State v. Harvey, 290A18

CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
Citation828 S.E.2d 481,372 N.C. 304
Docket NumberNo. 290A18,290A18
Parties STATE of North Carolina v. Alphonzo HARVEY
Decision Date14 June 2019

372 N.C. 304
828 S.E.2d 481

STATE of North Carolina
v.
Alphonzo HARVEY

No. 290A18

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Filed June 14, 2019


Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Thomas O. Lawton III, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Jeffrey William Gillette for defendant-appellant.

MORGAN, Justice.

828 S.E.2d 482
372 N.C. 304

Defendant Alphonzo1 Harvey was charged upon a proper indictment and convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, a criminal offense in violation of N.C.G.S. § 14-17. Defendant contended on appeal that the trial court committed error by failing to instruct the jury on the

372 N.C. 305

affirmative defense of self-defense pursuant to his request. The Court of Appeals disagreed and upheld defendant’s conviction, finding that in light of the evidence, defendant was not entitled to a jury instruction on any theory of self-defense. We affirm the determination of the Court of Appeals.

Factual and Procedural Background

On 11 April 2016, defendant was indicted by a grand jury for the criminal offense of first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of Tobias Toler. Defendant pleaded not guilty and the State elected to refrain from proceeding capitally. A jury trial was held beginning on 22 May 2017 before the Honorable Milton F. Fitch, Jr. in Superior Court, Edgecombe County, during which the State presented evidence from ten witnesses and defendant testified on his own behalf.

The evidence presented at trial tended to show the following: On 11 August 2015, Toler and four of defendant’s friends attended a party at defendant’s mobile home. At the party, the attendees were drinking alcohol, listening to music, and dancing. At some point, Toler was dancing with a woman with whom defendant had previously engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship. Toler had been drinking a beer with a high alcohol content from a plastic bottle, and he began staggering "all over [the] house" and acting in a rowdy manner by "getting real loud and ... cussing and fussing." Defendant, who had consumed at least one beer by this time, realized Toler was intoxicated and testified that he "asked him to leave about seven, eight times." Toler, however, refused to depart until defendant left the dwelling as well. Defendant testified that, as he exited the trailer, Toler followed and stated that "he ought to whip [defendant’s] damn ass." Toler threw the plastic beer bottle from which he had been drinking in defendant’s direction, but the bottle did not make contact with defendant.

Defendant started to go back inside his mobile home but, upon realizing that Toler had not yet left the premises, turned back to confront Toler, asking, "[D]idn’t I tell you [to] leave my damn house[?]" Defendant testified that, in response, Toler found "a piece of broke [sic] off little brick" and threw it at defendant, cutting defendant’s finger. Toler then reached into his pocket and produced a small, black pocketknife, telling defendant that "he ought to kill [defendant’s] damn ass with it."2

372 N.C. 306

Defendant once again ordered Toler to leave his property, at which point defendant testified that after Toler hit him, he "hit [Toler] in the face."

Defendant then went back inside his mobile home and grabbed a knife from the top of a cabinet.3 Defendant testified that his purpose for returning to the trailer to obtain the knife was "[b]ecause I was scared [Toler] was going to try and hurt me," and that it was defendant’s belief that once he got the knife, Toler would "leave, go ahead on and leave." When defendant returned outside, he approached Toler while displaying the knife and swinging it in Toler’s direction. When questioned at trial regarding his use of the knife, defendant testified that he "tried to make [Toler] leave." During the confrontation, Toler attempted to move defendant’s motorized scooter which was resting against the side of the mobile home. In the process, the scooter fell to the ground, breaking its headlights.4 Toler also slipped to the ground,

828 S.E.2d 483

but immediately returned to his feet. Defendant then approached Toler and "ma[d]e a stabbing motion about three times," piercing Toler once in the chest and puncturing his heart.

Following the stabbing, Toler attempted to run away but collapsed in a nearby resident’s yard. When asked on direct examination about Toler’s departure from defendant’s mobile home property, defendant stated that "[a]fter the accident happened to him, he left, he ran out of the yard then." Defendant further testified that he believed that Toler "just got scared and ran," and he thought that Toler had collapsed because he was drunk. Defendant did not approach Toler after he left defendant’s property; instead, defendant walked back inside the mobile home, pulled out a tissue, and cleaned Toler’s blood from the blade of the knife. Defendant then placed the knife back on top of the cabinet from where defendant had initially obtained it, walked outside, and proceeded to burn the bloody tissue that he had used to clean the knife.

Defendant had given notice of his intent to assert defenses that included self-defense, and during the charge conference he requested a self-defense instruction along with an instruction on voluntary manslaughter. The trial court declined to deliver both of these requested instructions and instructed the jury to consider only whether defendant

372 N.C. 307

was guilty of first-degree murder, the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder, or not guilty. Accordingly, no form of a self-defense instruction was given to the jury by the trial court. On 24 May 2017, the jury convicted defendant of second-degree murder for the stabbing of Toler. The trial court thereupon sentenced defendant to a term of 483 to 592 months of imprisonment.

Upon defendant’s appeal, the Court of Appeals concluded that defendant was not entitled to a self-defense instruction because the evidence at trial did not establish that defendant believed that it was necessary to kill Toler in order to protect himself from death or great bodily harm. As a result, the Court of Appeals majority found no error in defendant’s trial. The dissenting judge on the Court of Appeals panel expressed the opinion that the trial court should have delivered a self-defense instruction and that its failure to do so prejudiced defendant. We agree with the lower appellate court, as this Court finds the Court of Appeals’ application of the pertinent law to be sound and correct. Consequently, we shall weave some of its analysis into our own.

Analysis

"The concept of self-defense emerged in the law as a recognition of a ‘primary impulse’ that is an ‘inherent right’ of all human beings." State v. Moore , 363 N.C. 793, 796, 688 S.E.2d 447, 449 (2010) (quoting State v. Holland , 193 N.C. 713, 718, 138 S.E. 8, 10 (1927) ). The principles of the two types of self-defense—perfect and imperfect—"are well established." State v. Reid , 335 N.C. 647, 670, 440 S.E.2d 776, 789 (1994). A defendant is entitled to an instruction on perfect self-defense as an excuse for a killing when the evidence presented at trial tends to show that, at the time of the killing:

(1) it appeared to defendant and he believed it to be necessary to kill the deceased in order to save himself from death or great bodily harm; and

(2) defendant’s belief was reasonable in that the circumstances as they appeared to him at the time were sufficient to create such a belief in the mind of a person of ordinary firmness; and

(3) defendant was not the aggressor in bringing on the affray, i.e., he did not aggressively and willingly enter into the fight without legal excuse or provocation; and

(4) defendant did not use excessive force, i.e., did not use more force than was necessary or reasonably
372 N.C. 308
appeared to him to be necessary under the circumstances to protect himself from death or great bodily harm.

State v. Bush , 307 N.C. 152, 158-59, 297 S.E.2d 563, 568 (1982) (quoting

828 S.E.2d 484

State v. Norris , 303 N.C. 526, 530, 279 S.E.2d 570, 572-73 (1981) (italics omitted)), habeas corpus granted sub nom. Bush v. Stephenson , 669 F. Supp. 1322 (E.D.N.C. 1986), aff’d per curiam , 826 F.2d 1059 (4th Cir. 1987) (unpublished); see also State v. Watson , 338 N.C. 168, 179-80, 449 S.E.2d 694, 701 (1994) (quoting State v. McAvoy , 331 N.C. 583, 417 S.E.2d 489 (1992) ), cert. denied , 514 U.S. 1071, 115 S.Ct. 1708, 131 L.Ed.2d 569 (1995), disavowed in part in State v. Richardson , 341 N.C. 585, 461 S.E.2d 724 (1995). The doctrine of imperfect self-defense applies when the evidence supports a determination that only the first two elements in the preceding quotation existed at the time of the killing, in which case the defendant would be guilty of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter. State v. Locklear , 349 N.C. 118, 154-55, 505 S.E.2d 277, 298...

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    ...from which a jury could conclude [the] defendant's belief is reasonable." Id. at 393, 378 S.E.2d at 753 ; cf. State v. Harvey , 372 N.C. 304, 309, 828 S.E.2d 481, 484 (2019) ("Despite his extensive testimony recounting the entire transaction of events from his own perspective, [the] defenda......
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    ...appeared to him to be necessary under the circumstances to protect himself from death or great bodily harm. State v. Harvey , 372 N.C. 304, 307–08, 828 S.E.2d 481, 483–84 (2019) (quoting State v. Bush , 307 N.C. 152, 158–59, 297 S.E.2d 563, 568 (1982) ). "In determining whether there was an......
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