State v. Hayes, 542A82

• Decision Date: 01 October 1985
• Docket Number: No. 542A82,542A82
• Citation: 334 S.E.2d 741,314 N.C. 460
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Dennis Ray HAYES Windell Flowers Carlton Eugene Roberts.

Page 741

334 S.E.2d 741

314 N.C. 460

STATE of North Carolina v. Dennis Ray HAYES Windell Flowers Carlton Eugene Roberts.

No. 542A82.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Oct. 1, 1985.

Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen. by Charles M. Hensey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Adam Stein, Appellate Defender by Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Asst. Appellate Defender Dennis R. Joyce, Wilkesboro, for defendant-appellant Flowers.

Raleigh, for defendant-appellant Hayes.

Kurt R. Conner, Wilkesboro, for defendant-appellant Roberts.

MEYER, Justice.

On Sunday, 13 December 1981, Thomas Greer, age 81, and his wife, Clara Greer, age 76, operated their small country store at Boomer in Wilkes County, North Carolina, as they had done for some 42 years. Mr. and Mrs. Greer lived in a house located behind and near their store. At approximately 8:30 p.m., they closed the store and went to their house. They went to bed around 9:00 p.m. and shortly thereafter, at approximately 9:15 p.m., someone knocked on the door. Mrs. Greer answered the door and talked to the caller, who was a black man, at the door but refused to let him come in because her husband was asleep and she did not want to awaken him. The man left and Mrs. Greer returned to bed and fell asleep.

Earlier that same evening, at about 6:00 p.m., James Bailey loaned his white 1972 four-door Chevrolet Impala automobile (license number RPW-159) to defendant Dennis Ray Hayes at Hayes' mobile home at the Sturdivant Trailer Park located near Wilkesboro. Hayes took the car to Statesville to pick up the defendant Carlton Eugene Roberts and then returned to the mobile home. Around 9:00 p.m., Hayes and Roberts, together with the defendant Windell Flowers went to the Greers' store. They then went to the Greer house and knocked on the door but, as indicated, Mrs. Greer would not let them in. The three defendants then went to Lenoir where they obtained a blanket from a friend and then went to a club called the Two Spot where they had some drinks and got into a fight with others over who was to pay for the drinks. The three obtained a sawed-off shotgun and consumed additional liquor.

In the early morning hours of 14 December 1981, at approximately 1:00 a.m., the three defendants returned to the Greer home at Boomer. Hayes wrapped the blanket they had obtained over his head and crashed through a bedroom window. Roberts and Flowers followed through the same window. Roberts grabbed Mr. Greer and started beating him with a stick or pipe, while at the same time demanding that Mr. Greer tell him where the money was hidden. The defendants Flowers and Hayes grabbed Mrs. Greer, put a pistol to her neck, and demanded that she tell where they kept the money. She was also hit over the head with a flashlight, causing a five-inch wound. As one of the three defendants searched the bedroom where the Greers slept, the other two held Mr. and Mrs. Greer. They found a wallet containing between $800.00 and $1,000.00.

Mrs. Greer took Flowers to a back bedroom where she showed him the location of an envelope under a rug. The envelope contained $1,000.00 in bills and old coins. As the beating of Mr. Greer continued, Mrs. Greer led the two men outside, telling them there might be money hidden in a playhouse in the yard. She attempted to escape and was caught and thrown down. She then took them to the store where they opened the door with a key and went inside. After tying up Mrs. Greer, they stole a number of items from the store, including two cases of cigarettes, a watch with a diamond in it, and a .22 caliber Luger pistol. The three men then left in a four-door white Chevrolet automobile. A white Chevrolet was observed parked on Highway 18 near the Country Squire Trailer Park at the end of a guardrail at about 2:55 a.m. At that time, defendants were gone to get gasoline for the automobile after leaving the Greer residence.

Mrs. Greer struggled out of her bonds and made her way to a nearby mobile home, where her granddaughter, Martha Brown, lived. Martha Brown helped her grandmother into the trailer and then called the sheriff and members of her family. The Greers' son-in-law, Clay Brafford, was the first to arrive at the house. He found Mr. Greer lying on his back with his head at the end of the bed and his hands Mrs. Greer was unable to identify any of her assailants and knew only that three black males were involved and that they wore masks and gloves. No fingerprints or footprints were found on the Greer premises.

tied to the foot of the bed. His face was beaten so badly that Brafford could hardly recognize him. There was blood all over the bed and on the bedroom floor, and the room had been ransacked. Mr. Greer was alive but obviously badly hurt. Other people arrived, and Mr. Greer was taken away by ambulance. Mr. Greer subsequently died on 1 January 1982 from severe complications resulting from the severe beating about his face and head which resulted in swelling and bruises about the face, a fractured jaw, and extensive brain damage.

There was testimony that, on the morning of 14 December 1981, the defendant Hayes returned to his mobile home at about 6:30 a.m. He sat on the bed and cried, saying, "I'll not never [sic] go out on another deal as long as I live. You should have seen what we did to that old man last night." From the butt of a gun, Hayes removed a tie tack and dropped it into a heat duct. Subsequently, this tie tack was found in the mobile home by police. About a week later, Hayes and his girl friend, Nancy Cole, and Roberts and his girl friend, Teresa Smith, met in a room at Motel 21 at Statesville. Roberts said at one point, "This old white man had more money than any black man was ever going to have."

Several days after the incident at the Greers', the defendant Flowers sold old coins, a watch, and a .22 caliber Luger pistol in Taylorsville. As early as 16 December 1982, Hayes and Flowers were questioned in Wilkesboro about the crimes. Flowers was in custody at the time in connection with another matter which occurred in Statesville. He was transferred to Statesville on 3 January 1982, where he gave the first of two statements to Investigating Officer Roberts. Later, after having been brought back to Wilkes County, he gave a second statement to Investigating Officer Cabe.

On 3 January 1982, the defendant Hayes was arrested by Sheriff Gentry in Alexander County and, after having been brought back to Wilkes County, gave a statement to the sheriff at about 11:00 a.m. On 20 April 1982, defendant Carlton Roberts told his cellmate, Grover Bauguess, about what happened at the Greer house back in December, including the fact that he was the person who had beaten Mr. Greer.

Certain of defendants' assignments of error and arguments thereon are common to all three defendants. Others relate only to defendants Hayes and Flowers, and still others relate only to either Flowers or Hayes individually. We will address the assignments, contentions, and arguments of the defendants accordingly.

ALL DEFENDANTS

Each of the three defendants challenged the consolidation of their cases for trial and the admission into evidence of extrajudicial statements of each defendant which referred to the other defendants, determination of their guilt by a so-called "death-qualified" jury, and the use of the aggravating factor that "the offenses were committed for hire or pecuniary gain" in enhancing their sentences for first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping, and breaking or entering and larceny.

Prior to trial, each defendant filed a written motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendants. These motions were heard by the trial judge on 6 May 1982, but a ruling was deferred. Immediately prior to trial on 21 June 1982, the prosecutor moved to join all three defendants' cases in one trial on grounds specified in N.C.G.S. § 15A-926. Over all defendants' objections, this motion was allowed.

We address first the consolidation of the defendants' cases for trial and the admission into evidence of extrajudicial statements of each defendant. Prior to trial the prosecution was granted a motion to join the three defendants' cases for trial. The motion was granted upon the grounds specified The defendants, in their challenge to the consolidation, contend that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence expurgated extrajudicial statements which implicated the other codefendants. All three defendants made extrajudicial statements amounting to interlocking confessions which were subsequently admitted into evidence. Each defendant's statement admitted participation in the crimes with other persons. The only real conflict in their statements was as to which of the defendants beat Mr. and Mrs. Greer. Each defendant's statement or statements that mentioned accomplices was sanitized either prior to or during the course of the trial by inserting in the place of the names mentioned "the other person," "two others," "others," or "they," so as not to implicate specific individuals.

in N.C.G.S. § 15A-926, to wit: that the cases were based on identical charges, they arose out of the same series of transactions, and the evidence was the same.

Defendant Flowers made two statements. His first statement was made in the Iredell County Sheriff's Office at approximately 3:07 a.m. on 3 January 1982. His second statement was made the same day at approximately 5:29 a.m. at the Wilkes County Sheriff's Office. Before allowing these to be read into evidence, the trial judge instructed the jury that the statements could be considered only against Flowers and nobody else. Both of these statements referred to two other people who were with him during the time the crimes were being perpetrated.

Defendant Hayes made a statement to the Sheriff of Wilkes County at 11:00 a.m. on 3 January 1982 in which he admitted that he was the one who crashed through the window into the Greer residence but in which he denied touching...