State v. Mack
| Docket Number | 2023-UP-262,Appellate Case 2019-000521 |
| Decision Date | 12 July 2023 |
| Parties | The State, Respondent, v. Terriel Leshawn Mack, Appellant. |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
THIS OPINION HAS NO PRECEDENTIAL VALUE. IT SHOULD NOT BE CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY PROCEEDING EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR.
Heard March 16, 2022
Appeal from Florence County William H. Seals, Jr., Circuit Court Judge
Appellate Defender Kathrine Haggard Hudgins, of Columbia, for Appellant.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Melody Jane Brown, Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Senior Assistant Attorney General W. Edgar Salter, III, all of Columbia, and Solicitor Edgar Lewis Clements, III, of Florence, all for Respondent.
Terriel Leshawn Mack appeals the result of a resentencing hearing under Aiken v. Byars, 410 S.C. 534, 765 S.E.2d 572 (2014). Mack argues that the circuit court erred by sentencing Mack to life without parole without making a specific finding that he was irreparably corrupt and by failing to properly consider the factors in juvenile sentencing laid out by our supreme court. We affirm.
In the evening hours of December 17, 2003, Patrolman Otis Gowdy was driving near the Oakland Plantation in Florence when he "heard three loud bangs." Patrolman Gowdy drove to a location where he recently had seen three men standing. Two of the men had now disappeared. Patrolman Gowdy found the body of the third man, Joseph Todd Wilson. Islam Horn Gregory Johnson and Mack were indicted for murder and conspiracy.[1] Mack was seventeen when the incident occurred.
According to Horn's testimony at Mack's murder trial, Horn and Mack had decided on the day of Wilson's death to drive to North Florence to see a female. Eventually, Mack saw the victim and "wanted to holler at" him. Mack got out of the car, as did Johnson, who by this point had joined Horn and Mack in the vehicle. Not long after, Horn "heard the first gunshot." Moving his car slightly, he saw Mack "stand over [the victim] and shoot him three more times in the back."
At the trial, Horn also read and helped decode an incriminating letter he said Mack wrote to him while the two of them were in jail following the crime. The contents included:
I got out the car me and [Johnson] and I call [the victim] like, Yo, that my n** Tellie. Then he started walking back towards me. [Johnson] was like, Yo, the jakes is over there.[2] I was like f*** that n**. I ain't got no time to waste. Plus, I don't give a f*** about no jakes anyway. Son, I had hollows in the chamber and I blew that b**** n** brains out.... That n** s*** splattered everywhere and he drop like a rag doll, like he had spaghetti legs or some s***, put three in his back.
The letter also suggested that Mack killed the victim "for WB and my n** BG rest in peace "Mack also allegedly wrote: "I told myself the only thing I was coming back to jail for was either bricks or bodies and I stuck to my word."[3] During his PCR hearing, Mack denied being the author of the note.
Johnson testified similarly to Horn at Mack's trial. He said Horn and Mack picked him up on the evening of the crime. According to Johnson, when Mack saw the victim, "he ask[ed] me was that Todd who snitched on somebody else[,] a guy by the name of White Boy[.]" Johnson testified that he and Mack exited the car, and a few moments later, Mack shot the victim in the head. Johnson said he was running away by the time Mack fired the last three bullets.
Investigator Ron Smith testified about a previous violent crime in Florence.[4]According to Smith, two men were shot Antonio McCall, who died, and Joseph Todd Wilson-the victim in this case. Shortly after the incident, Wilson blamed the shooting on "White Boy."
The jury found Mack guilty of murder. The court sentenced Mack to life in prison without parole (LWOP). This court affirmed in an Anders appeal.[5]
In 2014, Mack and 14 other individuals challenged the legality of their LWOP sentences in Aiken, 410 S.C. at 536-37, 765 S.E.2d at 573. A divided South Carolina Supreme Court found that they were entitled to new sentencing hearings either under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent interpretations of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or under a similar provision of the South Carolina Constitution.[6] Id. at 545-46, 765 S.E.2d at 578.
At Mack's resentencing hearing, the State attempted to portray Mack as a remorseless killer. Mack presented an array of evidence about aspects of his first trial, the offense, and his life both before and after the murder.
Testifying for the State, Detective Melvin Godwin said Mack had confessed to the murder in a statement to police and that Mack said he did so to prevent the victim from testifying against "White Boy," whose real name was Marcus Martin.[7]However, under cross-examination, Godwin was forced to concede that Mack had asked for a lawyer, but law enforcement had continued questioning him anyway.
The State introduced Mack's disciplinary record in prison, which included charges and allegations of weapons and drug possession, fights with guards, threats to guards, property damage, being part of a "security threat group," and eight instances of public masturbation. He once allegedly attempted to bribe a prison guard to bring money into the prison for him. In all, Mack had 27 reports over more than 12 years. Mack was also investigated for homicide, though that appears to have been a wide-ranging investigation related to a riot at Lee Correctional Institute. At his resentencing hearing, Mack said that "some [of the incidents were] entirely my fault"; additional incidents were caused by "misunderstandings"; and other disciplinary actions included times he was "falsely accused and unable to prove my innocence."
Mack presented the testimony of Dr. Geoffrey McKee, a forensic psychologist. Dr. McKee testified that Mack's mother was abused by a man named Nathaniel, who acted as a "father figure" to Mack. Mack was also allegedly abused by his mother on at least one occasion. Another stepfather attempted "to get rid of any reference" to Nathaniel. At the age of twelve, Mack had a sexual encounter with a seventeen-year-old female.[8] Around the same time, Mack began using alcohol and marijuana. Mack once defended his mother from an abuser.
In a statement to the court after the end of testimony and evidence, Mack apologized for "my involvement in the death of" the victim and discussed his views at the time of the murder.
At the time of my arrest, I was a 17-year-old child that was under the false impression that I was a grown man because at least since the age of 13[,] I have been running around town with people I thought were my friends doing what we thought grownups did[:] alcohol, doing drugs and living every day like life was a game people press restart -- press a restart button on.
Mack also discussed his involvement in the prison ministry, and his efforts to tutor fellow inmates.
Both sides introduced dozens of pages of documentary evidence. A DJJ report prepared when Mack was fifteen and had been charged with petit larceny stated that he was "cool and indifferent to the feelings and welfare of others" and "does not appear interested in developing close relationships with others, and ties to others are generally based on sharing similar antisocial or unempathetic attitudes." The report indicated that Mack had been charged with multiple counts of damaging or tampering with a vehicle and larceny in a December 2001 incident. There were also assorted assault charges listed.[9]
The defense introduced a psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Matthew Gaskins noting an incident in which Mack told a nurse practitioner that "'he was found hanging in the shower' and had to be cut down." Dr. Gaskins also noted that Mack's records included an array of psychiatric diagnoses-including posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosis, antisocial personality disorder, and malingering-and prescriptions. Dr. Gaskins wrote: "His experiences have led him to knowingly push boundaries and break rules in order to 'survive' while incarcerated (i.e. have a potential weapon when limited physically, fight an officer/inmate who disrespects him publicly)."
The resentencing court sentenced Mack to LWOP. The court said it was "extremely concerned by the cold-blooded nature of the killing, and the fact that [Mack] has shown little to no signs of rehabilitation." The court also said that it had "carefully and deliberately considered all the factors as outlined in Aiken v. Byars" before reaching its decision. This appeal followed.
State v. Finley, 427 S.C. 419, 423, 831 S.E.2d 158, 160 (Ct. App. 2019) (citation omitted).
In 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012). There, the Court held "that mandatory life without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on 'cruel and unusual punishments.'" Id. at 465. In 2014, the South Carolina Supreme Court considered the impact of Miller on South Carolina law in Aiken v. Byars. There, a plurality of the court found that even South Carolina's discretionary sentencing regime was affected, because "Miller does more than ban mandatory life sentencing schemes for juveniles; it establishes an affirmative requirement that courts fully explore the impact of the...
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