State v. Elliott

• Decision Date: 06 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 224A94,224A94
• Citation: 344 N.C. 242,475 S.E.2d 202
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. John Robert ELLIOTT.

Page 202

475 S.E.2d 202

344 N.C. 242

STATE of North Carolina v. John Robert ELLIOTT.

No. 224A94.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Sept. 6, 1996.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by Gail E. Weis, Associate Attorney General, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Mark D. Montgomery, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

PARKER, Justice.

Defendant John Robert Elliott was tried capitally on an indictment charging him with the first-degree murder of Brandie Jean Freeman ("Brandie"). The jury returned a verdict finding defendant guilty as charged based on premeditation and deliberation. The jury also found defendant guilty of felony child abuse. Following a capital sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death for the murder; and the trial court entered judgment accordingly. The trial court also sentenced defendant to a term of ten years' imprisonment for felony child abuse. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that the jury selection, guilt-innocence phase, and sentencing proceeding of defendant's trial were free from prejudicial error and that the death sentence is not disproportionate. Accordingly, we uphold defendant's conviction and sentence for first-degree murder and his conviction and sentence for felony child abuse.

Brandie Jean Freeman was two years old at the time of her death. Defendant was the boyfriend of Brandie's mother, Bobbie Linker. Soon after moving into their home in November of 1992, defendant began taking care of Brandie while her mother was at work. Ms. Linker permitted defendant to discipline Brandie; and the evidence suggested that Brandie sustained bruises, black eyes, and other injuries while in defendant's care. After Ms. Linker became concerned that defendant was spanking Brandie too hard, defendant began using the "punishment position," a form of discipline described by witnesses as requiring Brandie to lie on her stomach with her arms and legs raised for ten to twenty minutes.

On the morning of 3 January 1993, Bobbie Linker went to work and left Brandie in defendant's care. Several hours later Brandie woke defendant and told him that she had "poopied" in her pants. This made defendant angry. Defendant cleaned and changed the victim and told her to assume the punishment position. Defendant went to the kitchen to get a glass of water for himself. When defendant returned Brandie was in the punishment position with her head raised. Defendant grabbed Brandie by the hair on the back of her head and slammed her head to the floor six or seven times.

Defendant asked the child if she was okay, and Brandie attempted to raise her arm and put it around defendant's neck. When defendant failed to get any further response from Brandie, he shook her, slapped her, and hit her in what he claimed was an effort to obtain a response. As part of this effort, defendant took Brandie to the bathroom, where he ran water over her and continued to hit and slap the child repeatedly.

At 11:45 a.m., forty-five minutes after slamming Brandie's head to the floor, defendant called Bobbie Linker and asked her if she could come home. Defendant explained that Brandie had "fallen again." When Ms. Linker arrived at her house, Brandie appeared lifeless. Defendant told Ms. Linker that Brandie had fallen off a bed.

Defendant and Ms. Linker drove Brandie to Rowan Memorial Hospital. Because of the severe nature of her injuries, Brandie was transferred to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem Dr. David Skowronek, an expert in emergency medicine, treated Brandie in the emergency room at Rowan Memorial Hospital. Skowronek observed a severe head injury and saw bruises on Brandie's cheeks, eyes, pubic area, buttocks, feet, and the entire front of her chest. Skowronek testified that there was absolutely no way that Brandie could have sustained her injuries merely by falling off a bed.

"Salem, where she died the following day.

Dr. Sarah Sinal, an expert in pediatrics and child abuse, examined Brandie after her death. Sinal observed a massive head injury; bruises over the entire course of the body; a fracture of the left wrist; and a ruptured frenulum, the membrane that attaches the lip to the gum. Sinal noticed that a great deal of hair had been forcefully pulled from Brandie's head. Sinal testified that almost all Brandie's injuries would not occur in the course of a normal child's life without someone's knowing they had happened and that the injuries could not have been sustained by falling off a bed which was seventeen inches high. In Sinal's opinion the injuries suffered by Brandie were consistent with the "battered child syndrome." Sinal opined that many of the blows to the head would have been very painful and that Brandie was probably conscious if she was able to lift her arm in an attempt to put it around defendant's neck.

Dr. Donald Jason performed an autopsy on 5 January 1993. Jason observed a substantial, forceful, blunt-force injury to the head which required more than one blow. The cause of death was the massive head injury. Jason also found multiple injuries to Brandie's chest, back, buttocks, arms, and legs. Microscopic examination of Brandie's head revealed that thirty percent of Brandie's hair had been pulled from her scalp. Brandie's injuries were consistent with having her head slammed to the floor several times while lying in a prone position on the floor.

Defendant testified during the guilt-innocence phase. According to defendant Brandie woke him to tell him that she had "poopied" in her pants. Angry, defendant cleaned Brandie, changed her, and told her to get in the punishment position. Defendant went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. When he returned Brandie did not have her head down, so he grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head and pushed her head to the floor three or four times. Contradicting evidence offered by the State which suggested that he was "coming off crack" cocaine at the time of the killing, defendant stated that he did not use crack cocaine on the day of the killing.

During the sentencing proceeding the State initially relied on the evidence presented during the guilt-innocence phase.

Defendant presented evidence that he had no infractions at Central Prison, that his school records suggested no disciplinary problems, and that he was a good employee. Defendant also presented numerous witnesses who testified to his good character, his loving relationships with family and friends, and his good relationship with Brandie.

Defendant also offered the testimony of Dr. John Warren, an expert in forensic psychology. Warren testified that defendant had substance abuse problems; that defendant's long-term use of marijuana and cocaine could cause him to be irritable; and that if defendant was "coming off crack" cocaine, his ability to conform his behavior to the dictates of the law could have been impaired.

In rebuttal the State presented the testimony of Oscar Edwards, who had been one of defendant's supervisors at Lothridge Plumbing Company. Edwards stated that on one occasion defendant cursed him, pushed him, and knocked his glasses off his head when he corrected defendant on the job.

Additional facts will be presented as necessary to address specific issues.

JURY SELECTION

By several assignments of error, defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by unduly restricting his voir dire of prospective jurors. "The voir dire of prospective jurors serves a two-fold purpose: (i) Defendant argues that the trial court erred by sustaining objections to questions which inquired into the ability of prospective jurors to stand by their convictions during jury deliberations. In the first instance cited by defendant, the trial court sustained an objection to the form of the following question:

to determine whether a basis for challenge for cause exists, and (ii) to enable counsel to intelligently exercise peremptory challenges." State v. Gregory, 340 N.C. 365, 388, 459 S.E.2d 638, 651 (1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1327, 134 L.Ed.2d 478 (1996). "Regulation of the manner and the extent of inquiries on voir dire rests largely in the trial court's discretion." State v. Green, 336 N.C. 142, 164, 443 S.E.2d 14, 27, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1046, 115 S.Ct. 642, 130 L.Ed.2d 547 (1994). "In order for the defendant to show reversible error, he must show that the trial court abused its discretion and that he was prejudiced thereby." State v. Jones, 339 N.C. 114, 134, 451 S.E.2d 826, 835 (1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2634, 132 L.Ed.2d 873 (1995).

In other words, if you believe something, you don't have to just change over because ten others did or nine voted a certain way. If you strongly believe in your heart that particular thing, that you can remain steadfast in that and will each of you do that particular thing?

"Counsel may not pose hypothetical questions designed to elicit in advance what the juror's decision will be under a certain state of the evidence or upon a given state of facts." State v. Vinson, 287 N.C. 326, 336, 215 S.E.2d 60, 68 (1975), death sentence vacated, 428 U.S. 902, 96 S.Ct. 3204, 49 L.Ed.2d 1206 (1976). "[S]uch questions tend to 'stake out' the juror and cause him to pledge himself to a future course of action." Id. In State v. Bracey, 303 N.C. 112, 277 S.E.2d 390 (1981), the defendant asked a question which required each prospective juror to assume that he had formed the opinion that the defendant was not guilty after the State presented all of its evidence. The defendant's question asked whether any juror would change his opinion simply because the eleven other jurors were of the opinion defendant was guilty. Id. at 118-19, 277 S.E.2d at 395. We concluded that this question could not reasonably be expected to result in an answer bearing on the qualification of the juror and that the...