State v. Maness

• Decision Date: 18 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 402A06.,402A06.
• Citation: 677 S.E.2d 796
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Darrell Wayne MANESS.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

677 S.E.2d 796

STATE of North Carolina v. Darrell Wayne MANESS.

No. 402A06.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 18, 2009.

Appeal as of right pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing a sentence of death entered by Judge D. Jack Hooks, Jr. on 4 April 2006 in Superior Court, Brunswick County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder. On 10 July 2008, the Supreme Court allowed defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals as to his appeal of additional judgments. Heard in the Supreme Court 10 September 2008.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Barry S. McNeill, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

M. Gordon Widenhouse, Jr.; and Staples S. Hughes, Appellate Defender, by Katherine Jane Allen, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

EDMUNDS, Justice.

Defendant Darrell Wayne Maness was indicted for one count of murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill, three counts of assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, and one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. Defendant was tried by jury and on 31 March 2006 was convicted of one count of first-degree murder on the basis of malice, premeditation and deliberation, and also under the felony murder rule. He was also convicted of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill, two counts of assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, and one count of robbery with a firearm. Following a capital sentencing hearing, the jury recommended a sentence of death.

Defendant appealed his capital conviction to this Court and we allowed his motion to bypass the Court of Appeals as to his other convictions. We find that defendant's trial and capital sentencing proceeding were free from error and that defendant's sentence of death is not disproportionate.

At approximately one o'clock a.m. on 18 January 2005, Officer Mitchell Prince of the Boiling Spring Lakes Police Department pulled over a gray Honda after it swerved to avoid a deer. Defendant was driving, Michael Brennan sat in the passenger seat, and Tia Isley was in the back seat. Officer Prince asked defendant for his driver's license and vehicle registration. According to Brennan, defendant gave Officer Prince the registration but claimed he did not have identification. Officer Prince took the registration back to his car, where he determined that the Honda was registered under Tia Isley's name. Officer Prince returned to the Honda, asked defendant a few questions, then requested that he step out of the car. Officer Prince searched defendant and found an empty marijuana baggie and, in defendant's back pocket, an identification card.

Defendant told Officer Prince that marijuana was beneath the passenger seat. Officer Prince looked but did not find marijuana in the car, although he did find a partially full E & J Brandy bottle. Brennan poured out the brandy and Isley placed the empty bottle in a trash bag on the floorboard. Officer Prince then saw a bag of marijuana underneath the Honda and asked defendant to show him where the rest of it was. Although witnesses testified that defendant knew marijuana was in a backpack in the Honda's trunk, defendant looked only in the passenger compartment, without success.

When defendant failed to locate contraband, Officer Prince attempted to handcuff him. Defendant resisted by picking up the trash bag containing the empty brandy bottle and repeatedly hitting Officer Prince on the head with it. As Officer Prince struggled to subdue defendant, they fell into a water-filled ditch beside the road. Defendant emerged with Officer Prince's gun, and Officer Prince crawled out of the ditch repeating words to the effect of, "Please don't kill me; please don't kill me." Brennan testified that defendant told Officer Prince to "shut up." Then, as a backup police car arrived, defendant shot Officer Prince three times while Officer Prince was on his knees. Officer Prince suffered two gunshot wounds to his head, while the third shot hit him in the right shoulder. He died before he could be taken to a hospital.

Defendant then fired at the backup officer, reentered the Honda, and drove away. Brennan and Isley remained at the scene, refusing defendant's directive to get back in the car. A chase involving two police vehicles ended after approximately two miles when defendant stopped, exited the Honda, and shot out a window of one of the pursuing police cars. The officers returned fire and defendant ran to a nearby mobile home. Two men and two women, one carrying an infant, emerged from the mobile home in response to police instructions. The record contains no indiction that these individuals knew defendant or had any connection with him. Defendant was discovered hiding beneath the home by the officers, who pulled him out and arrested him.

Defendant was placed inside a sheriff's department S.W.A.T. van and advised of his Miranda rights. Defendant agreed to speak to the investigators and stated that he hit Officer Prince with the bottle at least twice, that Officer Prince was begging "Please, don't shoot. Please. Please," and that he blacked out and shot Officer Prince. When Brunswick County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Cummings asked defendant why he shot at the other officers, defendant responded that he shot one, so why not two.

Additional facts will be set forth as necessary for the discussion of specific issues.

JURY SELECTION ISSUES

Defendant contends the trial court erred by not allowing defense counsel to question prospective jurors about their ability (1) to not surrender their honest convictions for the purpose of returning a sentencing recommendation and (2) to recommend a life sentence even if other jurors disagreed. "The voir dire of prospective jurors serves a two-fold purpose: (I) to determine whether a basis for challenge for cause exists, and (ii) to enable counsel to intelligently exercise peremptory challenges." State v. Gregory, 340 N.C. 365, 388, 459 S.E.2d 638, 651 (1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1108, 116 S.Ct. 1327, 134 L.Ed.2d 478 (1996). A defendant in a capital case "should be given great latitude in examining potential jurors." State v. Conner, 335 N.C. 618, 629, 440 S.E.2d 826, 832 (1994). Nevertheless, "[r]egulation of the manner and the extent of inquiries on voir dire rests largely in the trial court's discretion." State v. Green, 336 N.C. 142, 164, 443 S.E.2d 14, 27, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1046, 115 S.Ct. 642, 130 L.Ed.2d 547 (1994). A defendant claiming that his or her voir dire was erroneously restricted must show both that the restriction was an abuse of discretion and that he or she was prejudiced thereby. State v. Jones, 339 N.C. 114, 134, 451 S.E.2d 826, 835 (1994), cert. denied, 515 U.S. 1169, 115 S.Ct. 2634, 132 L.Ed.2d 873 (1995). The trial court has significant discretion in controlling the jury voir dire. See Gregory, 340 N.C. at 389, 459 S.E.2d at 651 (finding no abuse of discretion when "[t]he majority of defendant's questions to which the prosecutor's objections were sustained were either irrelevant, improper in form, attempts to `stake out' a juror, questions to which the answer was admitted in response to another question, or questions that contained an incomplete statement of the law").

Defendant contends the trial court erred in restricting his voir dire of prospective juror Teresa Register. The following exchange took place between defense counsel and Register:

Q. Do you think you could, if you were convinced that life imprisonment without parole was the appropriate penalty after hearing the facts, the evidence, and the law from the Judge and you were convinced that it was the appropriate penalty, could you come back and return a verdict of life imprisonment without parole?

A. Yes.

Q. Even if your fellow jurors were of different opinions?

[PROSECUTOR]: Well, objection.

[THE] COURT: Sustained.

The State responds that defense counsel was attempting to stake out the juror. "Counsel may not pose hypothetical questions designed to elicit in advance what the juror's decision will be under a certain state of the evidence or upon a given state of facts." State v. Vinson, 287 N.C. 326, 336, 215 S.E.2d 60, 68 (1975), judgment vacated in part on other grounds, 428 U.S. 902, 96 S.Ct. 3204, 49 L.Ed.2d 1206 (1976). "[S]uch questions tend to `stake out' the juror and cause him to pledge himself to a future course of action." Id. In addition, hypothetical questions tend to confuse jurors who have not yet heard evidence or been instructed on the applicable law. Id.

This Court has held that it was not error for a trial court to disallow the following attempted voir dire query:

"If, after the State has put on all of its evidence and after you have heard all the evidence in the case and after the Judge has instructed you, you held an opinion that the defendant was not guilty, that the State had not met its burden of proof in this case, would you change that opinion simply because eleven other jurors held a different opinion, that opinion being that the Defendant is guilty? Would any of you change your opinion simply for that reason?"

State v. Bracey, 303 N.C. 112, 118-19, 277 S.E.2d 390, 395 (1981). Such a question, designed to determine how well a prospective juror would withstand pressure to change his or her mind when jurors disagree, is an impermissible "stake out." State v. Elliott, 344 N.C. 242, 262, 475 S.E.2d 202, 209, cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1106, 117 S.Ct. 1111, 137 L.Ed.2d 312 (1997). The hypothetical question at issue here was a "stake out" question similar to the one disallowed in Bracey, and the trial court did not err in excluding it.

Defendant also argues that the trial court erred in restricting his voir dire of prospective juror Chester Davis. During his questioning of the prospective juror, defense ...