State v. Haselden
| Decision Date | 28 March 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 665A01.,665A01. |
| Citation | 577 S.E.2d 594,357 N.C. 1 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Jim Edward HASELDEN. |
Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by William P. Hart, Special Deputy Attorney General, and Amy C. Kunstling, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.
James R. Parish, Fayetteville, for defendant-appellant.
On 20 March 2000, a Stokes County grand jury indicted Jim Haselden (defendant) for murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Defendant was tried capitally before a jury at the 21 May 2001 Special Session of Superior Court, Stokes County. On 31 May 2001, the jury found defendant guilty of first-degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. The jury also found defendant guilty of robbery with a firearm. On 6 June 2001, following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction, and the trial court entered judgment in accordance with that recommendation. The trial court also sentenced defendant to 103 months minimum and 133 months maximum imprisonment for the robbery conviction.
Evidence presented at trial showed that defendant and the victim, Kim Sisk, lived next door to each other in the McConnell Road Trailer Park in Greensboro, North Carolina. Defendant stipulated at trial that on or about 20 December 1999, he inflicted multiple gunshot wounds to Kim which caused her death. Defendant also stipulated that he had sexual intercourse with Kim on the same date.
The State presented considerable evidence at trial concerning the days preceding the murder. Around 12 December 1999, Aaron Maness, a friend of defendant's, visited defendant at the trailer park and loaned him a saw. Defendant took the saw into his trailer and soon returned with it. When Maness went inside defendant's trailer, Maness noticed a .16-gauge, sawed-off shotgun with gray tape on the handle. Maness also saw some shells near the shotgun. Later that evening, Maness watched defendant place part of the sawed-off stock in a dumpster.
Around 14 December 1999, Kim told Maness that defendant had agreed to give her $100.00 to drive defendant to Virginia. On 15 December 1999, around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., defendant went for a ride with a friend, Mark Ingold. Defendant had a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition with him. Defendant said that he was tired of being broke and wanted money and a car. Defendant told Ingold to pull up and stop beside another car because defendant wanted to "car jack a car." Ingold refused to stop beside a car but did eventually stop so defendant could use the bathroom. At this point, defendant shot a stop sign. Shooting the sawed-off shotgun caused a cut on defendant's hand.
On 20 December 1999, around 11:00 a.m., Dorothy Hare, Kim's mother, went to see Kim at her trailer. Kim was wearing jeans, a blue shirt, boots, and a wristwatch. Kim was moving out of her trailer and packing her belongings in her teal green Camaro. Around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m., Chad Sisk, Kim's husband, saw Kim when she came to see their six-year-old daughter, Heather. Between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m., James Lucas saw Kim, and she told him that she was getting ready to take a neighbor to the mountains for $100.00. Lucas and his daughter saw Kim leave the trailer park that night around 9:15 or 9:30 p.m. Kim was driving her teal green Camaro and defendant was in the car. Kim's purse, which contained jewelry, was in the car. Kim usually carried money in her purse.
The next day, 21 December 1999, defendant arrived at his niece's residence in Morganton, North Carolina. Defendant was driving a teal green Camaro. Defendant had a pair of jeans and a trash bag full of clothes. The jeans were women's size six. Kim wore clothing size five or six. Defendant offered to let his niece have the clothes.
Later that night, defendant asked a resident of his niece's trailer park where he could run a car into a lake, blow it up, or burn it. Defendant eventually drove the Camaro to Burkemont Mountain, in Burke County, and left it in the woods near a logging road. When defendant got out of the Camaro, he had a plastic bag and a duffel bag. A sawed-off shotgun with duct tape around the handle was in the plastic bag. Defendant sold the shotgun to Jeremy Crawley for thirty dollars. When Crawley and a companion later fired the gun, the gun left gashes on their hands. They had noticed a similar gash on defendant's hand.
On 23 December 1999, William Duggins discovered Kim Sisk's dead body in the woods in Stokes County. The body was located just over one mile from the residence of defendant's half-brother, Timothy Williamson. Defendant had previously lived with Williamson after defendant's release from prison. When Williamson told defendant that a girl's body had been found near his house, defendant replied, "Just tell Mom I love her, and I'll probably never see or talk to you guys again."
Law enforcement officers responding to the scene observed the body lying on its back. The body had massive trauma to the left side of the face. The left eye was dislodged. There were wounds to the right cheek. The body was clothed in jeans, a dark pullover shirt, hiking boots, and a wristwatch. A plastic sleeve from a shotgun shell was in the hair. Tooth or bone fragments were located just beyond the body on the left side. Semen and sperm were found in Kim's panties. The DNA profile subsequently obtained from this evidence matched defendant's DNA profile.
On 24 December 1999, Dr. Donald Jason performed an autopsy on the body. Dr. Jason found two shotgun wounds to the head and determined that these wounds were the cause of death. One wound was to the right cheek; powder stipling indicated that this wound was caused by a close-proximity shot. The second wound was to the front, left, mid-cheek. This wound was consistent with Kim being in a kneeling position and looking up when she was shot. Dr. Jason concluded that Kim could have remained conscious for at least an hour after receiving the wound to the left side of her face. The wound to the right side of her face would have resulted in almost immediate loss of consciousness. Dr. Jason concluded that the wounds could have been inflicted as much as ten minutes apart.
On 26 December 1999, defendant was living in Georgia with Willie Harper. Defendant told Harper that he had just gotten out of prison for "cutting a guy." Defendant admitted to Harper that he had killed a girl named Kim. Defendant said that his fingerprints were on the car and that his semen was in Kim. Defendant explained that Kim had been his next-door neighbor and that he was going to give her $100.00 to take him to Virginia. Defendant confessed to Harper that he had killed Kim with a sawed-off shotgun at night near some woods.
Defendant told Harper that he had made Kim get on her knees. Defendant said that Kim had pleaded, "Jim don't shoot me, Jim don't shoot me," four or five times, and then defendant "blew her whole face off." Defendant said that he went down the street but then returned and shot Kim in the face again. Defendant told Harper that this shot caused Kim's body to jump off the ground. Defendant said he sold the shotgun to some "rednecks" for thirty dollars.
At the time of Kim's murder, defendant was on parole for a prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. Defendant told Harper that he violated his parole when he fled from North Carolina after the murder. Defendant wanted Harper to help him obtain a gun because if the police caught defendant, he was not going back alive.
Harper eventually reported defendant's confession to Harper's boss, Mark Polson. Polson contacted the police, who subsequently arrested defendant. Throughout their investigation, the police never located Kim's purse or wallet.
Defendant first assigns error to the trial court's excusal of prospective juror Robert Sexton for cause based on Sexton's felony convictions in another state. Defendant contends that the trial court violated N.C.G.S. § 9-3 by not inquiring whether Sexton's citizenship rights had been restored. See N.C.G.S. § 9-3 (2001) ().
During jury selection, the trial court gave prospective jurors the opportunity to provide reasons why they should not serve on the jury. Prospective juror Sexton informed the trial court that he was unsure of his eligibility because of several felony convictions against him in Texas during the 1970s. The trial court asked if Sexton had "receive[d] any documentation indicating that [his] citizenship rights had been restored." Sexton replied that he had "asked one time for a full pardon, and they denied it." The trial court informed Sexton that a pardon was different from restoration of citizenship. Nonetheless, the trial court excused Sexton for cause "out of an abundance of caution" "based upon [Sexton's] representation that [he had] been convicted of a felony, and [was] unsure as to whether or not [his] citizenship ha[d] been restored."
Defendant contends that Sexton was not subject to being challenged for cause. Defendant contends that prospective juror Sexton did not need documentation restoring his citizenship rights because his rights were automatically restored under N.C.G.S. § 13-1(5). See N.C.G.S. § 13-1(5) (2001) ().
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