State v. Peele
| Decision Date | 10 May 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 110,110 |
| Citation | 281 N.C. 253,188 S.E.2d 326 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Haywood Lindale PEELE. |
Robert Morgan, Atty. Gen., by Walter E. Ricks, III, Associate Atty. Gen., for the State.
A. Maxwell Ruppe and Paul G. Mallonee, Fayetteville, for defendant appellant.
The bills of indictment charged armed robbery and murder committed in the perpetration of the robbery. The defendant's witness Calloway had already been tried and entered pleas of guilty on the identical charges. The State's pre-sentence testimony on the charges against Calloway was transcribed and a copy was delivered to the defense counsel in response to the motion for discovery filed at the beginning of the hearing. The disclosure statute, Chapter 1064, Session Laws of 1967, now G.S. § 15--155.4, was enacted after this Court's decision in State v. Goldberg, 261 N.C. 181, 134 S.E.2d 334. According to the statute, a pre-trial order may require the solicitor to produce for inspection and copy 'specifically identified exhibits' to be used in the trial and to permit defense counsel to examine 'specific expert witnesses' who may be called. The statute does not contemplate anything resembling the demand made by defense counsel in this case. The purpose of the statute is to enable a defendant to guard against surprise documents and surprise expert witnesses. Nothing of that nature was shown to be available or its use contemplated in this case. The order to produce a copy of the pre-sentence hearing would appear to have given defense counsel sufficient information to enable him to guard against surprises. The Assignment of Error No. 1 is not sustained.
By defendant's Assignments of Error Nos. 3 and 4, the defendant challenges the solicitor's leading questions. Examination discloses that questions, if on occasion somewhat leading, were intended to facilitate the hearing. The court was well within its prerogative in allowing them. State v. Bass, 280 N.C. 435, 186 S.E.2d 384; State v. Clanton, 278 N.C. 502, 180 S.E.2d 5 State v. Pearson, 258 N.C. 188, 128 S.E.2d 251. The Assignments of Error Nos. 3 and 4 based on leading questions are not sustained.
The Defendant's Assignment of Error No. 6 is addressed 'To the court permitting Detective W. A. Newsome, a State's witness, on cross examination to volunteer information that was not in response to any question.' The question related to the officer's conversations with a witness. It appears that these conversations had occurred on more than one occasion between the officer and Gooding, They concerned the identity of the two men whom he had taken to and from the Icenogle store and the home of Catherine Winborn. The witness in his reply to questions had gone somewhat beyond the answers to the last question. In a long trial it is not unusual for a witness to give testimony somewhat beyond the precise form of a question. State v. Ferguson, 280 N.C. 95, 185 S.E.2d 119; State v. Staten, 271 N.C. 600, 157 S.E.2d 225. Assignment of Error No. 6 is not sustained.
Defense counsel in the brief and in the oral argument stressfully contends that the court committed prejudicial error by refusing to admit in evidence the letter dated August 24, 1971, addressed to the defendant at 50 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. The letter was written forty-two days after the robbery and related to defendant's application for a job without indicating any date on which the application was made. Hence it contained nothing from which any inference may be drawn as to the whereabouts of the defendant on July 12, 1971. The letter was properly excluded as irrelevant. We note the defendant's objection to the letter solely because of the stress and importance defense counsel seemed to attach to it.
Defendant's 8th and final Assignment of Error challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to survive his motion to dismiss at the close of all the evidence. On this motion the State's evidence is deemed to be true. All inconsistencies and contradictions are to be resolved in favor of the State. The defendant's evidence in contradiction is not to be considered. The evidence when properly construed makes out a strong case for the prosecution showing a murder committed in the perpetration of a robbery.
Mrs. Icenogle left her husband alone in the store at 9 o'clock. The cash register was in place. She returned at 10 o'clock in response to a call from the officers. Mr. Icenogle was dead and the cash register missing. The defendant and Anthony Calloway are shown to have entered Icenogle's store just before 10 o'clock at night. A commotion in the store was heard....
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State v. Gardner
...485, 202 S.E.2d 169 (1974) (armed robbery); State v. Carroll, 282 N.C. 326, 193 S.E.2d 85 (1972) (armed robbery); and State v. Peele, 281 N.C. 253, 188 S.E.2d 326 (1972) (armed robbery). The United States Supreme Court reached a similar result eight years after Thompson in Whalen v. United ......
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State v. Branch, 1
...by surprise. State v. Carey, 285 N.C. 509, 206 S.E.2d 222 (1974); State v. Davis, 282 N.C. 107, 191 S.E.2d 664 (1972); State v. Peele, 281 N.C. 253, 188 S.E.2d 326 (1972). With regard to the tape recording, the only discovery admitted under our law is that provided by the law above cited. I......
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