State v. Crandell

• Decision Date: 30 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 288A87,288A87
• Citation: 322 N.C. 487,369 S.E.2d 579
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Richard CRANDELL.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 579

369 S.E.2d 579

322 N.C. 487

STATE of North Carolina v. Richard CRANDELL.

No. 288A87.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 30, 1988.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Dennis P. Myers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Raymond M. Sykes, Jr., Nashville, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Justice.

The defendant, Richard Crandell, was convicted of the first degree murder of Lenora Moore. Because there was no evidence of aggravating factors, the trial court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment. In his appeal to this Court, the defendant brings forward numerous assignments of error concerning the guilt-innocence phase of his trial. Having considered the entire record and each of the defendant's assignments of error, we detect no error in the defendant's trial.

The State's evidence at trial tended to show, inter alia, that the defendant frequently lived with his girlfriend, Faye Hinton, in a duplex apartment on Belvedere Street in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The deceased, Lenora Moore, lived in the other half of the apartment building.

In late December 1985 and early January 1986, the defendant and two friends, Timothy Battle and Kenneth Battle, twice broke into Moore's apartment and stole various items. The defendant gained entry on each occasion by going into the attic of Faye Hinton's apartment, through the crawl space above the apartments, and down into Moore's apartment. These crimes were investigated by the Rocky Mount Police Department, and the defendant and Kenneth Battle confessed to the break-ins. They returned some of the items stolen, and Kenneth Battle's parents paid Moore $800 for those items that could not be recovered. There was conflicting evidence regarding Moore's desire that the defendant be prosecuted.

On the afternoon of Saturday, 18 January 1986, Faye Hinton saw the victim, Lenora Moore, entering her apartment. At that time Moore told Hinton that she had been shopping and showed her a lamp and a blanket that she had purchased. Later that evening, Moore visited her cousin, Randy Smith, and left after telling him that she was going home to watch television. She left Smith's residence alone, driving her red 1985 Nissan Sentra. That was the last time anyone reported seeing Moore alive.

On Tuesday, 21 January 1986, a parking lot attendant discovered a red Nissan Sentra in a parking deck in Atlanta, Georgia. When the car was still there on Wednesday, the attendant informed his supervisor and was told to open the car. When he did, he discovered Moore's body in the trunk of the car.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that Moore's death was caused by a combination of strangling and choking. He estimated that at the time he performed the autopsy on Thursday, 23 January 1986, she had been dead for approximately four days. The doctor also testified, however, that due to the cool weather, the death could possibly have occurred as much as two days earlier or later than his estimate.

The defendant was arrested on 23 January 1986 and charged with breaking and entering in connection with the 27 December 1985 break-in of the deceased's apartment. At the time of his arrest, the defendant's clothes were taken from him. There was material in the defendant's clothes that was "consistent with" known insulation samples from the deceased's attic. Additionally, pieces of this attic insulation were found in the deceased's bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living room. With the exception of the insulation, the house appeared very neat and clean with no appearance of any disturbance having occurred there.

John Graham, a friend of the defendant, testified that the defendant had come by his house between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, 18 January 1986. At that time, the defendant had told Graham that he needed to come up with $800 to pay for items stolen from the victim. On Tuesday, 21 January 1986, the defendant asked Graham to tell the police that it was between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, 19 January 1986, that they had visited rather than the actual time. The defendant also told Graham that he had killed the victim.

Graham testified that the defendant told him he had gotten to Faye Hinton's apartment at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning. After sleeping for about an hour, he decided to kill Moore and went through the attic to gain access to her apartment. He watched her from a closet as she was hanging some curtains. He then choked her and placed something in her mouth to keep her from screaming. He also had sex with her. He then changed her clothes and cleaned up the apartment. He also found $700 in the apartment. He put the deceased's body in the trunk of her car and drove to Georgia. On the way he threw her pocketbook and the sweatsuit that he had been wearing at the time he killed her out of the car. He left her body in the car at a high-rise parking lot in Atlanta, took an airplane to Raleigh, and then rode a bus from Raleigh to Rocky Mount. He got back to Rocky Mount between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, 19 January 1986. Witness Graham admitted that he had lied to the police several times before finally telling them the truth, which he said was what he had testified to in court. Two of the defendant's cell mates also testified that the defendant had confessed to them that he had killed Moore.

The victim's pocketbook was found beside Interstate Highway 20 in South Carolina. It contained no money. Her credit card was discovered to have been retained by an automatic teller machine at a bank in Rocky Mount. Someone had attempted to use it to withdraw money at 7:47 p.m. on Sunday, 19 January 1986.

The defendant testified that he had played cards with friends until 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, 19 January 1986. He then walked to the home of John Graham and spent the night there, getting up at 12:30 Sunday afternoon. He remained there until he went to Faye Hinton's apartment around 7:00 p.m. According to the defendant, John Graham was in the house when he first got there but not thereafter. On cross-examination the defendant stated that he had sex with the victim on the afternoon of Saturday, 18 January 1986, but that he had never mentioned this to the police. He did tell the police that he had "gone into" her pocketbook and might have touched her credit card. The defendant also introduced evidence to the effect that certain of the State's witnesses had bad reputations for truthfulness and that fingerprints found in the victim's automobile and on her wallet were not his.

I.

In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that his conviction should be reversed because of violations of his right to a speedy trial under both the Sixth Amendment and the North Carolina Speedy Trial Act. Initially, we address the Sixth Amendment argument.

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees every individual the right to a speedy trial. In Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972), the Supreme Court set forth the important factors all courts must follow in determining whether a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial has been violated. These factors are identified as "length of delay, the reason for the delay, the defendant's assertion of his right, and prejudice to the defendant." Id. at 530, 92 S.Ct. at 2192, 33 L.Ed.2d at 117. This Court has adopted these principles in analyzing and balancing alleged violations of the constitutional right to a speedy trial. See State v. McKoy, 294 N.C. 134, 240 S.E.2d 383 (1978); State v. Wright, 290 N.C. 45, 224 S.E.2d 624 (1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1049, 97 S.Ct. 760, 50 L.Ed.2d 765 (1977). No single factor is determinative. Rather, "the circumstances of each particular case must determine whether a speedy trial has been afforded or denied, and the burden is on an accused who asserts denial of a speedy trial to show that the delay was due to the neglect or wilfulness of the prosecution." State v. McKoy, 294 N.C. 134, 141, 240 S.E.2d 383, 388. With these principles in mind, we now weigh the four balancing factors in light of the evidence in this case.

First, the defendant's trial was held eleven months after the date of his original arrest. Some delay, however, is permissible in any case.

The possibility of unavoidable delay is inherent in every criminal action. The constitutional guarantee does not outlaw good-faith delays which are reasonably necessary for the State to prepare and present its case.... The proscription is against purposeful or oppressive delays and those which the prosecution could have avoided by reasonable effort.

State v. Johnson, 275 N.C. 264, 273, 167 S.E.2d 274, 280 (1969). Because we do not determine whether the constitutional right to a speedy trial has been violated by the calendar alone, we must consider the length of the delay in relation to the three remaining factors.

Turning to the reason for the delay, we find no indication of neglect or willfulness on the part of the prosecution. This murder case was complicated by the fact that much of the evidence and much of the laboratory analysis was being handled through Georgia law enforcement agencies. The record shows that the defendant filed ten separate motions at various times prior to the filing of the State's first motion to continue on 30 June 1986. In that motion, the State related that results of tests by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were pending. Thereafter, there were numerous other motions filed by the defendant, and two motions by the State to continue. In one dated 4 September 1986, the State indicated that there had been inadequate time to prepare the case for trial and that results of some laboratory tests had not been received by the prosecutor. On 22 October 1986, the State again moved to continue the case, stating that a hearing on various pretrial motions of the defendant was necessary before the case could be tried. All of these matters tend to indicate that...