked superior court calendar for the 17 August 1987 Criminal Session of the Superior Court of Greene County. These latter three exhibits (16 through 18) appear to be irrelevant, as the period of time covered in the first two coincide with the period of time defendant's case was continued because of the ongoing trial of other cases in Wayne County and the last (18) relates to a calendar for Greene County which coincides with a period of time when the prosecutor was engaged in the trial of cases in Wayne County.
Defendant contends that the trial judge's failure to make specific findings in support of his ruling had the effect of making appellate review impossible and therefore entitled him to entry of an order granting his motion to dismiss. He maintains that the State has failed to carry its burden of proof because it cannot be determined from the record that the trial judge had access to the complete file, including all continuances that were filed. This assertion is based on the fact that the copy of the court file which was sent to the Office of the Appellate Defender failed to include the motions and orders the State relies on to support the trial court's ruling. Defendant argues that because the file sent to the Appellate Defender did not contain the motions and orders, it raises an inference that they were not in the file which the judge reviewed in ruling on his speedy trial motion.
The State submits, and we agree, that a thorough review of the record in this case fully supports the trial court's ruling. Defendant was arrested on 20 January 1987 and indicted on 22 June 1987. His trial began on 11 January 1988, 203 days after the indictment. The record reveals that the State made nine written motions to continue defendant's trial and that corresponding orders were entered in accordance with proper procedure. The excluded periods were as follows:
22 June 1987--5 July 1987 13 days
13 July 1987--26 July 1987 13 days
31 July 1987--11 August 1987 11 days
14 August 1987--14 September 1987 31 days
14 September 1987--28 September 1987 14 days
1 October 1987--18 October 1987 18 days
19 October 1987--25 October 1987 6 days
29 October 1987--7 December 1987 39 days
10 December 1987--4 January 1988 25 days
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TOTAL: 170 days
The reason given for delay in seven of the motions for continuance was the fact that other cases were in the process of being tried at that time. The Speedy Trial Act provides that a continuance necessitated by trial of other cases is an excludable period. N.C.G.S. § 15A-701(b)(7) (1988); State v. Kivett, 321 N.C. 404, 364 S.E.2d 404 (1988). Two of the motions requested continuances because defendant was in the process of being arraigned and thus could not yet be tried. The Act provides that any period of delay resulting from pretrial proceedings concerning the defendant shall be excluded from the computation. N.C.G.S. § 15A-701(b)(1) (1988). The orders granting these motions for continuance (as well as other such motions in other cases) recited that they were entered for the reasons set forth in the motions and found that "the ends of justice served by granting continuances in the cases listed [in the respective motions] outweigh the best interests of the public and defendants in a speedy trial." The Act specifies that any period of delay from a continuance granted by any judge is excluded if the judge finds that the ends of justice served outweigh the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial and sets forth in writing in the record the reasons for so finding. N.C.G.S. § 15A-701(b)(7) (1988).
The total time excluded due to these continuances covered by Exhibits 1 through 15 was 170 days. Subtracting 170 days from the total number of days which elapsed between the day of indictment and the trial date, 203 days, leaves only 33 days, a period well within the 120-day mandate of the Act. This Court has previously decided that such a showing is all that is necessary: "By producing the orders for continuance, all entered for facially valid reasons, the State carried its burden of going forward with evidence to show that the continuance periods should be excluded from the computation." State v. Kivett, 321 N.C. at 409, 364 S.E.2d at 407. Several of the orders granting continuances specifically directed that they "be filed with the Clerk's minutes and copies filed in each case file listed in this Order."
Rule 11(c) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure provides that if the parties are unable to agree on the record on appeal, it is the duty of the trial judge to settle the record. At the hearing to settle the record on appeal in this case, the State...
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State v. Wiggins
...661 (1987). Findings of fact made by the trial court are binding on appeal if they are supported by the evidence. State v. Coker, 325 N.C. 686, 692, 386 S.E.2d 196, 199 (1989); State v. Stevens, 305 N.C. 712, 719-20, 291 S.E.2d 585, 591 (1982). We conclude that the trial court's findings of......
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State v. Willis, 569A87
...of the United States. The Speedy Trial Act applies to this case although it was repealed after the case was tried. See State v. Coker, 325 N.C. 686, 386 S.E.2d 196 (1989). The Speedy Trial Act required that the defendant be tried within 120 days of the date the defendant was arrested, serve......