State v. Davis
| Decision Date | 15 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. COA19-546,COA19-546 |
| Citation | 847 S.E.2d 83 (Table) |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Carleton Edwin DAVIS, Jr., Defendant. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by General Counsel W. Swain Wood, for the State.
Glover & Petersen, P.A., by Ann B. Petersen, for Defendant.
Carleton Edwin Davis, Jr. ("Defendant"), appeals the trial court's judgments entering a jury verdict convicting him of second-degree murder and concealment of death. Defendant argues that the trial court erred by not instructing the jury on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter and that the State failed to submit sufficient evidence showing Defendant's out-of-state prior convictions were substantially similar to North Carolina felonies. For the reasons discussed below, we find no prejudicial error.
The evidence at trial tended to show that on or about 31 October 2013, Defendant learned that his sister, Cheri Davis ("Cheri"), had a physically violent domestic dispute with her boyfriend, Sheldon Prawl ("Prawl"). Celsie Davis, Defendant's girlfriend ("Celsie"), testified that Defendant traveled from Detroit, Michigan, where she and Defendant lived, to visit Cheri in Jacksonville, North Carolina, sometime in October 2013. Defendant called Celsie while he was in Jacksonville on the morning of October 31. Celsie "heard some commotion in the background" of the phone call. Defendant told Celsie that "[Cheri] and [Prawl] had got into an argument[,]" that there was a "physical altercation" between Cheri and Prawl, and "that [Cheri] was going to take care of it[.]" After the call, Cheri left her home to go to work. Prawl texted Cheri sometime in the early afternoon that "he was going to go out of town for a little while."
Prawl's mother testified that she and Prawl texted each other "[e]very morning or every other day[,]" but she was unable to get in touch with him on 31 October 2013. Prawl's mother explained that, on 31 October, she Prawl's mother attempted to call Prawl multiple times over the next four days, but was unable to reach him each time. Prawl's mother then called Cheri on 3 November and "asked if [her] son was there." Cheri responded that Prawl had "packed his stuff" and "went up north." Prawl's mother told Cheri that Prawl had not traveled north to New York, where she lived, and insisted that Cheri "go report this right now[,] [s]omething is wrong."
Cheri reported Prawl missing to the Jacksonville Police Department on 4 November 2013. Cheri informed police that she and Prawl had a domestic argument on the morning of 31 October 2013; that Prawl "indicated to her he was going to go out of town for a little while" that afternoon; and that she had not heard from him since. The officer who took Cheri's statement testified that she was calm and had no notable physical injuries at the time.
On 30 May 2014, police in Detroit, Michigan responded to a report that severed body parts were discovered in a garage approximately seven miles away from Celsie's residence in Detroit. Police searched the garage and found "two plastic tub-like storage tubs" containing plastic garbage bags filled with severed human body parts encased in cement. The county medical examiner removed the tubs from the premises and later identified the body parts as the remains of Prawl.
In September 2016, an Onslow County grand jury indicted Defendant for the murder of Prawl. In July 2018, Defendant was also indicted on charges of concealing the death of Prawl and conspiracy to conceal Prawl's death. The charges in the two indictments were joined for trial.
Defendant was tried for all three charges on 6 August 2018 in Superior Court, Onslow County. At trial, Prawl's best friend, Chris Frazier ("Frazier"), testified for the State that he last spoke with Prawl around 11:00 a.m. on the morning of 31 October 2013. Frazier explained that he arrived at Defendant's sister Cheri's residence around 9:00 a.m. because Prawl had agreed to give Frazier a ride to the Onslow County courthouse. Cheri had left the residence to go to work before Frazier arrived, and Prawl was "banging on the door yelling" because he "wanted his blunt wraps" from inside. Defendant eventually let Prawl inside. When Prawl came back outside, Frazier asked if Defendant was back. Prawl responded, "[y]eah, he's back with his people." Frazier explained that he and Prawl had seen Defendant "a week prior" at Cheri's residence, believed Defendant had returned to Detroit, and that Defendant had come back to Jacksonville with some of his friends.
Frazier further testified that Prawl then drove Frazier to the courthouse, dropped him off, and told him, before returning to Cheri's residence. Frazier texted Prawl around 11:00 a.m. to ask that Prawl "come get [him] later" than they had planned because he still had not seen the judge and court was going to recess. Frazier testified that "a text came back from [Prawl's] phone saying that something came up, he had to go out of town, and watch out for [Cheri] for me." Frazier called Prawl several times after he left court on 31 October, but was unable to reach Prawl and was never able to speak to him.
Terrell Debose ("Debose") testified that he sold drugs for Defendant in North Carolina in 2014. He also said Defendant told him "about four or five" times in or around June 2014 that he "[had] a body chopped up in Detroit." Debose testified that he and Defendant became close friends and business partners, that he "gave [Defendant] a key to [his] house[,]" and that they would frequently go out to clubs together. Debose explained that Defendant repeatedly mentioned that he "[had] a body" that "[he] took to Detroit" and that the body "was starting to smell[.]" Debose testified that "[Cheri] and the guy kept – they got in a fight, and [Defendant] went in there and intervened, they fought," and "[Defendant] said he choked him, and I guess his neck broke." Debose further recounted Defendant's statements that he killed Cheri's boyfriend, "then took [the body] to a river, some river down here, threw the body in a river." Defendant told Debose "[a] couple times" that the body "kept coming up" and "floating up[,]" so Defendant "chopped the body up and put it in cement[.]"
Jerry Dorris ("Dorris"), an acquaintance of Defendant, also testified that he once overheard Defendant state that he "choked [Prawl] out." At the time, Dorris lived in Detroit, two houses down from where police discovered the totes containing Prawl's body. Dorris explained that he first met Defendant in September 2013 when Dorris walked by his neighbor's home on the way to get something from a nearby convenience store. Richard Jackson ("Jackson"), a neighbor of Dorris, was talking to Defendant outside of his home; Dorris stopped and spoke to Jackson and Defendant. Dorris next saw Defendant in February or March of 2014 when he was once again walking to the store one evening. Dorris testified that Jackson and Defendant were talking outside Jackson's home, "I was on my way, walking to the store, and I -- as I was about to pass him and [Jackson], I heard [Defendant] say, ‘I had to choke him out.’ " Dorris continued walking to the store and did not hear the remainder of the conversation between Jackson and Defendant.
Later that evening, Dorris testified, Jackson came over to speak with Dorris and pointed out two blue totes outside of Jackson's garage. A few days later, Jackson asked Dorris to help him move the two totes to a new location. Dorris testified that he and Jackson moved the two totes into the garage of Jackson's neighbor, a man they called "Red," who was incarcerated at the time. Dorris testified that he next saw Defendant in May, when Defendant and Cheri picked up Jackson after police had arrived at Red's garage and taped off the area.
Dr. Jeffrey Hudson ("Dr. Hudson"), assistant medical examiner in Detroit, Michigan, testified that he performed an autopsy on the severed body parts found in the tubs to determine the cause of Prawl's death. Dr. Hudson testified to his expert opinion that the manner of Prawl's death was homicide, but he was unable to determine the exact cause of death due to a lack of wounds
or broken bones and due to the severed, decomposed, and chemically burned state of the body.
Defendant presented no evidence at trial. The trial court dismissed the charge of conspiracy to conceal death at the close of all the evidence. During the jury instruction conference, Defendant requested a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter, in addition to the instructions on first-degree murder and second-degree murder. The State objected to the voluntary manslaughter instruction on the basis that there was no evidence to support the instruction. The trial court denied Defendant's request.
The jury found Defendant guilty of second-degree murder and concealing death. The parties stipulated at sentencing that Defendant had three prior felony convictions for armed robbery in Michigan, carjacking in Michigan, and federal possession of a firearm by a felon. The State presented the corresponding Michigan criminal statutes to the trial court and argued that the statutes were substantially similar to Class D and G North Carolina felonies. Defendant did not object and the trial court agreed with the State. The trial court entered judgment on the jury's verdicts, determined Defendant to be a Prior Record Level ("PRL") IV based on his Michigan and federal convictions, and sentenced Defendant to a term of 365 to 450 months imprisonment for the Class B1 felony second-degree murder conviction and a consecutive term of 97 to 129 months imprisonment for the Class D felony concealing death...
To continue reading
Request your trial