State v. Greenlee, 681

• Decision Date: 02 February 1968
• Docket Number: No. 681,681
• Citation: 272 N.C. 651,159 S.E.2d 22
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE, v. Henry Robert Lee GREENLEE alias James C. Smith alias Charles T. Brown.

Page 22

159 S.E.2d 22

272 N.C. 651

STATE, v. Henry Robert Lee GREENLEE alias James C. Smith alias Charles T. Brown.

No. 681.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Feb. 2, 1968.

Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton, Deputy Atty. Gen. Harrison Lewis, and Staff Attorney James E. Magner, Raleigh, for the State.

Benjamin S. Marks, Jr., Greensboro, Hayworth, Winfree & Marks, Greensboro, of counsel, for defendant appellant.

PARKER, Chief Justice.

When the defendant, an indigent, made his entries of appeal in the trial court, the trial court entered an order commanding Guilford County to pay for and furnish to him a transcript of the trial, and also directed Guilford County to pay for the mimeographing of the record of the trial and the brief of the defendant in the same manner as is done in the case of solvent defendants. The court also entered an order appointing and directing the defendant's trial attorney to perfect his appeal, file a brief, and argue his case in the Supreme Court. All of this was done at the expense of the taxpayers of Guilford County.

The State introduced evidence; the defendant introduced no evidence.

Defendant assigns as error the denial of his motion for judgment of compulsory nonsuit made at the close of all the evidence. The State's evidence, considered in the light most favorable to it and giving it the benefit of every reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom, tends to show the following facts: Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc., had established several bank checking accounts in the city of Greensboro. One such accoutn was a Federal tax account with the North Carolina National Bank. Mrs. Mae Brown and Mrs. Julia Brown were the only persons authorized to sign checks on the North Carolina National Bank account of Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc. The check book of Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc., containing its Federal tax account with the North Carolina National Bank was kept in the left-hand desk drawer in its business office in Greensboro, which was separate from the rest of the building. This check book contained printed checks of Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc. After the close of business on 3 March 1967 the glass was knocked out of the rear door of its business office. This break-in was discovered on the morning of 4 March 1967. On 8 March 1967 this firm's business office was broken inot again. On 15 March 1967 the North Carolina National Bank notified the firm that its Federal tax account with it was overdrawn. Thereafter the firm discovered that six checks were missing from its check book containing its Federal tax account with the North Carolina National Bank. The evidence tends to show that three of these checks were taken on the first break-in and three additional checks were taken on the second break-in.

Before 5 p.m. on 4 March 1967 a man went into the % A & p s/tore on Commerce Street in the city of Greensboro and bought some groceries, for which he tendered the check described in the first count of the indictment and received for that check $65 in goods and money. An employee of the A & P Store in Greensboro put the check in cash receipts which were turned in at the end of the day and put in the safe and subsequently deposited in the bank.

Several days later the same man who passed the check in the A & P Store on 4 March 1967 went into the store to buy a broom, cigarettes, and cleaning stuff and tendered in payment a check drawn on the same account. When he did so, the checker, John William Wyrick, Jr., took this check to Mr. Clendenin, the store manager, and told him that he had cashed a similar check several days previously. Mr. Wyrick does not remember the individual who gave him the second check. It was the similarity of the second check that he remembered and not the individual. When the second check was presented, he called the manager because the person who presented the second check was the same person who presented the first check.

The check which was passed with the A & P Store dated 3 March 1967 is marked State's Exhibit No. 1. This check was shown to Mr. Clendenin, who examined it and recognized it by his initial 'F' which appears on the back of the check. This check was returned unpaid. The A & P Store did not lose $65 on this check. Mr. Clendenin did, because he had to make up the loss to the store. On 6 March 1967 he saw the defendant in the A & P Store on Commerce Street. His checker, John William Wyrick, Jr., approached him with a check on Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc., and refreshed his memory that he had cashed a check several days previously for this boy. Mr. Clendenin inquired of the boy who had the second check for identification, and the boy answered, 'I do not have any.' The boy had purchased a carton of cigarettes and a broom, but Mr. Clendenin refused to cash the check. Mr. Clendenin told the police that he thought the boy who was attempting to pass the second check was about 5 6 or 7 tall, light colored, and 17, 18, or 19 years old. After he had described this boy to the police officers of Greensboro, they showed him a picture which Clendenin positively identified as the defendant.

The State offered further evidence tending to show that the signature in the lower right-hand corner of the check marked for identification as State's Exhibit No. 1 is not the signature of anyone authorized t sign checks for Charles T. Brown Truck Lines, Inc., on their Federal tax account with the North Carolina National Bank.

The State proposed to offer in evidence a confession of defendant to R. D. Huckabee, a member of the Greensboro police department. Whereupon, the trial court excused the jury and, in its absence, heard the evidence, both that of the State and that of the defendant, upon the question of the voluntariness of defendant's confession, which is the correct procedure as set out in State v. Gray, 268 N.C. 69, 150 S.E.2d 1; and State v. Rogers, 233 N.C. 390, 64 S.E.2d 572, 28 A.L.R.2d 1104. Upon the Voir dire in the absence of the jury, the trial court heard the testimony of police detectives Eli Welch and R. D. Huckabee and of the defendant. The officers testified that they warned defendant fully of his constitutional rights before defendant made any statement. Defendant, testifying in his own behalf on the Voir dire, testified in substance: He could not recall whether Huckabee had advised him of his constitutional rights. He would not say 'yes' or 'no'. He could not remember. After listening to the evidence on the Voir dire, the trial court found the following facts:

'I'll find that these, the statements made by the defendant to Officers Welch and Huckabee were freely and voluntarily made and that no inducements or threats of any kind were offered or made, against the defendant and that he was fully advised of his right to remain silent and that anything he said could be used against him in a court of law, that he had the right to the presence of an attorney and that if he couldn't afford one an attorney would be furnished for him before any questioning of him was made and that he waived all of these rights and that none of his constitutional rights were violated.'

The findings of fact of the trial court are fully supported by competent evidence. The trial judge ruled that the confession was admissible in evidence, and we agree. State v. Rogers, supra.

When the jury was recalled into the courtroom, Eli Welch without objection testified in substance as follows: He advised defendant that a man in the A & P Store was able to identify his picture as being the man who attempted to cash another check. Defendant told him that he (defendant) might as well go on and tell the truth about the situation and get it over with. Defendant stated that he went into Mr. Brown's office between 7 and 7:30 p.m. on 3 March 1967. He stated that he broke the glass out of the rear door, reached in and unlocked it, and went in and took three checks out of a check book which was in a desk. He took these checks out, went back out, and locked the door. Defendant stated that on 8 March 1967 he went back into this place by breaking...