State v. Hall
| Decision Date | 22 June 2022 |
| Docket Number | 5919,Appellate Case 2018-002176 |
| Parties | The State, Respondent v. Zantravious Randell Hall, Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of South Carolina |
Heard December 8, 2021.
Appeal From Greenwood County Donald B. Hocker, Circuit Court Judge.
Zantravious Randell Hall, Appellant. Appellate Defender Susan Barber Hackett, of Columbia, for Appellant. Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Deputy
Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Melody Jane Brown, and Senior Assistant Attorney General W. Edgar Salter, III, all of Columbia, and Solicitor David Matthew Stumbo, of Greenwood, all for Respondent.
Zantravious Randell Hall appeals his convictions for murder, attempted murder, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Hall contends the trial court erred by (1) failing to admit certain social media messages into evidence and (2) enhancing his sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP) pursuant to section 17-25-45 of the South Carolina Code (2014 &Supp. 2021) (the recidivist statute). We affirm.
On November 21, 2017, Michael "Luke" Lukie and Timothy Wilson were smoking marijuana across the street from Phoenix Place Apartments. Emyle "Gump" McDuffie exited his apartment, joined Lukie and Wilson, and asked Lukie if he could borrow a pair of pants. Lukie said he had a pair for McDuffie at his apartment, so he and McDuffie began walking that way without Wilson.
According to Lukie, someone in a red car pulled up to them as they were walking and called out to McDuffie. When McDuffie reached the car, Lukie saw Hall get out, ask McDuffie a question, and then start shooting a gun. Lukie got shot in his hip, but he managed to run away and get into another car with McDuffie's sister and her girlfriend, who then drove him to the hospital.
Wilson claimed he did not "see the actual shooting" but saw a red car "pull[] in and let loose." Wilson also saw McDuffie fall to the ground and watched Lukie run away. Phoenix Place Apartment residents Marisha C.,[1] Lakisha Bletcher, and Terrance Gilchrist all heard gunshots and rushed to the scene of the shooting, where they found McDuffie shot and lying on the ground. Bletcher and Gilchrist picked McDuffie up and put him in Gilchrist's car, and Gilchrist drove him to the hospital. Hospital personnel attempted to resuscitate McDuffie, but he was pronounced dead.
At the hospital, Lukie told officers to look for a red car with tinted windows on security cameras at a 7-Eleven convenience store located about twenty-five yards from Phoenix Place Apartments; however, Lukie did not initially tell officers that Hall was the shooter. After interviewing other witnesses[2] and reviewing the 7-Eleven surveillance video, officers issued a "be on the look out" alert for a red car with tinted windows. A few hours later, officers saw a car matching that description about two miles from the scene of the shooting and attempted a traffic stop; however, Hall led officers on a chase through rush-hour traffic. Eventually, Hall crashed the red car and fled on foot, but officers apprehended him.
Officers determined the car belonged to Hall's pregnant girlfriend, Miangel Clark, towed it from the crash site, and searched it pursuant to a warrant the next day. Officers recovered a 9 mm shell casing from the cowl of the car,[3] and a red bandana, Hall's driver's license, and Hall's birth certificate from inside the car. Tests for fingerprints and DNA inside the car were negative or inconclusive, but the bandana tested positive for gunshot residue. At the scene of the shooting, officers recovered thirteen shell casings and removed a bullet from an apartment wall. Additionally, officers obtained bullet fragments from Lukie's hip, and McDuffie's thigh, lower leg, right foot, and clothing.
The State charged Hall with murder, attempted murder, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and failure to stop for a blue light. The State also served notice on Hall that it was seeking LWOP for the murder and attempted murder charges pursuant to the recidivist statute. At trial, Lukie testified Hall got out of Clark's car and started shooting. Lukie explained he initially did not tell officers Hall was the shooter because he wanted to first tell McDuffie's family and he did not want to be labeled a snitch. Marisha testified she saw McDuffie walk towards Clark's car and talk to someone through the passenger side window shortly before she heard gunshots. Bletcher testified she saw Clark's car leave the apartment complex shortly after the shooting.
Officers never located the gun used at the Phoenix Place Apartments shooting, but a forensic firearms examiner for the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), James Green, determined a 9 mm gun had fired all but one of the recovered bullet fragments. Green testified the unidentified bullet fragment was too damaged to determine if it had been fired by a 9 mm gun, and all of the bullet fragments were too damaged to determine if they had been fired by the same 9 mm gun. Still, Green opined the same 9 mm gun had fired all fourteen 9 mm shell casings officers recovered. Additionally, the forensic pathologist who performed McDuffie's autopsy testified he had been shot nine times and opined the gunshot wound to his back was clearly the fatal shot.
The State also introduced recordings of three telephone conversations Hall initiated while detained in the Greenwood County Detention Center. During a November 23, 2017 conversation, the recipient of Hall's call said there was a rumor that Hall was mad at McDuffie because McDuffie and Clark had been having sex and McDuffie was probably the father of Clark's unborn child. Hall denied the rumor and said McDuffie and Clark could not have been having sex because Hall had been sleeping with Clark every night for three months. Hall said he had Clark's car "24/7" and explained he drove Clark to and from work every day. Hall claimed no one had seen Clark drive her car since he began "talking to her." During a November 30, 2017 conversation, the recipient of Hall's call claimed officers had found fingerprints in Clark's car. Hall asked "who's fingerprints," said he had "wiped that mother fucker down," and laughed. Finally, during a December 4, 2017 conversation, Hall's mother told him to "talk in code" before they talked about cleaning and disposing of his shoes.
The State also charged Cedric Elmore and Kemad White for murder and attempted murder based at least in part on Joseph Holland's statement to officers that he saw Elmore and White shoot McDuffie after they got out of a red car driven by Hall. However, Hall was tried alone. During Hall's case-in-chief, Holland claimed he had told officers what he had heard from others rather than what he had seen. Holland testified he saw gunshots coming from a red car but could not see the shooter.
Additionally, Hall sought to introduce evidence from Snapchat[4] and present Elmore's girlfriend, Raven Jackson, as a witness. According to Hall's attorney, Jackson was prepared to testify Elmore sent her video messages via Snapchat that placed him at their apartment when the Phoenix Place Apartments shooting occurred.[5] However, the trial court prohibited the Snapchat evidence due to concern the material's date and time stamp had been manipulated in some way. Hall maintained Jackson could authenticate the evidence and submitted court exhibits but declined to proffer her testimony.
Ultimately, the jury found Hall guilty of murder, attempted murder, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.[6] The trial court deferred sentencing to consider Hall's memorandum in opposition to sentencing pursuant to the recidivist statute. When Hall was fifteen years old, the State charged him with assault and battery with intent to kill (ABWIK). The family court transferred Hall's case to general sessions court, and he pled guilty on December 7, 2011.
The State argued Hall's murder and attempted murder sentences should be enhanced to LWOP pursuant to the recidivist statute because they were considered most serious offenses, and Hall's ABWIK conviction was also a most serious offense. Hall argued his ABWIK conviction should not enhance his sentences under the recidivist statute because he was a juvenile when he committed that offense and the family court failed to make adequate findings of fact pursuant to In re Sullivan[7] before it transferred that case to general sessions court.[8] Alternatively, Hall asserted his mandatory LWOP sentence enhancements due to his ABWIK conviction violated the Eight Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because he was a juvenile when he committed that offense. The trial court denied Hall's motion and sentenced him to LWOP for both murder and attempted murder pursuant to the recidivist statute.[9] The trial court did not impose a sentence for Hall's possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime conviction pursuant to section 16-23-490(A) of the South Carolina Code (2015). This appeal followed.
"In criminal cases, the appellate court sits to review errors of law only." State v. Baccus, 367 S.C. 41, 48, 625 S.E.2d 216, 220 (2006). "The conduct of a criminal trial is left largely to the sound discretion of the trial judge, who will not be reversed in the absence of a prejudicial abuse of discretion." State v. Bryant, 372 S.C. 305, 312, 642 S.E.2d 582, 586 (2007). "An abuse of discretion occurs when a trial court's decision is unsupported by the evidence or controlled by an error of law." Id.
I. Excluded Evidence Hall asserts the trial court erred...
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