State v. Frye

• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WHICHARD
• Citation: State v. Frye, 341 N.C. 470, 461 S.E.2d 664 (N.C. 1995)
• Decision Date: 08 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 511A93,511A93
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Ronald Wayne FRYE.

Page 664

461 S.E.2d 664

341 N.C. 470

STATE of North Carolina v. Ronald Wayne FRYE.

No. 511A93.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Sept. 8, 1995.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by William P. Hart, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Constance H. Everhart, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Defendant was tried capitally for the first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon of Ralph Childress, his landlord. The jury found defendant guilty of all charges and recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder. The trial court sentenced accordingly on the murder charge. It arrested judgment on the robbery conviction because it was the basis for an aggravating circumstance found by the jury in the capital case. We hold that defendant had a fair trial, free of prejudicial error, and that the sentence of death is not disproportionate.

The State's guilt-phase evidence tended to show the following:

Leroy Childress, the victim's brother, testified that the victim owned a trailer, across the street from his home, which he had leased to defendant for about a year prior to his death. Defendant could not always pay the rent, so the victim occasionally allowed him to perform yard work in exchange for the rent owed. The victim had been trying to evict defendant for two or three months before the murder, but defendant had not left. Leroy and the victim spent the afternoon together on Saturday, 23 January 1993. At 6:00 p.m. they arrived at the victim's home where the victim wrote and signed two notes, which Leroy also signed, ordering defendant to vacate the trailer. Leroy affixed one note to the front door of the trailer and the other to the back door. The brothers then drove to Leroy's house to retrieve the victim's truck. The victim drove off to run an errand; Leroy never again saw him alive. Leroy further testified that the victim was known to carry five thousand dollars in his pocket in a roll consisting primarily of hundred-dollar bills.

The victim telephoned Leroy at about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, 24 January. He stated that defendant, who had been at his house trying to sell him a couch, would vacate the trailer in the morning. According to Leroy, the victim called because he was upset about defendant's visit. At the close of the conversation, Leroy told the victim he would see him at breakfast later that morning.

Leroy telephoned the victim about one-half hour before he planned to pick him up for breakfast. The victim did not answer; Leroy immediately rushed to his house, arriving between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. He found the storm door open and the victim lying on the floor near the door with a pair of scissors embedded in his chest. The telephone had been disconnected, so Leroy called the police from a neighbor's house.

Hickory police officers arrived at about 8:01 a.m. They found the victim with the scissors in his chest and blood around his neck area. A bloody wallet, devoid of money, lay open between his legs. The investigation of the premises revealed no sign of forced entry.

The living room furniture had been knocked over. Police found a .38 Special revolver under a cushion behind a footstool and a bloody knife blade under the cushion of an easy chair. A small file box next to the chair appeared to have been opened; police removed a latent fingerprint from the box. The television was still on.

The light in the victim's bedroom was on, the bed covers were pulled back revealing a blood smear on the mattress, and the cord to the telephone on the nightstand had been pulled out of the wall. Desk drawers were open, and clothes were scattered about the room. A knife handle was discovered on the floor near the bedroom door. Just inside the door, police found a pair of bloodstained khaki pants. In the kitchen bloodstains were found around the sink area, including the faucet handles. A silver Derringer .22-caliber pistol lay on the kitchen table with blood on its handle.

Leroy testified that the .38 Special belonged to the victim and was normally kept under the cushion of the footstool in front of the easy chair. He never kept the gun loaded; he stored the cartridges in the nightstand beside the chair. The victim also owned the Derringer and ordinarily kept it in his top dresser drawer.

Leroy and his daughter, Linda Cline, returned to the victim's house to clean it on 30 January 1993. Cline found a piece of white paper with duct tape on it in the bedroom. It said, "Get out now," in Leroy's handwriting and bore his signature. Leroy identified the paper as one of the two notes he had attached to defendant's trailer and turned it over to police on 2 February 1993.

Dr. Joseph Vogel testified about the autopsy results. The victim's body contained six discrete wounds to the neck and chest region. Dr. Vogel determined that blood loss from the stab wound to the chest from which the scissors were removed caused the victim's death. That wound penetrated through the skin and sternum into the aorta. The victim bled one and one-half liters of blood into his left chest cavity and one liter into the right. The other chest wounds were inflicted prior to death by a relatively dull instrument, such as scissors. They would have caused pain but not unconsciousness. Bruising occurred around the chest wounds, and three ribs were broken.

The victim also sustained two neck wounds which could have been inflicted by a knife blade or sharp scissors. One was almost one and one-half inches deep and cut into smaller blood vessels and some neck muscles. The other, one-half inch wide, penetrated to the bone under the chin. These wounds could have been inflicted sometime before the fatal chest wound and occurred prior to the victim's death. Nothing indicated that the victim would have lost consciousness prior to his death.

Michael Ramseur testified that defendant bought seventy-five dollars' worth of crack from him late on a Friday night in January 1993. After he had smoked it, he traded jewelry, old coins, and a microwave for more crack. He returned to Ramseur on Saturday morning, out of money. He told Ramseur he knew he could get some money from "that landlord." Defendant suggested that Ramseur rob the man, who would recognize defendant if he did it, but Ramseur refused. Defendant then told Ramseur to meet him at 11:30 on Sunday morning; he would have money with which to buy more crack. On Sunday, Ramseur saw defendant and sold him more drugs. At that time defendant had a roll of money which included five or six hundred-dollar bills.

Kenneth Berry, defendant's cousin, testified that he lived next door to the victim. He further testified that defendant came to his house between 11:30 p.m. on 23 January and 1:00 a.m. on 24 January. Defendant was drunk and tried to sell the green army jacket he was wearing and two tires to Berry. Berry told defendant not to sell his jacket and sent him away; defendant did not have a cut on his hand at that time.

Doug Propst testified that defendant visited him between 8:30 and 9:00 on 24 January and paid him the one hundred dollars he owed. The two men smoked some crack; defendant then laid a large number of hundred-dollar bills on the counter, stating it totaled three thousand dollars. Propst asked defendant where he had obtained the money, and defendant replied, "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies." Defendant stayed with Propst until Tuesday, when he was arrested. Police officers conducted a consent search of Propst's house. They seized the army jacket defendant was wearing when he arrived on 24 January, among other items.

Franki Bryson testified that she saw defendant on a Sunday morning in 1993 and that they were both smoking crack. Defendant, who then had a lot of hundred-dollar bills, asked her to buy some crack for him. She did so and continued to buy drugs for him with his money, two or three hundred dollars at a time, from Sunday until the time of his arrest. When Bryson first saw defendant on Sunday, his hand was cut. Defendant kept all his money in a roll.

Kevin Templeton testified that he had used drugs with defendant in the past. He knew the victim and had spoken with defendant several times after the murder. Templeton told defendant that he had heard that defendant had a lot of money, and he asked why he had no more left. Defendant replied that he had spent some on drugs and given some to a girl. He also told Templeton he "only meant it to be a robbery" and "got carried away." Defendant said he had obtained almost five thousand dollars.

SBI Special Agent Jennifer Elwell of the Serology Section testified about the blood she found on various pieces of evidence. She determined that: blood on the knife handle, Derringer, mattress, three areas of defendant's army jacket, and defendant's blue jeans was consistent with that of defendant; blood on the khaki pants, knife blade, and the left sleeve of defendant's army jacket was consistent with that of the victim.

SBI Special Agent Mark Boodee analyzed the DNA content of substances on several items of evidence received from Elwell. He determined that bloodstains from the knife blade and the army jacket matched the blood sample taken from the victim. He further determined that the bloodstain from the mattress matched the sample taken from defendant.

Defendant presented no evidence during the guilt phase. The State introduced no additional evidence at the sentencing phase.

Defendant's sentencing phase evidence showed the following:

Paul Burgess, the chief jailer at the Catawba County Jail, testified that defendant had caused no problems while incarcerated for nine months awaiting trial. Further, defendant had been in jail previously and had demonstrated an ability to conform to prison life.

Dr. Jerry Noble, a clinical psychologist, testified about his interviews with defendant and the results of psychological tests he...