State v. Oates
| Decision Date | 26 July 2017 |
| Docket Number | Opinion No. 5502. |
| Citation | 421 S.C. 1,803 S.E.2d 911 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Preston Ryan OATES, Appellant. |
Appellate Defender Kathrine Haggard Hudgins, of Columbia, for Appellant.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson and Assistant Attorney General Mark Reynolds Farthing, both of Columbia; and Solicitor Isaac McDuffie Stone, III, of Bluffton, for Respondent.
Appellant Preston Ryan Oates seeks review of his convictions for voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Appellant also challenges the denial of his motion for immunity from prosecution pursuant to the Protection of Persons and Property Act (the Act).1 Appellant argues the circuit court erred in denying his motion for immunity because (1) there was evidence that the victim, Carlos Olivera (Victim), was attempting to forcibly remove Appellant from his occupied vehicle, and (2) the circuit court's finding that the conflict had resolved at the time of the shooting was not supported by the evidence.
Appellant also challenges the circuit court's refusal to direct a verdict of acquittal on the ground that the State failed to disprove self-defense. Finally, Appellant assigns error to the circuit court's decision to give a voluntary manslaughter instruction to the jury on the ground that there was no evidence of sudden heat of passion. We affirm.
On December 24, 2010, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Victim and his family visited his brother, Nelson Olivera (Nelson), and Nelson's family at their home in the Edgefield neighborhood near Bluffton. Although the Edgefield Homeowner's Association (the HOA) had prohibited parking on the streets in the subdivision, Victim parked his minivan on the street in front of the house of Nelson's neighbor, Steve Varedi. While Victim, Nelson, and their two families were visiting inside Nelson's house, Appellant, who had been hired by the HOA to tow illegally parked vehicles, noticed Victim's minivan and placed an automotive disabling device, i.e., a "boot," on the minivan's left front wheel. By the time Appellant was proceeding to hook up the minivan to the tow truck, Varedi had notified Victim that Appellant was about to tow Victim's minivan.
Victim, Nelson, and Varedi approached Appellant to ask him to refrain from towing the minivan because it was Christmas Eve and Victim was going to leave at that moment. When Appellant saw the three men approaching him, he felt intimidated and went back into the cab of his truck, shut the door, and locked it. Subsequently, Appellant rolled down the driver's side door window to speak with the men. According to Nelson, he was pleading for Appellant to release the minivan.
However, Appellant told investigators that when the three men approached him, they were running "a little abruptly" and were "hooting" and "hollering." He stated both Nelson and Victim jumped up on the truck's running board and started talking to him through the window and Victim told Varedi, "Go get my shotgun." Appellant recounted Nelson saying, "Take that off his vehicle," to which Appellant responded,
Appellant then heard "a round being chambered" as well as Victim stating, "You're [going to] take this off right now and I'm leaving," to which Appellant responded, "[T]hat's fine." Appellant further stated he stalled to regain his composure by fumbling with his set of keys and dropping them twice and he "kept kind of freaking out a little bit." Nelson's testimony was consistent with these two statements. Nelson admitted that Victim pulled a gun out of his pants, ratcheted the gun, and stated, "Nobody's going to take my car." Nelson stated Appellant "seemed very nervous, moving some keys and touching some papers," although he indicated this was already occurring when Victim pulled out his gun.
Appellant indicated that as he was fumbling with his keys, Nelson "grabbed" them along with the lock tool that releases the boot and took them to the front of the minivan.2 According to Appellant, while Victim was still "in the window," he asked Appellant if he had any paperwork on the minivan and stated he did not want law enforcement to "come look" for him. This dialogue frightened Appellant; he recounted, "[T]hat threw up a major red flag because he wants to make sure there's nothing in my vehicle that will connect me to his car." Appellant then pulled out his ledger and showed it to Victim to reassure him that Appellant had no paperwork on the minivan. While he was showing Victim the ledger, Appellant opened his glove box and pulled out his gun along with some papers on top of it to hide it.
At this point, another neighbor, Reba Bryan, offered to call 911, but both Appellant and Nelson told her it was unnecessary. According to Appellant, he stated, "Don't worry about it, everything's fine, go back inside, he's got a gun, so everything's okay here" in an attempt to give her the message to call 911 without alerting the other men to his message. Appellant then heard Nelson yell out something in Spanish to Victim. At that moment, Victim " Appellant described the next few moments in the following manner:
Several witness accounts of the entire incident conflicted with Appellant's statement that Victim ordered him out of the truck while he was drawing his pistol. According to Nelson, after Victim first ratcheted his gun and stated, "Nobody's going to take my car," Nelson told Victim to put his gun away, Victim then placed the gun back into his waistband, and Victim never pulled it back out. Nelson expressly stated there was "no arguing, ... no fighting, ... no bad words" and Victim never talked to, threatened, or "attempt [ed] to do anything to [Appellant]." Victim's widow, Dhayan Olivera, testified Victim was directing traffic that was partially blocked by his minivan and the tow truck when Appellant shot him. Nelson's wife, Claudia Olivera, gave similar testimony. The testimony of Victim's widow, Nelson's wife, and Nelson's neighbors, as well as a video from Varedi's home surveillance camera, indicated Victim was walking or running away from Appellant when Appellant began shooting him. Nelson's wife and Victim's widow also testified Appellant continued shooting Victim even after he fell onto the street.
Several of the eyewitnesses, including Appellant, immediately called 911 to report the incident. The paramedic who later arrived on the scene detected no signs of life in Victim. Dr. Ellen Riemer, a forensic pathologist, conducted an autopsy on Victim and prepared a report revealing that Victim had been shot six times. In her report and at trial, she described the following gunshot wounds
, not necessarily in the order in which Victim sustained them: (1) to the right side of the posterior neck; (2) to the right side of the abdomen; (3) to the middle of the back; (4) to the left side of the back; (5) to the posterior aspect of the right arm; and (6) to the left side of the upper back. Dr. Riemer confirmed there was only one gunshot wound that was not on the posterior aspect of Victim's body.
Dr. Riemer's report also noted she found no gunpowder residue near any of Victim's wounds
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