State v. Lang

• Decision Date: 03 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 205A83,205A83
• Citation: 309 N.C. 512,308 S.E.2d 317
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Stanley Marvin LANG.

Page 317

308 S.E.2d 317

309 N.C. 512

STATE of North Carolina v. Stanley Marvin LANG.

No. 205A83.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 3, 1983.

Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen. by M.R. Rich, Jr., Deputy Atty. Gen., and William B. Ray, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

C. Everett Thompson and John G. Trimpi, Elizabeth City, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Justice.

In this appeal the defendant's dispositive assignments of error relate to the admission into evidence of his confession and to instructions by the trial court to the jury concerning the conditions under which the jury could infer malice. We find merit in these assignments and hold that the defendant must be allowed a new trial. Other errors assigned by the defendant are not likely to arise at a new trial and are neither reached nor discussed herein. Therefore, a complete recitation of the evidence presented at trial is unnecessary.

The State's evidence tended to show that the defendant, Stanley Marvin Lang, was observed in a restaurant and bar known as "Feldo's" in the Ocean View Section of Norfolk, Virginia early on the morning of April 20, 1982. He was in the company of Robert Linwood Taylor and Frances Mae Pack. The three of them had been drinking. Having had some conversation about smoking a marijuana cigarette, they left Feldo's shortly after 1:00 a.m. on April 20.

At approximately 5:45 a.m. on April 20, the nude body of Frances Mae Pack was found lying in a ditch on the side of Beachwood Shores Road about eight miles from the Virginia-North Carolina State Line, in or near Moyock, North Carolina. The body of Frances Mae Pack bore numerous external injuries including a large incised cut across the front of the neck about seven inches long and one-half inch in depth and numerous small incised cuts to the cheek and neck. A series of wounds produced by a blunt object were visible. The body also bore a series of wounds with a patterned surface which could have been produced by the tread of a tire, certain footwear or any firm object with a rigid corrugated pattern. There were also numerous cuts to the back, buttocks and arms of the body produced by a sharp instrument. Additionally, there were defensive cuts to the hands caused by a sharp instrument, together with numerous scratches and abrasions. Examination of the body also revealed wounds to the anal canal consistent with sodomy.

Frances Mae Pack died from a wound resulting from a blunt instrument impact on the right side of her head behind the ear causing a skull fracture and internal bleeding with aspiration of blood. The mortal wound was received approximately one-half hour prior to death.

The defendant and Taylor arrived at the defendant's home in Norfolk, Virginia during the early morning hours of April 20 and were seen there washing blood from their hands. The defendant then assisted Taylor in washing blood out of Taylor's van. A rag found in the defendant's yard later that day contained blood and hair consistent with the blood and hair of the deceased.

The defendant was interviewed by police officers at approximately 11:26 p.m. on April 22, 1982. At that time he gave a statement which tended to be exculpatory. Taylor was interviewed at approximately 12:25 a.m. on April 23, 1982 and denied any wrongdoing. He was again interviewed at approximately 1:30 p.m. on April 23 and gave an inculpatory statement which implicated the defendant. The defendant was again interviewed on two occasions on April 23. The defendant gave a statement in the nature of a confession during the second interview.

Other evidence introduced during the trial and pertinent to the defendant's appeal is reviewed later in this opinion where appropriate.

The defendant first assigns as error the admission into evidence of statements made by him to police officers while he was in custody. Prior to trial the defendant made a motion to suppress all statements made by him to law enforcement officers concerning this case. A hearing on the defendant's motion was held before Judge Herbert O. Phillips, III at the November 8, 1982, Session of Criminal Superior Court, Camden County, with the consent of the defendant and the State. The State and the defendant presented strongly conflicting evidence at the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Phillips made findings of fact and reached conclusions to the effect that the defendant freely, knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made his inculpatory statement to the law enforcement officers. We are of the opinion that the findings of fact failed to resolve the conflicts arising from the evidence concerning certain controlling events and that this failure was prejudicial error.

The evidence for the State during the voir dire hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress tended to show that the defendant was first interviewed by law enforcement officers at approximately 11:26 p.m. on April 22, 1982. He was advised of his constitutional rights and, after waiving them, gave an exculpatory statement.

The defendant called Lawrence W. Hill, a narcotics investigator with the Norfolk Police Department by telephone and met with him between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on April 22. The defendant told Hill that he was a suspect in the murder and asked Hill to check into the matter. The defendant and his wife were acquainted with Hill because the defendant had been an informant for Hill for approximately two years after Hill had arrested the defendant on narcotics charges.

The defendant went to the office of an attorney in Virginia on the afternoon of April 23. The attorney called the Norfolk Police Department and learned that a warrant was being issued for the defendant's arrest. The attorney accompanied the defendant to the police station where he was arrested. At that time the defendant's attorney advised the police that the defendant did not wish to make any statement or talk to them without his attorney present.

The State's evidence also tended to show that Agent O.L. Wise of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and Detective Tom Pollard of the Norfolk Police Department interviewed the defendant at approximately 6:25 p.m. on April 23. At that time the defendant was advised of his rights and informed the officers that he did not wish to talk to them or answer any questions without his lawyer present. All questioning of the defendant by Wise and Pollard was immediately terminated at that time.

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on April 23, Detective Hill had a discussion with the defendant who was in custody. Hill informed the defendant that he was not going to advise him of his rights, since he did not want to talk to the defendant about the matter under investigation. Hill told the defendant that he had read a statement by Taylor implicating the defendant and that he knew that the defendant had not made a statement. He then told the defendant that he wanted him to know that "all who's going to be looking out for you is you yourself." The defendant responded that he was not worried since he had not killed the girl but had only beaten her up. Hill and the defendant shook hands and Hill left.

After talking with his partner, Detective Hill concealed a radio transmitter on his person and went to the defendant's home to attempt to determine whether the defendant's wife had been involved in the murder. This was done without the knowledge of the officers investigating the murder. While Hill was in the home, the defendant called his wife. After learning from his wife that Hill was there, the defendant asked to speak to Hill and informed him that he wanted him to "get somebody" for the defendant to talk to. Hill suggested that, if the defendant wanted to talk to anybody, Detective Pollard would be a good man to talk to. As a result of this conversation, Hill called the Norfolk Police Department seeking Detective Pollard who had already gone home for the evening. Hill asked the person he spoke to to contact Detective Pollard. Detective Pollard was contacted and returned to see the defendant.

S.B.I. Agent Wise was returning to North Carolina when he received a radio message to call the Norfolk Police Department. When he called he was informed that Detective Pollard had received a telephone call requesting that they both return to the Norfolk Police Department as the defendant wanted to talk to them. Agent Wise testified that the defendant "told me when I went back to the Norfolk Police Department that he wanted to talk to me and tell me what happened, and I wanted to hear it." Agent Wise and Detective Pollard read the defendant his rights from a standard form. The defendant indicated that he understood his rights and wished to waive them and answer questions without an attorney present. The waiver of rights form was signed by the defendant and witnessed by the officers at approximately 10:00 p.m. on April 23. The defendant then made an inculpatory statement which was reported and transcribed by a stenographer. The officers indicated that they did not strike or threaten the defendant.

The defendant's evidence conflicted sharply with that of the State in several respects. The defendant testified that when he telephoned his wife, he discovered that Hill was with her. He talked with Hill by telephone and said, "I ain't telling nothing." He also testified that Hill told him that his wife and her sister were accessories to the murder and were going to be picked up. Hill asked him if he "had any place for the kids to go--downtown at a youth center or something." The defendant then told Hill that he wanted to talk to his lawyer before he said anything. Hill told the defendant that his wife's life was in danger but that Hill was not going to let anything happen to her or the children. The defendant's wife told him "that she was going to get fifty years in the penitentiary."

The defendant testified that later that evening Wise and Pollard came to see him. He told them...