State v. Fowler

• Decision Date: 05 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. COA02-730.,COA02-730.
• Citation: 159 NC App. 504,583 S.E.2d 637
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Joshua Dwayne FOWLER.

583 S.E.2d 637

159 NC App. 504

STATE of North Carolina v. Joshua Dwayne FOWLER.

No. COA02-730.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

August 5, 2003.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Thomas J. Pitman, for the State.

Appellate Defender Staples Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender Charlesena Elliott Walker, for the defendant.

LEVINSON, Judge.

Defendant (Joshua Fowler) appeals his conviction of first degree murder. We conclude the defendant had a fair trial, free from prejudicial error.

Most of the relevant facts are not in dispute. Defendant and Stacey Jones were high school classmates and began dating in early 2001. Stacey was a strong, athletic girl who was a cheerleader at school, lifted weights, and held a part-time waitress job which required her to lift heavy trays. On 12 April 2001, Stacey and defendant attended their school prom together; shortly before the prom, Stacey's car was cleaned and waxed by her parents and Stacey gave herself a manicure. On the afternoon of 17 April 2001, Stacey dropped by defendant's house before her shift at the restaurant. After eating lunch, she and defendant left his house together, with defendant driving her car. They drove to several nearby places, then parked along a secluded dirt road frequented by local teenagers. While stopped at the side of the road, defendant and Stacey argued about their relationship. The dispute included profanity and some scuffling. At some point, defendant choked Stacey to death with a waitress apron from the back seat of her car. Defendant put her body into the trunk of the car and drove away. He eventually abandoned the car about a half mile from his house and walked home.

Meanwhile, Stacey's parents, who expected her home from the restaurant by midnight, became upset when she failed to return by 2:00 a.m. Lucy Jones, Stacey's mother, testified that she called the defendant's house several times over the following twelve hours, but that defendant claimed to know nothing about Stacey's whereabouts, saying only that "he hoped nothing bad had happened to her." While Ms. Jones waited by the phone, Stacey's father drove nearby rural roads, trying to find his daughter. At about 2:00 p.m. the next day, 18 April 2001, defendant's mother spotted Stacey's car where the defendant left it, and called local law enforcement agencies. Detective Gregg Cole of the Columbus County Sheriff's Department was dispatched to the car's location, along with Detective H.H. Coffman. When they discovered Stacey's body in the trunk, the law enforcement officers went to defendant's house.

Upon arriving at defendant's house, the law enforcement officers informed the defendant of his Miranda rights. Defendant then admitted that he killed Stacey by choking her and offered to show them where the killing occurred. Defendant rode with Detective Coffman. At trial, Coffman testified that during the drive defendant told him that on 17 April 2001 he and Stacey argued about the fact that she was pregnant, and that he had been impatient with "her constant bickering and arguing." Defendant also told Coffman he first strangled Stacey with his hands by accident, but then removed his hands; however, when Stacey renewed the argument, defendant "was mad and tired of her junk," and so he "took a thick string and wrapped it around her throat and pulled it tight ... until she died."

SBI Agent Oaks, who examined the crime scene, testified that Stacy's car was clean and her nails were not broken. Her body was found face down in the trunk, with an apron string wrapped twice around her neck. The `skirt' part of the apron had been torn from the string, and was found separately inside the trunk. When Stacey's body was discovered, the string was tied in two double knots located on the right side of her neck. Strands of her hair and bits of pine straw were caught up in the knots. Dr. John Butts, North Carolina Chief Medical Examiner, offered his expert opinion that Stacey died from strangulation with the apron string. She also had several bruises and abrasions on her upper body and head, including a bruise on the right side of her face which in Dr. Butts' opinion had been caused by "blunt force trauma." Butts testified that the overall pattern of bruising on Stacey's neck was consistent with an individual choking her from behind, by pulling on the apron string wrapped around her neck. Dr. Butts testified further that at the time she was killed Stacey was in the early stages of pregnancy.

Defendant's trial testimony confirmed many of the details offered by the State's witnesses. Defendant testified that on 17 April 2001 he and Stacey were arguing about issues associated with their relationship, and that when they arrived at the dirt road he got out of the car for a few minutes to "cool off." However, when he got back into the car they continued to quarrel and, after a brief exchange of profanity, Stacey hit him on the shoulder. Defendant testified that he put his hand around Stacey's neck to keep her away from him, but when she continued to struggle with him, defendant "leaned over where my seat reclined back" and saw Stacey's waitress apron. Defendant testified further that after he noticed the apron "all [he] remember[ed] was grabbing it and throwing it around her neck and holding it and she stopped moving." Defendant denied that he intended to kill Stacey, testifying that "I don't remember having no intent to do nothing. I just—after she hit me and we started fighting, I lost it; and I don't remember much at all." He also testified on direct examination that he became upset when he realized Stacey was not moving. He went around to the passenger side of the car, dragged her out on the ground, and attempted to revive her. He testified that when he strangled Stacey the apron was in one piece, but when he got her out of the car and tried to remove the apron from around her neck, the apron skirt ripped away from the apron string. When he could not get the apron string off and saw that Stacey's face was blue, defendant panicked and put her body in the vehicle's trunk.

On cross-examination, the State tried to establish that defendant had subdued or disabled Stacey before he strangled her, and that he had ripped the skirt part off the apron before twisting the apron string around her neck. The prosecutor confronted defendant with the contradiction between the evidence that defendant suffered no fingernail scratches or serious bruises during the incident, and his testimony that Stacey was a strong girl who was struggling with him even while he was choking her. He was also cross-examined about the fact that although defendant testified he had choked Stacey while they were both inside the car and he was in the driver's seat to Stacey's left, the knots on the apron string were on the right side of Stacey's neck. Defendant was further challenged regarding his testimony that the apron was in one piece when he strangled Stacey, and was cross-examined about the difficulty of removing the skirt part of the apron after it had been wrapped twice around Stacey's neck and tied in two double knots. Defendant, however, continued to deny that he rendered Stacey unconscious before he strangled her, and testified repeatedly that he simply "didn't remember" the other details of the incident.

Following trial, the jury convicted defendant of premeditated and deliberate first degree murder, and the trial court sentenced him to a life sentence without parole. From this conviction and sentence, defendant appeals.

I.

Defendant argues first that the trial court committed reversible error by allowing Detective Cole to demonstrate, over defendant's objection, how the apron string was wrapped and tied around Stacey's neck. He contends that the demonstration was inadmissible and that any probative value it may have had was greatly outweighed by its prejudicial effect. He also argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a mistrial based upon the demonstration. We disagree.

Relevant evidence is evidence "having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 401 (2001). In a murder case, evidence is relevant if it "`tends to shed light upon the circumstances surrounding the killing.'" State v. Richmond, 347 N.C. 412, 428, 495 S.E.2d 677, 685 (quoting State v. Stager, 329 N.C. 278, 322, 406 S.E.2d 876, 901 (1991)), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 843, 119 S.Ct. 110, 142 L.Ed.2d 88 (1998). However, relevant evidence "may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence." N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 403 (2001). Further, decisions regarding "[a]dmission of evidence [are] `addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court and may be disturbed on appeal only where an abuse of such discretion is clearly shown.'" Lane v. R.N. Rouse & Co., 135 N.C.App. 494, 498, 521 S.E.2d 137, 140 (1999) (quoting Sloan v. Miller Building Corp., 128 N.C.App. 37, 45, 493 S.E.2d 460, 465 (1997)), disc. review denied, 351 N.C. 357, 542 S.E.2d 212 (2000). The same standard applies to evidence offered on rebuttal, as "`[i]t is within the trial judge's discretion to admit evidence on rebuttal which would have been otherwise admissible, and the appellate courts will not interfere absent a showing of gross abuse of discretion.'" State v. Anthony, 354 N.C. 372, 421, 555 S.E.2d 557, 588 (quoting State v. Carson, 296 N.C. 31, 44, 249 S.E.2d 417, 425 (1978)), cert. denied, 354 N.C. 575, 559 S.E.2d 184 (2001), cert. denied, 536 U.S. 930, 153 L.Ed.2d 791 (2002).

This Court has defined a demonstration as "an illustration or explanation, as of a theory or product, by exemplification or...