State v. Collins
| Decision Date | 06 December 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 525A95,525A95 |
| Citation | 345 N.C. 170,478 S.E.2d 191 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Roger Scott COLLINS. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by Thomas F. Moffitt, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.
Ann B. Petersen, Chapel Hill, and Wade Barber, Pittsboro, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant, Roger Scott Collins, was indicted for the 29 September 1993 rape, conspiracy to commit murder, and first-degree murder of Bennie DeGraffenreidt. He was tried capitally at the 17 July 1995 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Chatham County, and was found guilty of first-degree rape, conspiracy to commit murder, and first-degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation. After a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder, and the trial court sentenced defendant accordingly. In addition, the trial court sentenced defendant to a consecutive term of life imprisonment for first-degree rape and to nine years for conspiracy to commit murder.
The State's evidence tended to show inter alia that on 29 September 1993, police responded to a 911 phone call that an intruder had broken into a mobile home near Pittsboro. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered the victim's body in the master bedroom, lying across the bed at an angle. Her legs were tied together at the ankles with a necktie, and a telephone cord and receiver were wrapped around her wrists. A pillow covered her face. The autopsy revealed that the victim had been sexually assaulted and smothered to death.
Police officers questioned the victim's husband, Michael DeGraffenreidt. He told them that someone had broken into his home and knocked him unconscious after a fight. When he woke up, he found his wife dead. The officers collected a cassette tape from the telephone answering machine. On the tape was an incoming message from someone identifying himself as "Roger." Roger said he was at Top's and asked Michael DeGraffenreidt to call him. Police officers questioned defendant, Roger Collins. Defendant confessed that he raped and murdered Bennie DeGraffenreidt after conspiring with Michael DeGraffenreidt to commit the murder. Defendant told the officers that he and Michael had been discussing plans to murder Bennie for two weeks before she was killed. She had insurance on her life of about $180,000, and defendant's "cut" was to be $6,000, Bennie's car, and $500.00 cash "up front."
By his first assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred in excluding statements made by the prosecutor at the plea and sentencing of codefendant Michael DeGraffenreidt. Defendant argues that these statements were admissible as admissions of a party opponent and relevant to his defense in the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. We disagree.
The prosecutor's statements at the sentencing of codefendant DeGraffenreidt were not representations of fact used to prove the basis for DeGraffenreidt's plea under N.C.G.S. § 15A-1023(c). The statements were merely arguments of counsel as to some of the legitimate inferences that could be drawn from the evidence that had been introduced during sentencing in DeGraffenreidt's case to persuade the sentencing judge to make DeGraffenreidt serve his sentences consecutively, rather than concurrently. Statements of this type are neither competent nor relevant as substantive evidence. This Court has held that the attorneys have wide latitude in the arguments of hotly contested cases and may argue all the facts in evidence and any reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom. State v. Knight, 340 N.C. 531, 561, 459 S.E.2d 481, 499 (1995). Furthermore, it is axiomatic that the arguments of counsel are not evidence. See State v. Hinson, 341 N.C. 66, 76, 459 S.E.2d 261, 267 (1995); State v. Garner, 340 N.C. 573, 597, 459 S.E.2d 718, 730 (1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 948, 133 L.Ed.2d 872 (1996). This assignment of error is overruled.
By his next assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred in excluding testimony from Eric Cates relating to defendant's character traits and changes in his...
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State v. Lloyd
...have been the result of a reasoned decision,'" State v. Richmond, 347 N.C. at 429, 495 S.E.2d at 686 (quoting State v. Collins, 345 N.C. 170, 174, 478 S.E.2d 191, 194 (1996)). Because Lieutenant Sheffield's and Detective Fowler's testimony about defendant's demeanor shortly after the murder......
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State v. Roache
...a fair trial. We disagree. This Court has considered and rejected a claim identical in relevant part to this one in State v. Collins, 345 N.C. 170, 478 S.E.2d 191 (1996). Defendant has presented us with no material distinction between these cases. We decline to revisit the issue of the admi......
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State v. Garcia
...it could not have been the result of a reasoned decision,'" Richmond, 347 N.C. at 429,495 S.E.2d at 686 (quoting State v. Collins, 345 N.C. 170, 174, 478 S.E.2d 191, 194 (1996)). We find no such arbitrary action in this case. Accordingly, defendant's threat was admissible at trial. This ass......
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State v. Mizell
...if existence or nonexistence of trait would be involved in commission or noncommission of particular crime charged); State v. Collins, 345 N.C. 170, 478 S.E.2d 191 (1996) (Rule 404(a)(1) provides a defendant may offer character evidence as long as he tailors it to a particular trait that is......