State v. Dean
| Decision Date | 07 April 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. COA08-344.,COA08-344. |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Tyrone Lamont DEAN. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
The facts of this case are easily stated but hardly understood. Around 2:00 a.m. on 6 May 2004, twenty-two-year-old Reginald Johnson was outside an apartment complex on Weaver Street in Durham, where he lived with his mother. Nineteen-year-old Tyrone Lamont Dean ("Defendant") and five other men, all of whom were members of the "Eight-Trey Crips" gang, were outside the apartment complex selling cocaine. The men mistook Reginald Johnson for a leader of a rival gang, the "Bloods." According to one of the men who was with Defendant that night, the Crips "just ran down and started shooting." Reginald Johnson was struck and killed by the gunfire.
The Durham County Grand Jury indicted Defendant on 16 August 2004 for first-degree murder. The case was called for trial in February 2007, Judge Orlando F. Hudson presiding. On 6 March 2007, Judge Hudson declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The case was again called for trial in July 2007, Judge J.B. Allen, Jr., presiding. Defendant did not present any evidence in his defense, and the jury convicted Defendant of first-degree murder. Judge Allen sentenced Defendant to life imprisonment without parole. Defendant appeals.
Anjelica "Jelly" Johnson, who was not related to Reginald Johnson ("Reginald"), testified that she was outside the Weaver Street apartment complex on the night Reginald was killed. Jelly testified that she saw a group of men run toward Reginald, heard gunshots, and saw Reginald get hit by a bullet. Jelly, herself a member of the Crips gang, testified that she recognized Defendant as one of the men who ran toward Reginald and that Defendant was the only man she recognized. Jelly's testimony was contradicted by three prior statements. In a statement Jelly wrote and signed the same day of the shooting, she did not identify Defendant as one of the men she saw that night. About three weeks after the shooting, Jelly saw a newspaper story about the shooting which included pictures of Defendant and another man, Mario Fortune. After seeing the story, Jelly identified Mario Fortune from a photo lineup as the man she saw on 6 May 2004. At another point after the shooting, Jelly told a police officer that she was "100 percent sure" that the shooter was DeMario Boyd. Jelly acknowledged at trial that, prior to 2007, she never told anyone that she saw Defendant on the night of the shooting.
Anthony Douglas testified that he walked past Jelly and Reginald on his way home on the night of the shooting. Douglas testified that he saw shots being fired and that Defendant was one of the people shooting. Douglas' trial testimony was contradicted by two prior statements. In a statement Douglas signed the same day as the shooting, Douglas identified another man as the only person he recognized and did not identify Defendant as one of the shooters. In a second statement written and signed by Douglas soon after the shooting, Douglas did not identify Defendant as one of the shooters. At the time he gave the second statement, Douglas was not on probation and did not have any criminal charges pending against him. At the time of trial, Douglas was incarcerated and serving 28-43 months in prison, having pled guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and two felony assault charges. Douglas testified that his decision to testify against Defendant was not part of his plea agreement.
Phillipe Parker testified that he was one of the men with Defendant on Weaver Street on the night of the shooting. Parker testified that he and all of the men with him were members of the Crips gang. Parker testified that on 5 May 2004 he was with Defendant, Deshawn Mitchell, Mario Fortune, Joshua "Juicie" Johnson, and Jeffrey Allen at a duplex on Holloway Street in Durham smoking marijuana. The six men went to an apartment near Weaver Street, continued smoking marijuana, then went outside to sell cocaine. According to Parker, he was the only one of the six who was unarmed that night. Defendant had a .38 caliber weapon. The men saw Reginald, mistook him for a rival gang leader, and "just ran down and started shooting." Parker testified that he saw Defendant, Mitchell, and Juicie fire their guns at Reginald. After the shooting, Parker testified, the men went back to the Holloway Street duplex to smoke marijuana.
Parker further testified that he was arrested on 19 May 2004, along with Defendant, Fortune, and Juicie, at the Holloway Street duplex. Parker testified that at the time of his arrest he was served with a warrant for an unrelated murder and that he had five other felony charges pending against him. Parker pled guilty to the five felony charges in August 2004 and received a probationary sentence. Parker was incarcerated for two years for his involvement in the unrelated murder, but was never charged for his involvement in Reginald's murder. Parker acknowledged that he got a "[p]retty good deal[.]"
Durham Police Department Sergeant Jack Cates testified that he participated in the 19 May 2004 arrest at the Holloway Street duplex. During the arrest, Cates testified, police officers discovered a .38 caliber handgun which Parker later identified as the gun used by Defendant on 6 May 2004. Cates testified that the gun was submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation for Integrated Ballistics Identification System ("IBIS") testing. The IBIS testing revealed that the gun had been used in five other incidents in Durham: an aggravated assault on 4 May 2004, two aggravated assaults on 22 April 2004, an aggravated assault on 24 June 2003, and a vehicle shooting on 20 March 2003. Cates never testified that Defendant was involved in either the April 2004 or the 2003 incidents. Cates acknowledged on cross-examination that it was "exceptionally clear"1 that Willie Hopps committed one of the 22 April 2004 assaults and that Shamera Barbie committed the 24 June 2003 assault. During Cates' testimony, the State introduced, without objection from Defendant, a poster-size street map of Durham showing the locations of all of the prior incidents, the location of the Holloway Street duplex, and the location of the shooting on Weaver Street. While Cates testified that he "did not make any formal deals" with Parker, he acknowledged that Parker "did get a good break."
Crime scene technician Mark Bradford testified that he responded to the scene of the Weaver Street shooting on 6 May 2004. Bradford testified that he collected three different caliber shell casings at the scene, including two .38 caliber casings.
Crime scene investigator Eric Campen testified that he participated in the search of the Holloway Street duplex where he collected the following items: a .38 caliber handgun; an ammunition box containing seventeen .38 caliber bullets; a "yellow piece of paper with gang graffiti"; a "white piece of paper containing gang graffiti"; and a composition notebook. Campen examined the gun, ammunition box, and bullets for fingerprints. Campen lifted one fingerprint from the box and one fingerprint from one of the bullets inside the box. Campen testified that the lifted fingerprints matched fingerprints contained on an ink fingerprint card "assigned" to Defendant.
Cletus Paylor, fingerprint liaison officer for Durham County, testified that he collected Defendant's fingerprints on the ink fingerprint card used by Campen to identify the fingerprints he found on the ammunition box and bullet. Paylor testified that Defendant was a "detainee" on 12 March 2002 when he "rolled" Defendant's prints. The ink fingerprint card listed Defendant's name and stated that he was charged with possession of a schedule II controlled substance. The State introduced the card created by Paylor into evidence without objection from Defendant and without redacting any of the information contained on the card.
Durham Police Department Detective Anthony Smith testified that he participated in the 19 May 2004 search of the Holloway Street duplex. Smith then testified extensively about gang culture in general and the specific meanings of graffiti contained on the papers collected by Campen at the duplex. Smith stated, "There's no way to know exactly who wrote this graffiti, other than the fact that the individuals that I came into contact with in this residence are Crips."
Harvey Jones testified that he was at an apartment on Liberty Street in Durham on the afternoon of 4 May 2004 when Defendant "busted in the door[ ]" with a silver handgun and told Jones to "give it up." Jones testified that Defendant shot him in the neck, took his money, and "ran on out the door." Jones acknowledged on cross-examination that he spent ten years in prison on "a murder charge[.]"
Crime scene technician Rebecca Reid testified that she responded to the shooting at the apartment on Liberty Street and collected a .38 caliber shell casing from the apartment.
Special Agent Adam Tanner of the State Bureau of Investigation testified that the shell casing collected by Reid at the apartment on Liberty Street and the .38 caliber shell casings collected by Bradford at the scene of the shooting on Weaver Street were all fired from the handgun collected by Campen at the Holloway Street duplex. Tanner also testified that the bullet identified by a medical examiner as having caused Reginald's death was fired from a nine millimeter handgun.
Defendant presents seven issues for our review. He contends he is entitled to a...
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