State v. Hunt
| Decision Date | 03 November 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 5A86,5A86 |
| Citation | 323 N.C. 407,373 S.E.2d 400 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Henry Lee HUNT and Elwell Barnes. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Henry Lee Hunt, Elwell Barnes and A.R. Barnes were tried for the murder and conspiracy to commit murder of Jackie Ransom. In the same trial Hunt and Elwell Barnes were tried for the murder and conspiracy to commit the murder of Larry Jones. Evidence at the trial tended to show that Dottie Locklear Ransom had first married Rogers Locklear. Locklear was a construction worker and often worked out of town for several days at a time. Dottie began seeing Jackie Ransom while Locklear was out of town. She eventually married him, although she never divorced Locklear. Ransom began living with her while Locklear was out of town, and would leave the house when it was time for Locklear to return.
In July 1984, Dottie asked Locklear about the possibility of insuring Ransom's life and then having him killed. She wanted to buy a trailer and a cafe. On 3 August 1984 she purchased a $25,000 life insurance policy. She asked the agent whether, if Ransom were killed in a fight, she would be entitled to double indemnity for accidental death.
Dottie asked Locklear to find a hit man to kill Ransom. Locklear asked his brother Harry to run over Ransom with his car. Harry refused, but told Locklear that if he wanted a hit man he should see A.R. Barnes.
On 16 August, Locklear met A.R. Barnes and gave him a ride to Locklear's house. After some negotiation Rogers and Dottie Locklear agreed to pay A.R. Barnes $2,000 to kill Jackie Ransom. A.R. Barnes said "If I don't kill him, I'll get it done."
Locklear and A.R. met several times after that. On 8 September, Locklear went to A.R.'s house to see if he was going to kill Ransom, and to tell him the insurance policy had been received. Locklear did not see A.R., but saw his brother, the defendant Elwell "Babe" Barnes. Elwell Barnes asked Locklear if he could take his brother's place, and kill Ransom for the same compensation Locklear had promised his brother. Locklear replied that it was up to him.
Elwell Barnes then told Locklear to drive him to the home of the defendant Henry Lee "Mulehead" "Buck" Hunt. When they arrived at Hunt's trailer, Barnes talked with Hunt privately for about 10 minutes. Later, Hunt got into the car, put his hand on his pocket and told Locklear Barnes replied "Yeah." They drove past a house and Hunt looked at it and said "That looks like where Jackie stay, there." They then drove down a road into some woods and Hunt put the gun in some bushes. They then drove back into town, and Locklear pointed out Jackie Ransom. Hunt told Locklear to get his wife and take her to a place at which there would be witnesses.
At about 11:00 or 11:30 that night the defendants Hunt and Elwell Barnes returned to Hunt's trailer. Hunt took off his clothes and put them in the washing machine, and put a pistol under his mattress. Barnes spent the night on the couch. The next morning Bernice Cummings, who lived with Hunt at his trailer, asked Barnes where they had been the night before. Barnes replied that they had killed Jackie Ransom for $2,000, for Dottie and Rogers Locklear. Bernice asked who shot Ransom and Barnes replied "Henry Lee Hunt."
Later that day Locklear drove to Hunt's trailer. Hunt walked up to him and said "I killed Jackie last night." He said he wanted his money in 30 days or he would kill Dottie and Locklear. Later that day, Ransom's body was found in a shallow grave. An autopsy revealed that Ransom died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The next day, 10 September, the defendants were at Hunt's trailer. Buddy Roe Barton drove up. Hunt went to Barton's car and returned after a few minutes, and stated that Larry Jones was running his mouth, and that he "would put a stop to his damn mouth."
Larry Jones lived with Hunt's sister Aganora. He met several times with Detective Mike Stogner of the Lumberton Police Department and SBI Agent Lee Sampson and talked about Ransom's death.
On 14 September, Hunt told Bernice Cummings that he was going to "kill that water-headed, ratting son-of-a-bitch Larry Jones" and wanted to get a shovel so he would "bury him where he never could be found." He stated that Jones had been running his mouth and that he knew that Hunt had killed Ransom. Hunt procured a shovel from Mitt Jones and put it in his trunk. Later, Hunt got a shotgun and put it in the trunk of Bernice's car. Hunt said to Aganora and Bernice that he was going to kill Larry Jones because Jones knew he killed Jackie Ransom, and could get him a life sentence.
Later that day Hunt and Elwell Barnes were riding in an automobile driven by Jerome Ratley when they picked up Jones. They went to the home of a person called "String Bean." They left that place and continued driving. Hunt told Ratley to turn off onto a dirt road, then onto a tram road. Then Hunt told Ratley to stop and turn off the lights. Hunt then turned around and shot Jones in the chest. Ratley saw two or three shots. Hunt said Hunt then pulled Jones out of the car, and Barnes got the shotgun from the trunk. Jones started mumbling "Mule, Mule." Barnes pointed the shotgun at Jones' head. Hunt said "Don't shoot him with the shotgun," and shot him with the pistol several times. Barnes kept a lookout while Hunt and Ratley dragged Jones' body into the woods about a hundred yards and buried him in a shallow grave. As they rode back into town, Barnes said "That man was about to cause me to pull a life sentence."
The next morning, 16 September, Hunt told Bernice Cummings that he had carried Larry Jones to where he would never be found.
On 1 October, Jones' body was found. An autopsy revealed that he died of a gunshot wound to the head. A ballistics expert testified that bullets removed from the body were fired from the .25 caliber Beretta that Hunt had given his son-in-law after the murders. While in jail, Hunt told his son-in-law he had killed Ransom and Jones. He also told him to get rid of the gun, and to get his brother to "get rid of the black guy," meaning Jerome Ratley, because "He's the one that can hurt me most."
At the close of all the evidence, the trial court granted a mistrial as to A.R. Barnes. The jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts as to Elwell Barnes and Hunt, and recommended that both be sentenced to death for each murder charge. The court sentenced them to death for each murder charge and ten years imprisonment for each conspiracy charge.
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by G. Patrick Murphy, Asst. Atty. Gen., (in Hunt case) and Ralf F. Haskell, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen. (in Barnes case), for the State (original brief and argument); Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen., James J. Coman, Sr. Deputy Atty. Gen., William N. Farrell, Jr., Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., and Joan H. Byers, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., and Barry S. McNeill, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State (supplemental brief and argument).
H. Mitchell Baker, III and Angus B. Thompson, II, Lumberton, for defendant-appellant Hunt; Bruce W. Huggins, Lumberton, for defendant-appellant Barnes (original brief and argument); Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender, and Louis D. Bilionis, Raleigh, for defendants-appellants (supplemental brief and argument).
E. Ann Christian and Robert E. Zaytoun, Raleigh, for North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, amicus curiae.
John A. Dusenbury, Jr., Asheville, for North Carolina Ass'n of Black Lawyers, amicus curiae.
In his first assignment of error, defendant Hunt contends the trial court erred in denying his motion for a change of venue or a special venire. He argues that extensive inflammatory media coverage of the murders, coupled with extensive word-of-mouth publicity, made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial by a Robeson County jury.
N.C.G.S. § 15A-957 provides, in pertinent part:
If, upon motion of the defendant, the court determines that there exists in the county in which the prosecution is pending so great a prejudice against the defendant that he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial, the court must either:
(1) Transfer the proceeding to another county in the prosecutorial district as defined in G.S. 7A-60 or to another county in an adjoining prosecutorial district as defined in G.S. 7A-60, or
(2) Order a special venire under the terms of G.S. 15A-958.
The purpose of N.C.G.S. § 15A-957 is to insure that jurors decide cases based on evidence introduced at trial and not on something they have heard outside the courtroom. State v. Abbott, 320 N.C. 475, 358 S.E.2d 365 (1987). Under this statute, the burden is on the moving party to show that "it is reasonably likely that prospective jurors would base their decision in the case upon pretrial information rather than the evidence presented at trial and would be unable to remove from their minds any preconceived impressions they might have formed." State v. Gardner, 311 N.C. 489, 497, 319 S.E.2d 591, 597-98 (1984). In most cases a showing of identifiable prejudice to the defendant must be made, and relevant to this inquiry is testimony by potential jurors that they can decide the case based on the evidence presented and not on pretrial publicity.
At a pretrial hearing before Samuel E. Britt, Judge, the defendant offered evidence that Robeson County had a population of approximately 105,000. The Robesonian, a county newspaper, had a circulation in Robeson County of between 15,000 and 16,000 on weekdays and between 16,000 and 17,000 on Sundays. The Fayetteville Observer had circulations in Robeson County of approximately 3,100 and 1,600, respectively. Between the date of the first murder, 8 September 1984, and the date of the hearing, 12 September 1985, 16 articles concerning the murders appeared in the Robesonian, 8 appeared...
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