State v. Dew
| Decision Date | 29 October 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 284PA20,284PA20 |
| Citation | 864 S.E.2d 268,379 N.C. 64 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Jeremy Wade DEW |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
379 N.C. 64
864 S.E.2d 268
STATE of North Carolina
v.
Jeremy Wade DEW
No. 284PA20
Supreme Court of North Carolina.
Filed October 29, 2021
Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Wes Saunders, Assistant Attorney General, for the State-appellee.
Glenn Gerding, Appellate Defender, by Daniel Shatz, Assistant Appellate Defender, for the defendant-appellant.
HUDSON, Justice.
¶ 1 Here we must determine whether there is sufficient evidence, in the light most favorable to the State, that defendant committed multiple assaults against his girlfriend when the testimony tended to show that he beat her in her family's trailer and also in her car as they traveled home. Because we conclude that there was sufficient evidence of multiple assaults to submit the issue to the jury, we hold that the trial court did not err by denying defendant's motion to dismiss all but one assault charge.
I. Factual and Procedural Background
¶ 2 In 2016, Mindy Ray Davis and defendant Jeremy Wade Dew were in a relationship and living together in Sims, North Carolina. On 29 July 2016, Davis and defendant drove to Atlantic Beach with defendant's four-year-old daughter to spend the weekend with Davis's parents who owned a trailer there. Both Davis and defendant testified at trial, but gave different accounts of the events that occurred between 29 July and 31 July 2016.
¶ 3 The following is a summary of Davis's account: On 30 July 2016, defendant, Davis, and defendant's daughter spent the evening outside socializing with neighbors. Davis testified that around 9:00 p.m., she took defendant's daughter back inside the trailer to put her to bed. The trailer had three bedrooms. The bedroom at the front of the trailer where defendant and Davis stayed was separated from the other two bedrooms by the communal living spaces. Davis stayed with defendant's daughter until she fell asleep on the couch in the living room around 9:30 p.m. or 9:45 p.m.
¶ 4 When Davis went back outside, she and defendant went a few trailers over to hang out with her cousin from Virginia. According to her testimony, Davis danced with her cousin and defendant's "whole demeanor changed." Defendant left the trailer and got in the car, drove down the street of the trailer park, drove back, and ultimately went inside the trailer he was staying in with Davis and locked Davis out. After Davis called defendant's phone several times and knocked on the window of the trailer, defendant let her into the trailer.
¶ 5 Once inside, Davis walked to the bedroom at the front of the trailer to change into clothing to sleep in. Davis testified that defendant "just hauled off and hit [her] upside the head." She testified that defendant hit her "over and over,"—a continuous, nonstop beating—for at least two hours. Specifically, defendant hit her "upside the head and ear, on each side," "kicked [her] in the chest," bit her nose and her ear, "punched [her] in the nose," "head-butted [her] twice," and "strangled [her] until vomiting." She recounted that during the attack defendant called her a "slut" and told her that she embarrassed him and that she was making him do this.
¶ 6 Davis testified that she did not fight him back because she was too scared and had never been through anything like that before. Defendant also threatened to throw her in the Buckhorn Reservoir if Davis said anything to defendant's ex-wife and told Davis he could be the next "Tick Bailey," a reference to a man who killed his ex-wife. Davis testified
that defendant told her if she made any noise, he would kill everyone in the trailer.
¶ 7 When the beating was over, defendant said "[w]e're leaving and we're going home." He made Davis take the sheets off the bed, which were stained with her blood, and clean the mattress cover. Davis wiped down the mattress cover and took the sheets off the bed and put them on the dresser. Davis grabbed their bags and took them out to the car. At that point, defendant went to get his daughter off the couch and made Davis get into the driver's seat of the car. He then changed his mind and made Davis get into the passenger's seat. Defendant put his daughter in the backseat of the car.
¶ 8 Davis testified that during the entire car ride back to Sims defendant hit her on the side of her head where she ultimately ended up with a ruptured eardrum. Defendant pulled off the road several times, reached over and was "jacking [her] up to the ceiling of the car, strangling [her]." Davis estimated that three times defendant made her take off her seat belt and open the door, and told her that he was going to push her out. Defendant also threw Davis's phone out of the window of the car.
¶ 9 They arrived in Sims approximately two hours after they left Atlantic Beach. When they arrived, defendant told Davis that if she called the police or went to stay with her sister, he would cut himself with a knife and say that she did it so that she would have to go to jail. Davis testified that she believed defendant because she thought he was "crazy enough to do something like that." The next morning, Davis's sister came to the house and called 911.
¶ 10 The parties stipulated that Davis suffered a concussion, a ruptured eardrum, and a nondisplaced nose fracture. She underwent two surgeries to save her hearing due to the ruptured eardrum.
¶ 11 Defendant also testified at trial. According to defendant, sometime after dinner on 30 July 2016, he and Davis went to a party a few trailers down from Davis's parents’ trailer. They were at the party for about an hour and a half, and defendant went back to the trailer to check on his daughter every once in a while.
¶ 12 One time after checking on his daughter, defendant returned to find Davis "with another man." Defendant testified that he felt "disgusted," "angry," "[h]urt," and "[e]mbarrassed." He went back to the trailer and debated calling his parents to pick him and his daughter up, but decided not to. Defendant did not remember locking the trailer door, but he received a text from Davis that said she was locked out, so defendant unlocked the door for her, and she came inside. According to defendant,
Davis tried to frantically explain the situation while defendant began packing up his things to leave.
¶ 13 Defendant testified that when he bent over to get his cell phone charger, Davis came up behind him, bit him on his left shoulder, wrapped her nails around him, and hit him. In response, defendant bucked his head back "pretty hard" into her head "[t]o get her off" of him three or four times. Defendant and Davis fell face first on the floor, and there was a tussle to get up. Defendant testified that the whole episode lasted about two minutes. Afterwards, he said they both calmed down and went out onto the porch to smoke a cigarette together. Defendant denied biting Davis on the nose or the ear but acknowledged that his head hit her in the nose. He denied beating Davis for two hours in the trailer and for two hours on the ride home. He also testified that he did not know what happened to her phone.
¶ 14 Defendant testified that it was Davis's idea to go home that night. Defendant got his daughter and put her in the car seat in the back seat of the car while Davis was in the driver's seat warming up the car. According to defendant, Davis drove the whole way home and they just listened to the radio. When they arrived at the house in Sims, defendant put his daughter in bed and defendant and Davis went to sleep in the same
bed. Defendant testified that the next morning Davis's sister came over and was "screaming and hollering." Defendant put his daughter in his car and drove to his parents’ house.
¶ 15 On 1 August 2016, defendant was arrested. The defendant went to trial on the following five bills of information in which he was charged with the following seven offenses:
| 16CRS53232 | First-degree kidnapping |
| 16CRS53233 | 1 – Assault by strangulation |
| 2 – Assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury through fists and hands resulting in a ruptured eardrum | |
| 16CRS53234 | Assault on a female through a kick to the head |
| 16CRS53235 | Assault on a female through a headbutt to the forehead |
| 16CRS53236 | 1 – Assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury through fists, hands, and teeth resulting in a fractured nose |
| 2 – Communicating threats |
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