State v. Meekins

• Decision Date: 13 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. 363A87,363A87
• Citation: 392 S.E.2d 346,326 N.C. 689
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Eazed Rudolph MEEKINS.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 346

392 S.E.2d 346

326 N.C. 689

STATE of North Carolina v. Eazed Rudolph MEEKINS.

No. 363A87.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 13, 1990.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Ralf F. Haskell, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by David W. Dorey, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

EXUM, Chief Justice.

Defendant was properly indicted for first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping, felonious larceny and possession of stolen property. He was found by a jury to be guilty as charged. After a sentencing hearing on the first-degree murder conviction the jury returned a recommendation of life imprisonment, which was imposed. ¹ Judgment was arrested on the possession of stolen property conviction, and defendant was sentenced to terms of years on the other convictions.

Defendant contends his convictions should be vacated and that he is entitled to a new trial because of prejudicial error in the admission of certain evidence. We find no reversible error in defendant's trial.

I.

The State's evidence tends to show as follows:

On or about 29 April 1986 in the early morning the victim Ethel Owens, a 79-year-old widow, was abducted from her home in her own automobile, murdered in this automobile and her body left in a roadside ditch along a rural highway where it was found on 3 May 1986.

On the night of 28 April defendant was at a party in his aunt's trailer, which was described by a witness as being "three good rock throws away" from the victim's home. Defendant, wearing a green Army field jacket, was drinking liquor and wine with several other people. At approximately midnight defendant got upset and broke two glass bottles at the party. He later left, saying he was going jogging. At 4 a.m. on 29 April defendant woke Wanda Jean Lee, who had been at the party, and asked her for some clothes he had left with her earlier. He told Ms. Lee he had hitchhiked to the house, which is forty-five minutes away from where the party took place. The next morning Ms. Lee found a woman's red and black housecoat in her apartment.

At about 5 a.m. on 29 April defendant visited James Overton and asked him for some clothes. Defendant was wearing shorts with bloodstains on them. He explained he had been in a fight with his brother. Overton recognized the car defendant was driving as the victim's. Overton asked for money and saw defendant remove eight dollars from a woman's purse inside the car. He observed that defendant also had some blank checks.

At 8:30 a.m. on 29 April the victim's great-niece, Cindy Williams, drove past the victim's house and noticed her car was missing. Later that day she entered the victim's home and noticed a mattress was partially off the bedframe and the sheets were thrown to one side. Beside the bed was a rolled undergarment. Unable to locate her great-aunt at other relatives' houses, Ms. Williams returned to the victim's house and called her parents. Her mother, the victim's niece, came to the victim's home and noticed it was unusually messy. She observed bloodstains on some sheets and an odor of urine from a recliner chair.

Sheriff Norman Newbern arrived at the crime scene at 7:30 p.m. on 29 April. He observed the door to a storage room of the residence had been broken into and a window screen placed against a wall inside the room. On the ground outside the window the sheriff found a paring knife and a zipper attached to some olive green cloth. Later that night S.B.I. investigators found finger and palm prints throughout the house. Six prints were later identified as defendant's. His right palm print and left thumb print were on the screen's interior, and his right ring finger print was on the screen's exterior. His right and left thumb prints were on the door between the den and kitchen.

Melvin Burton, Wanda Jean Lee's boyfriend, testified he had been defendant's friend for several years. He recalled that defendant broke two bottles together at the 28 April 1986 party and visited Ms. Lee early the next morning. Burton saw defendant later that day and noticed a scratch on his forehead. Defendant explained he had been scratched by his brother during a basketball game. Defendant had some books of checks with him bearing the name of Ethel Owens. Defendant asked Burton to help him get some checks cashed. Burton took defendant to a service station in Elizabeth City, but the station refused to cash the checks. Later defendant and Burton were at a party drinking. While sitting on some back steps defendant began to cry. When Burton asked what was wrong, defendant replied, "I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to kill her." On cross-examination Burton testified that defendant said "I didn't mean to kill Ethel Owens."

Defendant was taken into custody for questioning just before midnight on 1 May 1986. He told officers he was with two men who killed Ethel Owens and disposed of her body. Defendant claimed he rode in the back of victim's car and was never in the front seat. The victim's car was found in the Albemarle Hospital parking lot on 2 May 1986. There were bloodstains matching the victim's type at the top of the passenger seat running down to the floor, on the kickboard under the passenger door and on the outside of the car. A knife was found on the floorboard of the car. Defendant's fingerprints were found on the steering wheel, the rearview mirror and the driver's armrest.

On 3 May Ethel Owens' badly deteriorated body was found in a roadside ditch. Her body was clad only in a housecoat. She had been stabbed nineteen times. Near the body was found a billfold containing the birth certificate of James Overton, which Overton had previously given defendant; a newspaper article about defendant; and a matchbook from the wedding of defendant's brother.

Defendant offered evidence tending to show as follows:

Melvin Burton, not defendant, had been wearing a green Army jacket at the party on 28 April 1986. Defendant testified that he got into an argument at the party, broke two wine bottles together and cut his hand. He rested on the back porch at the party for an hour, then hitchhiked to Burton's house. There Burton paid him fifty dollars to get rid of Ethel Owens' car. Defendant drove to James Overton's house to change pants. He then parked the victim's car in the hospital parking lot, where a girlfriend picked him up and drove him home. He later met with Burton and Wanda Jean Lee. Ms. Lee produced some personal checks bearing the victim's name, and defendant joined her as she unsuccessfully tried to cash the checks.

Defendant also testified that his mother had been Ethel Owens' housekeeper and that he had done some heavy lifting and repair work in the victim's home on two or three occasions, the most recent being some nine months before the murder. ²

II.

Defendant first argues that the trial court erred in admitting certain testimony from the victim's niece, Elizabeth Sawyer. The trial court conducted a voir dire concerning the admissibility of this testimony. On voir dire Ms. Sawyer testified that the victim told her two weeks before her murder that she feared defendant because defendant had asked for one hundred dollars and she had refused to give it to him. The trial court then determined to admit the testimony under North Carolina Rule of Evidence 803(3), noting that "it relates to an existing mental or emotional state of mind of the declarant concerning her feelings about the defendant, Eazed Rudolph Meekins."

Ms. Sawyer then testified before the jury over defendant's objection that she had spoken to the victim two weeks before her death and that the victim told her "that she was afraid of Zeb Meekins." After this testimony, the court instructed the jury as follows:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, at this time let me instruct you that you are to consider this witness' testimony concerning any statement made by Mrs. Ethel Owens only to the extent that you find that it indicates ill will or fear on the part of the victim by the Defendant or of the Defendant. You may consider it for no other reason in this case.

Ms. Sawyer then testified that the victim had previously said several times she was fearful of defendant.

Defendant contends that admission of this testimony was reversible error because the State failed to demonstrate a meaningful factual basis for the victim's fears, the testimony was irrelevant to any material issue in the case and any relevancy that did exist was outweighed by the tendency of the evidence unfairly to prejudice defendant.

In State v. Alston, 307 N.C. 321, 298 S.E.2d 631 (1983), this Court held that evidence regarding a victim's fear of the defendant should be accompanied with some factual basis for that fear. We said:

Evidence of a victim's fear of the defendant is subject to misuse. Therefore, the naked assertion by a victim prior to his death that he fears the defendant should not be admitted into evidence absent some evidence tending to show a factual basis for such alleged fear.

Id. at 328, 298 S.E.2d at 637. Also, Rule 803 of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence establishes the admissibility of state of mind evidence, reading in pertinent part:

The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness: ... (3) Then Existing Mental, Emotional or Physical Condition--A statement of the declarant's then existing state of mind, emotion, sensation, or physical condition (such as intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling, pain, and bodily health)....

N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 803(3) (1988). Evidence tending to show the state of mind of the victim is admissible as long as the declarant's state of mind is relevant to the case. State v. Cummings, 326 N.C. 298, 389 S.E.2d 66 (1990). See also State v. Weeks, 322 N.C. 152, 367 S.E.2d 895 (1988). In Cummings the victim's comments to a paralegal three weeks before sh...