State v. Faulk

• Decision Date: 07 November 2017
• Docket Number: No. COA17-194,COA17-194
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina, v. Tiffany FAULK, Defendant.

256 N.C.App. 255

807 S.E.2d 623

STATE of North Carolina,

v.Tiffany FAULK, Defendant.

No. COA17-194

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Filed: November 7, 2017

Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Special Deputy Attorney General Richard L. Harrison, for the State.

Massengale & Ozer, Chapel Hill, by Marilyn G. Ozer, for Defendant-Appellant.

INMAN, Judge.

When the evidence relevant to a defendant's motion to suppress is undisputed, a trial court denying the motion need not make findings of fact, but it must explain its rationale. Failure to do so precludes meaningful appellate review and requires remand.

Tiffany Faulk ("Defendant") appeals from a judgment following a jury verdict finding her guilty of first degree murder on the basis of malice, premeditation and deliberation. Defendant argues that: (1) the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury on the defense of duress; (2) the trial court abused its discretion by allowing into evidence photographs depicting the victim's injuries and the crime scene; and (3) the trial court erred by denying her motions to suppress other evidence. After careful review, we remand to the trial court to make the necessary conclusions of law regarding Defendant's motions to suppress.

Factual and Procedural History

The evidence at trial tended to show the following:

On 6 November 2010, Defendant and Kenneth Gore ("Gore") were staying with a friend in the Berry Court Apartments in Chadbourn, North Carolina. On occasion, and twice on 6 November 2010, Defendant would knock on Ms. Bonnie Fowler's door to use her phone. Ms. Fowler, a 77-year-old woman, lived alone in the apartment next door to where Defendant and Gore were staying, and would oblige Defendant's request to make calls.

At some point in the late afternoon or early evening of 6 November 2010, Ms. Fowler was attacked in her kitchen. She suffered repeated blows to the head and multiple stab wounds

, and died as a result of her injuries. Security footage from the apartment complex showed Ms. Fowler's car leaving the parking lot that same evening at approximately 8:13 p.m.

The next day, 7 November 2010, around 9:00 a.m., Ms. Fowler's daughter arrived at her mother's apartment to pick her mother up for church. When Ms. Fowler did not answer her door, her daughter retrieved an extra key and let herself into Ms. Fowler's apartment. Upon entering, Ms. Fowler's daughter found the apartment ransacked and her mother's body in the kitchen; she immediately called 9-1-1.

Police arrived and secured the crime scene. Detectives found several bloody footprints in the kitchen. Police also found a hammer in one of the closets, which later tested positive for the presence of Ms. Fowler's blood. The medical examiner documented numerous injuries, which included several defensive wounds

and stab wounds. The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was from multiple stab wounds to Ms. Fowler's chest.

On 9 November 2010, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (the "SBI") contacted the Maryland State Police regarding Defendant's and Gore's outstanding arrest warrants in connection with Ms. Fowler's death. The SBI provided Maryland police with copies of the arrest warrants and a description of the homicide and apparent theft of Ms. Fowler's car. Maryland police contacted Defendant's sister, who was living in Baltimore. Defendant's sister took police to a row house in Baltimore where Defendant and Gore were staying.

Maryland police converged on the row house, and as officers knocked on the front door, Gore fled out the back door where he was immediately apprehended by police. Gore told police that Defendant was upstairs, and two officers entered the row house, performed a protective sweep, and arrested Defendant. The officers secured the house while a search warrant was obtained. While the officers were waiting for the warrant, the owner of the house arrived.

Once the warrant was issued, the owner of the row house led police to items identified as belonging to Defendant and Gore. The police recovered various items from the basement, including the following: clothing, a steak knife, a pair of Jordan tennis shoes, a pair of Adidas tennis shoes, a cell phone, and a pill bottle with Ms. Fowler's name on it. Crime lab results from the items revealed that the two pairs of shoes were consistent with the shoes that made the bloody shoeprints in Ms. Fowler's apartment. The Adidas tennis shoes also tested positive for Ms. Fowler's DNA.

On 17 November 2010, Defendant provided police with a voluntary statement concerning the events leading up to her arrest. During the interview, Defendant told police that she had used Ms. Fowler's phone twice on 6 November 2010, witnessed Gore stab Ms. Fowler while Ms. Fowler was bleeding on the kitchen floor, and drove Ms. Fowler's car to Baltimore with Gore. Defendant explained that she had not attempted to flee from Gore because she was afraid of how he would react.

Defendant was indicted on 10 February 2011 for one count of first degree murder and on 6 October 2011 for one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. A hearing was held on 25 July 2016 to address Defendant's various pre-trial motions, including three motions to suppress—the first filed in August 2013 and the second two filed on 5 and 14 July 2016.

At the outset of the hearing, Defendant's counsel withdrew the August 2013 motion to suppress. Defendant's counsel proceeded to argue the motions filed on 5 and 14 July 2016, which sought to exclude evidence obtained from the Baltimore row house following Defendant's arrest and pursuant to a search warrant and Defendant's statement to police. The trial court denied the motions, announcing from the bench that "the State has met its burden, proven by a preponderance of the evidence; that the challenged evidence is admissible." The trial court then instructed the prosecutor to draft a written order disposing of the motions to suppress, stating that "there's no conflict as to the testimony and the evidence presented." The trial court then asked whether there was "[a]nything else we need to address from the defense in regards to those motions?" Defense counsel responded, "No, sir."

At trial, Defendant's counsel properly objected to each item of evidence which the motions to suppress sought to exclude. Following presentation of the evidence, the trial court instructed the jury on first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation, armed robbery, and felony murder based on armed robbery. The trial court also instructed the jury on duress as a defense to the armed robbery and first degree murder on the basis of felony murder charges.

The jury returned a verdict finding Defendant guilty of first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation and guilty of robbery with a dangerous weapon. The trial court imposed a mandatory life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for the first degree murder conviction and 73 to 97 months in prison for the robbery with a dangerous weapon conviction.

Defendant entered a notice of appeal in open court.

Analysis

I. Jury Instructions

Defendant first argues that the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury on duress as a defense to the charge of first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation. We disagree.

Both parties assert plain error as the proper standard of review on appeal because Defendant's counsel failed to renew his request for a duress instruction as a defense for premeditation and deliberation. However, our Supreme Court's decision in Wall v. Stout , 310 N.C. 184, 189, 311 S.E.2d 571, 574 (1984), suggests that a defendant properly preserves a jury instructional issue when "a request to alter an instruction has been submitted and the trial judge has considered and refused the request." Here, Defendant's initial request for a duress instruction, coupled with the trial court's subsequent refusal, would appear to satisfy the issue of preservation. However, as discussed below, Defendant has failed to demonstrate that the trial court erred, and is therefore unsuccessful under either a plain error or de novo review.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has held that "duress is not a defense to murder in North Carolina." State v. Cheek , 351 N.C. 48, 61, 520 S.E.2d 545, 553 (1999). Our Court, relying on the decision in Cheek , has held further that a trial court does not commit plain error by failing to instruct a jury on the defense of duress for a charge of first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation. State v. Clodfelter , 203 N.C. App. 60, 68, 691 S.E.2d 22, 27 (2010) (overruling the defendant's argument that the trial court committed plain error because "[d]uress is not a defense to first degree murder[,]" and the jury found the defendant guilty "on the basis of premeditation and deliberation").

Notwithstanding established precedent, Defendant cites State v. Gibson , 333 N.C. 29, 424 S.E.2d 95 (1992), overruled on other grounds by State v. Lynch , 334 N.C. 402, 432 S.E.2d 349 (1993), and State v. Grant , 178 N.C. App. 565, 632 S.E.2d 258 (2006), in support of her contention that duress may be used as a permissible defense to first degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation. However, a close reading of these decisions reveals that neither reaches the issue of whether it is proper for a trial court to instruct on the defense of duress; rather, the decisions address whether—when a defendant attacks the intent element of premeditation and deliberation by arguing duress at the commission of the crime—the State may properly submit evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts under Rule 404(b) of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence. Gibson , 333 N.C. at 42-43, 424 S.E.2d at 103 ; Grant , 178 N.C. App. at 578, 632 S.E.2d at 268. Both decisions resolved this issue in favor of the State. Gibson , 333 N.C. at 42-43, 424 S.E.2d at 103 (holding that statements...