State v. Maske

• Decision Date: 06 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 497A02.,497A02.
• Citation: 358 N.C. 40,591 S.E.2d 521
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Eric MASKE.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

591 S.E.2d 521

358 N.C. 40

STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Eric MASKE.

No. 497A02.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

February 6, 2004.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Amy C. Kunstling, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Staples Hughes, Appellate Defender, by Anne M. Gomez, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

EDMUNDS, Justice.

The victim in this murder case, Geneva Yarbrough (Yarbrough), lived in an apartment on Avera Avenue in Winston-Salem. She was a full-time employee of Bank of America and also worked part-time as a waitress at Darryl's Restaurant. After taking a day off from her bank job on Tuesday, 30 January 2001, for a doctor's appointment, she never returned to work.

At about 10:00 p.m. on the evening of Wednesday, 31 January 2001, Jamelle Witherspoon (Jamelle), a sixteen-year-old boy whose family lived above Yarbrough's apartment, knocked on Yarbrough's door to warn her that the headlights of her parked automobile were illuminated. When no one answered, Jamelle went home, but when he returned from school the next afternoon, he saw that the headlights still had not been turned off. He again knocked on Yarbrough's door, and the door opened slightly. Jamelle stepped inside and saw Yarbrough lying on a hallway floor with a towel covering her face. Jamelle's grandmother and aunt called 911.

The responding officers observed that Yarbrough's body was bloody and exhibiting rigor mortis. Her eyes and mouth were open, and the blood patterns on her face and a rumpled rug under her body suggested that she had been moved at some point. Several of her fingernails were broken, and the apartment was in disarray. Although neither of the two doors into the apartment showed signs of forced entry, investigators found a chair outside that had been placed directly below a kitchen window. The screen was missing from the window and a boot print was found in the interior sink that was under the window. A screen that fit the window was later discovered about sixty to seventy-five feet away, and the State's fingerprint witness identified defendant's palm print on the screen.

Police determined that Yarbrough owned a cellular telephone. Initially, they were unable to locate the telephone itself, but records of its use maintained by the telephone company led investigators to an apartment in a neighboring building on Avera Avenue. This apartment was rented by Stephanie Wilson (Wilson), defendant Michael Eric Maske's girlfriend. Defendant had been staying with Wilson for several months. Police found Yarbrough's telephone in a dresser drawer in Wilson's apartment and seized from a closet a pair of boots that appeared to be consistent in size and tread pattern with the print found in Yarbrough's sink.

Officers went to defendant's place of employment and asked if he would voluntarily come to the police station. Defendant agreed. During his interview there, defendant first told officers that he found the cellular telephone at the apartment complex. When officers asked defendant why he kept covering his face, he said that he had been scratched by a cat. However, as the questioning continued, defendant advised the officers that he wanted to tell them something bad. He said that he and Wilson were broke and on the verge of being evicted. When he realized that most of the neighbors were gone during the day, he went to Yarbrough's apartment. After knocking to make sure that no one was home, he put a chair under a window and climbed into the apartment. While there, he heard the door being unlocked and tried unsuccessfully to hide in the bedroom. Yarbrough came in and confronted defendant, then scratched his face with her fingernails. Defendant ran to Yarbrough's kitchen and grabbed a knife. He claimed that Yarbrough ran into the knife as they struggled through the apartment. Finally, Yarbrough fell and defendant put a towel from the bathroom over her face. He then left the apartment, taking approximately sixty compact discs, about $200 from Yarbrough's purse, some of her jewelry, and a set of keys.

Defendant said that he returned the next day and opened Yarbrough's car with the keys he had taken the day before. He took her cellular telephone from the car and used it to call several of his friends. He stated that he sold some of the compact discs for money and threw the knife into a dumpster. Other evidence presented by the State indicated that the stolen jewelry was pawned on Monday, 29 January 2001; that defendant's name had been signed on the pawn ticket; and that the Record Exchange purchased ten of the stolen compact discs on Tuesday, 30 January 2001.

An autopsy of Yarbrough revealed that she had been stabbed sixteen times in her chest, abdomen, and back. Any one of three wounds to her liver, heart, and right lung was potentially fatal. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds. Defendant presented no evidence during the guilt-innocence portion of the trial. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, both on the theory of premeditation and deliberation, and on the theory of felony murder.

Defendant took the stand during the sentencing proceeding. He began his testimony by describing his upbringing. He had not known his father, had been brought up in a filthy and crime-infested housing project, and had been abused by his stepfather and his mother's boyfriend. As to the offense at bar, defendant testified that he entered Yarbrough's apartment several times. The first time, he climbed through the window about 8:00 a.m., took some food, and left through the front door, leaving it unlocked. He said he returned about 11:00 the same morning and stole some compact discs, which he sold. During his third entry, about 5:30 p.m., Yarbrough came home. He stated that she scratched his face and they fought. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and held it out as she came toward him. He did not know how many times she hit the knife, but she grappled with defendant until she fell in the hallway. He could not tell if Yarbrough was dead or alive when he left. Defendant said that he returned for a fourth time the next day and took Yarbrough's cellular telephone from her car.

In addition, defendant presented evidence that no formal disciplinary actions had been instituted against him while he had been in custody pending trial. Dr. James Hilkey was qualified as an expert in the field of forensic psychology and testified as to the results of his examination of defendant. He found that defendant's full range IQ score is 78 and it was his opinion that defendant "did suffer from a mental disorder, specifically a personality disorder not otherwise specified. And those three that I've identified have been the borderline personality disorder, a dependent personality disorder and also antisocial personality disorder." In Dr. Hilkey's opinion, defendant had the mental age of between ten and thirteen years. Dr. Hilkey testified that while defendant knew the difference between right and wrong and was capable of forming the intent to commit a crime, he believed defendant suffered from an impaired capacity to appreciate fully the consequences of his actions.

Of the three submitted aggravating circumstances, the jury found that defendant had committed the murder for pecuniary gain, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(6) (2003), and that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(9). The jury did not find that defendant had been convicted of a previous felony involving the threat of violence to the person, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3). The jury also found eight of eleven submitted mitigating circumstances. It found that defendant had no significant prior criminal history, that the murder was committed while defendant was under the influence of a mental or emotional disturbance, that defendant had accepted responsibility for his conduct, that he expressed remorse for the killing, that he had shown the ability to conform his behavior to a custodial setting, that he was physically abused as a child, and that he did not have a stable home environment. The jury did not find that defendant's ability to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was impaired, that defendant's age constituted a mitigating circumstance, or that defendant voluntarily acknowledged wrongdoing in connection with the offense to a law enforcement officer. The jury also did not find the catchall mitigating circumstance. The jury then determined that the mitigating circumstances were insufficient to outweigh the aggravating circumstances and recommended a sentence of death.

GUILT-INNOCENCE ISSUES

Defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial, which was based on a claim of juror misconduct. Prior to the jury voir dire, each potential juror filled out a questionnaire that asked, among other things, whether the juror had been a victim of or a witness to a crime. Juror Walker gave a negative response. Although juror Walker was not directly asked during voir dire if she had been a victim of a crime, the jurors were asked collectively by defense counsel whether the alleged facts of defendant's case would make it difficult for any of them to deliberate impartially. Juror Walker did not respond. However, during deliberations in the guilt phase of the trial, juror Walker described a robbery that had occurred in her home. The foreperson advised the judge, who in turn told the attorneys what had happened. The judge then brought the foreperson into the courtroom, asked her to describe for counsel and defendant what had happened, and allowed the attorneys to ask the foreperson questions. After excusing the foreperson, the judge consulted with counsel. The parties agreed that juror Walker could not be replaced by an alternate because deliberations had already begun. See State v. Bunning, 346 N.C. 253, 485 S.E.2d 290 (1997)

. Defendant moved for a...