State v. McKnight, 99

• Citation: 279 N.C. 148,181 S.E.2d 415
• Decision Date: 10 June 1971
• Docket Number: No. 99,99
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Everett Jenning McKNIGHT.

Page 415

181 S.E.2d 415

279 N.C. 148

STATE of North Carolina v. Everett Jenning McKNIGHT.

No. 99.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 10, 1971.

Atty. Gen., Robert Morgan and Asst. Atty. Gen., Thomas B. Wood for the State.

E. Clayton Selvey, Jr., Charlotte, for defendant appellant.

MOORE, Justice.

Defendant's only assignment of error is to the refusal of the court to allow his motions for nonsuit at the close of the State's evidence and at the close of all the evidence. The State's evidence tends to show:

Everett Parker had been an employee of Mecklenburg Bonding Company for nine years. His office was located at 122 S. Davidson Street in Charlotte. This office had two rooms, one directly behind the other. The back room had two beds in it. The deceased, Claude Blalock Bridges sometimes called Bill Bridges, had been employed by Mecklenburg Bonding Company for two years. On 6 March 1970 between 9:30 and 9:40 p.m., Parker was in his office sitting directly in front of a plate glass window when he heard three successive shots fired. The shots sounded like they were close. Ten to fifteen seconds later Parker saw somebody pull himself up by the window sill and then enter his office. This person was so bloody that he did not recognize him at first; his entire body, face, and head were covered with blood. When this person got inside, Parker saw that it was the deceased. The deceased did not stop but went straight to the back office and fell on a bed. Russell Adams, who was in the office with Parker, followed deceased into the back room. Approximately ten to fifteen seconds after deceased came in, defendant entered. He had a .32 caliber pistol in his left hand similar to one the deceased owned, and blood on his clothing and hands. As defendant came in, he said 'Where did Bill go?' Parker, who was on the telephone calling for help, told defendant 'back there' and motioned toward the back room. Defendant went into the back room. After defendant came in, Parker went outside and saw no one else except some firemen who were at a fire station across the street.

About 8 p.m. on 6 March 1970 Joe Stewart saw the defendant and the deceased at the Mecklenburg County jail getting into deceased's car. When he came back to his office at 118 S. Davidson Street, he noticed that deceased's car was parked at deceased's office at 114 S. Davidson Street. He was sitting at his desk in front of a picture window shortly after 9 p.m. when he heard three shots which sounded like they came from the left of him. He stood up and saw someone go by the window, after which he went outside, looked to his left and saw no one, looked to his right and saw Parker coming out of 122 S. Davidson Street. He then went to 122 S. Davidson Street and saw deceased lying on the floor bleeding; defendant, with blood on his face, hands and clothing, was kneeling beside deceased saying, 'Bill, Bill, Bill,' and then he said 'is he dead' a number of times. Later, Stewart got into a police patrol car with the defendant, and defendant told him he was in the back room and deceased was in the font room of deceased's office at 114 S. Davidson Street, when the deceased's came running into the back room, turned around, and ran out down the street. At the police station the defendant told Stewart that he was in the back room and deceased was in the front room; that he heard shots, ran to the front room, and saw a gun lying on the floor. At the trial Stewart testified that the story defendant told him at the police station was not the same story defendant told him earlier.

Russell Adams was at 122 S. Davidson Street on 6 March 1970. He knew both the deceased and the defendant. Between 9:30 and 9:40 p.m. he heard three shots, looked through the plate glass window, and as the last shot was fired he saw deceased getting up at the corner of the building. Deceased stumbled through the door, went to the back room and fell across the bed; he had blood all over him. Defendant came running in about five seconds later with a gun in his hand and blood on his clothing and hands. Defendant said, 'Where is he at?', and Adams said 'in the back.' Defendant then went straight to the back room, followed by Adams. Adams left for ten or fifteen seconds, returned, helped deceased off the bed, and laid him straight out on the floor. The defendant's pants had been torn. At the trial Adams testified that the pocket of defendant's pants was 'flabby when he came in the front door like it was flunked down on one side.' About a week after March 6, Adams found a bloody monkey wrench weighing about eight or nine pounds under a pile of clothes near the bed on which deceased was lying. Adams had often seen the wrench at deceased's place of business.

James C. Brown, an employee of the Charlotte Fire Department, on 6 March 1970 heard two gunshots at approximately 9:30 p.m. He got up immediately from his desk, looked out the window, and saw defendant on the sidewalk walking toward the Mecklenburg Bonding Company with a gun in his hand. He also saw some other person going in the same direction in front of defendant. Brown then went across the street to 122 S. Davidson Street where he saw deceased lying on the floor at the rear of the office, and defendant, with blood on his hands and face, standing beside deceased.

Francis Wade, a member of the Charlotte Fire Department, was in the south side of the Mecklenburg Bonding Company's parking lot on 6 March 1970 when he heard three shots. After he heard the shots he walked to the sidewalk and saw someone go into the Bonding Company's office. He walked into the office, saw deceased going into the back, and saw defendant coming down the street with a gun in his had pointed out. He observed all this about ten seconds after he heard the last shot.

Officers W. E. Burnett and R. A. Metcalf, members of the Charlotte Police Department, went to 122 S. Davidson Street at approximately 9:45 p.m. on 6 March 1970 and found the deceased lying on the floor in the center section of the office. Defendant was there with blood on his shirt, hands, and left side of his face. When they searched the defendant, they found a .32 caliber pistol belonging to the deceased in his left front pocket, and a .25 automatic in his right rear pants pocket.

On 6 March 1970, H. R. Smith, an officer with the Charlotte Police Department's Criminal Investigation Bureau, examined the .32 caliber pistol taken from the defendant. He found one live and three spent cartridges in the chamber, and two shells lying on the floor near the right foot of the bed at 122 S. Davidson Street. Smith searched defendant and found $487.98 loose in his pocket. About 10:05 p.m. that evening he went to the deceased's address at 114 S. Davidson Street and observed blood on the sheets, on the bedroom floor, on the floor in the middle room, and drops of blood leading from there out the door of the front room and onto the front porch. An examination for bullet holes was made in the rear of the house where the bedroom is located. One .32 caliber bullet was found in the back door. Later that evening, the defendant told Smith he went to deceased's office about 7 p.m. to watch a ball game; that somewhere near the end of the second ball game he got up and went to the bathroom, and that several seconds later he heard deceased say, 'Mack, help. Mack, help'; that when he looked he saw deceased lying in his room on the bed; that he helped him off the bed, and then deceased broke loose from him and went out the front door; that he followed deceased out the front door and picked deceased's gun up from the porch; that deceased started down the street; that deceased then went into the office at 122 S. Davidson Street, after which defendant followed him and asked where deceased was; that he went to the back of the office and found deceased lying on the floor. Defendant also told Smith he had some personal contact with deceased at 114 S. Davidson Street and also at 122 S. Davidson Street.

Amon Butler owns the building at 114 S. Davidson Street where deceased lived. The wrench found at 122 S. Davidson Street was one which he used the latter part of January to fix the lavatory at 114 S. Davidson Street and had not seen since.

Hobart R. Wood, Medical Examiner for Mecklenburg County, performed the autopsy on the deceased. He found that the deceased had a massive blunt force type head injury; that he had a total of twenty-one deep, or relatively deep, lacerations over the forehead, left scalp, left ear, one in the back of the scalp and one in the back of the right side of his head; that he had a fractured skull on the left side, which extended into the base of the skull; that he had an acute hemorrhage of the brain, acute sweelling of the brain as a result of the injuries; that deceased had been shot once through the body, entering the left back area, and had been stabbed twice; that deceased died as the result of massive head injuries and a gunshot wound through the left lung.

On 4 April 1970 Officer C. J. Miller of the Charlotte Police Department was examining the patrol car which Officers Burnett and Metcalf used to carry the defendant to the police...