State v. Glenn

• Decision Date: 12 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. 60A92,60A92
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Johnny Bradley GLENN.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 688

425 S.E.2d 688

333 N.C. 296

STATE of North Carolina v. Johnny Bradley GLENN.

No. 60A92.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Feb. 12, 1993.

Appeal as of right by defendant pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing two consecutive life sentences entered by Ferrell, J., at the 19 August 1991 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Mecklenburg County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. Heard in the Supreme Court 14 January 1993.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Thomas J. Ziko, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Isabel Scott Day, Public Defender by Grady Jessup, Asst. Public Defender, Charlotte, for defendant-appellant.

MEYER, Justice.

Defendant was indicted by a Mecklenburg County grand jury on 11 March 1991 for the murders of Johnnie Sampson and Subrina Osborne. Defendant was tried capitally in Superior Court, Mecklenburg County, in August 1991, and the jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of the first-degree murders of Sampson and Osborne. Following a sentencing proceeding conducted pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended sentences of life imprisonment for both convictions of first-degree murder. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, Judge Ferrell sentenced defendant to two life sentences for the murders. Defendant appeals to this Court as of right.

Evidence presented at defendant's trial shows the following. On 1 December 1990, the two victims, defendant, and Forist Foster lived in Sampson's residence at 1932 Umstead Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. Osborne and defendant were dating and shared a bedroom. In the afternoon prior to the murders, Foster and Sampson were sitting in the house watching football. Osborne ran into the house and asked Sampson if she could hide in his bedroom because she "was scared of [defendant] ... [b]ecause he had been drinking." Osborne then went into Sampson's bedroom and hid. Some time later, defendant ran into the house and went into his and Osborne's bedroom. After rummaging around in the room, defendant returned to the living room and started talking to Sampson. Defendant then started hitting Sampson. Foster asked defendant to leave, and when defendant ignored him, Foster went to call the police. Foster ran to the Villa Heights Store and found that he could not use the phone there. Foster then ran to Louis Cunningham's house and told Cunningham that defendant was "beatin' [the victim Sampson] up." Foster asked Cunningham to walk back down to Sampson's with him. Upon arriving at Sampson's house, Foster found the front door ajar. When Foster and Cunningham went into the house, they saw Sampson lying on the floor, with blood all over his face. They then walked down the hallway and found Osborne, with blood all over her, lying in the hallway. Foster then went to John Kirby's Mart and called the police.

That evening at approximately 6:22 p.m., Charlotte Police Officer David Schwob went to 1932 Umstead Street in response to a dispatcher's call. As Officer Schwob approached the front door, he saw a male figure, later identified as Johnnie Sampson, lying on the floor in the living room. Upon opening the storm door, Schwob noticed drops of blood on the floor just inside the doorway and a large amount of blood underneath Sampson's body. Schwob then looked down a hallway and observed a female victim, later identified as Subrina Osborne, lying on her back. The female victim's face, neck, and chest area were covered with blood. Schwob subsequently advised his supervisor that he had located two deceased subjects and requested crime scene search technicians and a homicide investigator.

On 2 December 1990 at approximately 11:00 a.m., Officer G.L. Robbins with the Charlotte Police Department was dispatched to Number 11, 1530 Hawthorne Lane. Defendant, or someone on his behalf, had called the police department and requested that an officer come down and carry defendant to the Law Enforcement Center to talk to an investigator. Upon Robbins' arrival at the apartment, he was met by defendant and his three sisters. Robbins told defendant and his sisters that defendant was not under arrest. Officers Brandon and Hobson arrived at 1530 Hawthorne Lane approximately five minutes after Robbins. Brandon and Hobson had a conversation with defendant's sisters as defendant and Robbins were leaving en route to the Law Enforcement Center. Pursuant to the conversation, one of defendant's sisters gave Hobson a grocery bag containing personal property of the defendant. Hobson turned the bag over to Robbins, who was already in his police car with defendant in the back seat.

Robbins transported defendant to the Law Enforcement Center along with the bag of defendant's personal effects. At the Law Enforcement Center, Robbins introduced defendant to Investigator L.D. Walker. After Walker seated defendant in an interview room, he then walked back out to talk with Robbins. While Robbins was explaining that the bag belonged to defendant, Robbins looked down into the bag, which was partially open, and saw a spot of blood on a boot inside the bag. Robbins told Walker about the spot of blood on the boot. Robbins then gave the bag to Brandon, who turned the bag of clothes in to the Property Control Room.

Walker went back into the interview room, where he began questioning defendant at approximately 12:00 p.m. Defendant initially told Walker that he did not commit the offenses but that he might know who did. Walker then advised defendant that since one of the victims was defendant's girlfriend, this may indicate he was a suspect. At this point, Walker advised defendant of his Miranda rights, and defendant then signed a waiver of rights form. Walker then told defendant that he was considered a suspect in the case, but defendant denied any involvement in the murders. Walker asked defendant about the blood on defendant's boot that was in the bag of clothes. Initially, defendant told Walker that around midnight, he had walked into the house after the murders had been committed and that was how he had gotten blood on his shoes. Walker told him that this was impossible based on the fact that the police had already roped off the area. Walker then asked defendant why he killed the two victims. At this point, "tears came into [defendant's] eyes, and he stated, 'I did it because I caught them f---ing in bed.' " Defendant then gave a statement to Walker which Walker reduced to writing and had defendant sign.

In his confession, defendant stated that on 1 December 1990, he and Osborne rented a room from Sampson. After defendant sat around drinking with Sampson, Foster, and Osborne, he left the house to go walking around. When he arrived back at the house, he did not see anyone. He walked down to Sampson's room and "looked into the bedroom and saw [Sampson] and [Osborne] f---ing in the bed." Defendant stated that he "totally flipped out" and "went into a fit of rage." At this point, he said that he grabbed a steak knife from his back pocket and stabbed Osborne in the back. Defendant said he then went after Sampson. Defendant stabbed Sampson "several times," and he stated that he thought he left the knife in Sampson. Defendant then went to the kitchen to get another knife. He found a butter knife and then went and stabbed Sampson some more. Defendant stated that as he was walking down the hallway, Osborne grabbed his legs. He "turned and kicked her and then ... stomped her with [his] foot." Defendant confessed that he was not sure how many times he stabbed the victims but that he meant "to kill them."

Investigator R.A. Holl arrived at the Law Enforcement Center at 1:00 p.m. on 2 December 1990. Officers Brandon and Robbins were outside the interview room in which defendant was located. Walker exited the room and told Holl about defendant's confession. Upon entering the interview room, Holl questioned defendant, and defendant related to Holl substantially the same statement he had given to Walker. Holl then went to the magistrate's office to obtain arrest warrants.

Dr. James M. Sullivan, medical examiner for Mecklenburg County, testified as an expert in forensic pathology. Dr. Sullivan performed autopsies on both Osborne and Sampson. He testified that Osborne had multiple external wounds about her head, face, and neck. Specifically, Sullivan found seventeen cutting wounds to the area of the head, nine of which were cutting wounds to the neck. The injuries to Osborne's chest were six stab wounds and several superficial cutting wounds. Sullivan opined that any one of the three stab wounds to the heart could have been potentially lethal wounds. Sullivan testified that Sampson suffered multiple cutting wounds to the face, blunt trauma injuries, and a black eye. Sampson also had twenty-one stab wounds on his buttocks and upper leg area and two stab wounds to the neck. Sullivan opined that the two stab wounds to the neck were the most significant wounds contributing to the cause of death. In Sullivan's opinion, all the wounds inflicted on both victims were premortem wounds, meaning they were inflicted prior to death.

Additional facts will be set forth as necessary with respect to the various issues.

As defendant's first assignment of error, he contends that he is entitled to a new trial because the prosecutor violated his state and federal constitutional rights by peremptorily challenging a prospective juror solely on the basis of race. Article I, Section 26 of the Constitution of North Carolina prohibits peremptory challenges based solely on the race of the prospective juror. State v. Smith, 328 N.C. 99, 119, 400 S.E.2d 712, 723 (1991). The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution also prohibits such discrimination. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). In Batson, the Supreme Court of the United States admonished that "the Equal...