State v. Fullwood

• Decision Date: 03 November 1988
• Docket Number: No. 37A86,37A86
• Citation: 323 N.C. 371,373 S.E.2d 518
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Lee FULLWOOD.

Page 518

373 S.E.2d 518

323 N.C. 371

STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Lee FULLWOOD.

No. 37A86.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 3, 1988.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Joan H. Byers, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State (original brief and argument); Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen., James J. Coman, Sr. Deputy Atty. Gen., William N. Farrell, Jr., Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., G. Patrick Murphy, and Barry S. McNeill, Asst. Attys. Gen., Raleigh, for the State (supplemental brief and argument).

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Robin E. Hudson, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant (original brief and argument); Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender, and Louis D. Bilionis, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant (supplemental brief and argument).

E. Ann Christian and Robert E. Zaytoun, Raleigh, for North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, amicus curiae.

John A. Dusenbury, Jr., Asheville, for North Carolina Ass'n of Black Lawyers, amicus curiae.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Defendant was convicted of first degree murder and felonious breaking or entering. The jury recommended the death sentence for the murder, and the trial court sentenced accordingly. It also sentenced defendant to ten years in prison for the breaking or entering. We find no error.

The State's evidence, in pertinent summary, showed the following:

Defendant and Deidre Waters had dated for approximately three and one-half years. They had a child, Michelle, born on 14 April 1984, and moved into an apartment together in August 1984. In early March 1985, defendant and Deidre had an argument, after which defendant left town for three weeks. While he was gone, defendant made several collect calls to Deidre at her apartment and at her workplace. Deidre tried to get the locks on the apartment changed. On 24 March 1985, defendant returned to town, broke into the apartment, and stayed there for a few days.

On 28 March, Deidre went to work as a day care teacher at the home of Michael Due to transportation problems, Deidre spent that night at her mother's house. She told her mother, Elaine Mills, that she was tired of defendant's threats and that she had taken out a warrant on him. Defendant called Ms. Mills five or six times during the night trying to find Deidre. At Deidre's request, Ms. Mills told defendant that she had not seen Deidre.

and Camille Hawks. She called her grandmother and asked if she could spend the next several nights with [323 N.C. 376] her. After work, Deidre went to defendant's mother's house, picked up Michelle, and went to her mother's home. Later that evening she drove her mother's beige car to the Buncombe County Courthouse and went to the magistrate's office. Magistrate James Maney testified that Deidre asked for a communicating threats warrant against defendant. Deidre told Maney that defendant had threatened to cut her head off and to cut her heart out and take it to her mother or grandmother. She told the magistrate she was planning to stay with her grandmother, and she requested a police escort to get clothes from her apartment.

On the morning of 29 March, defendant again phoned Ms. Mills' home, but Deidre did not talk to him. At 7:45 a.m. defendant went to the home of an acquaintance, Betty Holloway, and asked if he could watch out her kitchen window for a beige car which would take him to work. Ms. Mills' home could be seen from Ms. Holloway's home. Defendant left the Holloway residence around 8:00 a.m.

At about the same time, Ms. Mills and Deidre left the Mills' home. A neighbor testified that he saw Deidre and Ms. Mills get into their car and drive away and that he then saw defendant jog down the hill in the direction of the car.

At 8:20 a.m. Ms. Mills dropped Deidre off at the Hawks' residence. While Ms. Hawks was still at home, Deidre received calls from defendant's mother and from defendant. Deidre told defendant's mother that she had taken out the warrant because she was tired of defendant threatening to cut her head off and to cut her heart out. Ms. Hawks left her home around 8:30 a.m.

At 9:30 a.m. Robin Ferrell arrived at the Hawks' home to leave her child at the day care center. She went to the front door, found the door locked, and began knocking. When there was no answer, she went to the front window. The window was broken. She saw blood in the house and heard the children crying. Ms. Ferrell phoned Mr. Hawks from a neighbor's house; she then returned to the Hawks' home, coaxed the children to the window, and lifted them out. The children told her that Deidre was sleeping on the floor and that a man was sleeping on the floor with her.

When Mr. Hawks arrived, he and Ms. Ferrell went into the house. They found Deidre on the living room floor with her head against the base of the couch. She had no pulse and her eyes were open, dilated and glassy. Her neck was "severely cut," and her chest was "completely covered with blood." Defendant lay across her legs with his head near her lap. When Mr. Hawks pulled defendant off Deidre, defendant moaned and moved around. Mr. Hawks moved a knife, which was near defendant, to the foyer. He and Ms. Ferrell went outside to wait for the police.

At 10:00 a.m. medical personnel arrived and attempted to give first aid to defendant, who had a wound in his stomach and wounds on his neck and arms. Defendant fought with them. When they got him on the stretcher, he said, "Don't stab me anymore, don't stab me anymore." The paramedic who put defendant in the ambulance expressed the opinion that defendant was not in shock at that time.

Sergeant Ted Lambert and Detective Walt Roberson of the Asheville Police Department arrived at the scene at 10:10 a.m. Sergeant Lambert noticed the broken window and blood on the floor in the foyer. They found the bloody knife which Mr. Hawks had moved lying in the foyer. Deidre was lying on the living room floor with blood on her clothing, underneath her and throughout the living room. The paramedics were treating defendant. They found blood in the sitting room, on the outside of the first floor bathroom door and on the walls, mirror and commode in the bathroom.

The bathroom door appeared to have been forced open. In the dining room they found defendant's grey jacket, pieces of the broken window glass, and the plastic from the window covering. The cord of the dining room telephone had been pulled from the jack, and the receiver lay on the floor. There was blood on the jacket, the window glass and plastic, the phone receiver, the walls and the floor.

In the kitchen they found blood on the floor, the counter, and the refrigerator. A bloody butcher knife with defendant's palm print on it lay on the kitchen counter, and a steak knife with traces of blood on it lay under the high chair. There was also blood on the stairway and on the upstairs phone.

Lieutenant William Gibson of the Asheville Police Department took blood scrapings from many areas in the house. The tests revealed that the blood on the butcher knife was consistent with that of defendant and Deidre, the blood on the knife in the foyer was defendant's, and the steak knife did not have enough blood on it that the source of the blood could be traced. The blood throughout the house was consistent with that of either defendant or Deidre.

The autopsy on Deidre's body disclosed twenty-four significant wounds, most of which were slash wounds. Two of the wounds were capable of causing death: a deep slashing wound on her neck which cut her carotid artery, and a penetrating wound on her anterior chest which went into her right lung. Dr. George Lacy, the pathologist, testified that Deidre could have survived from fifteen to forty-five minutes after receiving the fatal wounds. The Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Page Hudson, testified that, in his opinion, she died within a few minutes after receiving these wounds.

Dr. Frank Edwards, an emergency room doctor, testified that defendant was in shock when he was admitted to the hospital. Dr. Joseph Noto, the surgeon who treated defendant, testified that defendant had a series of parallel superficial cuts on his wrists and neck. He had a stab wound in his abdomen. Dr. Noto opined that because the wounds were straight and precise, the neck, wrist and abdomen wounds were all self-inflicted. Dr. Hudson agreed that the wrist and neck wounds were self-inflicted and said that it was "more likely than not" that the abdominal wound was self-inflicted, although "it could have been inflicted by someone else."

Grover Matthews, a police detective, testified that while defendant was in the emergency room he said that his girlfriend had stabbed him. The trial court did not allow this statement into evidence.

From the circumstantial evidence, the State developed the theory that defendant broke the dining room window and came into the house. Deidre, who was trying to phone for help, tried to keep him out. Defendant went to the kitchen and got the butcher knife. Deidre ran to the bathroom and locked herself in, but defendant forced the door open and began stabbing her. She managed to get away and ran into the living room, where he caught her and inflicted the fatal wounds. He then selected a smaller knife from the kitchen and inflicted wounds upon himself.

The defense conceded that defendant had killed Deidre and asked for a verdict of guilty of second degree murder. Defense counsel argued that defendant was in an emotional turmoil, was stabbed in the stomach by Deidre, and did not premeditate or deliberate regarding the killing. Defense counsel presented several character witnesses for defendant. A clinical correctional psychologist testified to defendant's low IQ and opined that defendant's relationships with Deidre and Michelle were "the foundation of his life" and that he could not deal with his perception that Deidre was leaving him and taking Michelle with her.

On the murder charge, the jury considered possible verdicts...