State v. Peterson

• Decision Date: 09 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. 547A06.,547A06.
• Citation: 652 S.E.2d 216
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Iver PETERSON.

652 S.E.2d 216

STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Iver PETERSON.

No. 547A06.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

November 9, 2007.

Appeal pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, 179 N.C.App. 437, 634 S.E.2d 594 (2006), finding no prejudicial error in and affirming a judgment entered 10 October 2003 by Judge Orlando F. Hudson, Jr. in Superior Court, Durham County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Heard in the Supreme Court 10 September 2007.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by John G. Barnwell and William B. Crumpler, Assistant Attorneys General, for the State.

Thomas K. Maher for defendant-appellant.

BRADY, Justice.

Defendant Michael Iver Peterson was found guilty by a jury of the first-degree murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson. Defendant appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals, which determined, in a divided opinion, that defendant received a fair trial, free of prejudicial error. Defendant has appealed three issues as of right to this Court on the basis of a dissent in the Court of Appeals. First, we must determine whether the trial court's erroneous admission of evidence seized pursuant to an invalid search warrant was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. We hold the admission of the evidence was harmless. Second, we must determine whether the trial court erred in admitting evidence concerning the 1985 death of Elizabeth Ratliff. We hold that the trial court did not err in admitting this evidence. Third, we must determine whether particular statements made during the prosecution's closing argument warrant a new trial. We hold that these statements do not entitle defendant to a new trial. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On 20 December 2001, the Durham County Grand Jury returned a true bill of indictment charging defendant with first-degree murder. Following a lengthy trial that spanned five months, defendant was convicted on 10 October 2003 of the first-degree murder of Kathleen Peterson, and on that same day the trial court entered judgment against defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. Defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, a majority of which affirmed defendant's conviction. However, one judge dissented and would have held that defendant was entitled to a new trial.

Defendant filed a notice of appeal with this Court on 17 October 2006 and contemporaneously filed a petition for discretionary review of additional issues which were not the subject of the dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeals. This Court denied defendant's petition on 25 January 2007.

State's Evidence

The State presented evidence tending to show that defendant's wife, Kathleen Peterson (the victim), had worked for Nortel Networks nearly seventeen years at the time of her death. During her career at Nortel, she rose steadily through the corporate ranks and by 1999 she held an executive position. The victim was to travel to Canada on 10 December 2001 to meet with Helen Prislinger, a Nortel process analyst. On 7 December 2001, Prislinger telephoned the victim, informed her of a planning conference call that was to take place on 9 December 2001, and told her that on 8 December 2001 Prislinger would inform her of the time of the conference call. On 8 December 2001, Prislinger left messages for the victim indicating the conference call would take place at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, 9 December 2001. The victim later returned Prislinger's telephone calls and advised her to send a document relating to the conference call via e-mail to an address that Prislinger assumed was defendant's e-mail address.

At 2:40 a.m. on 9 December 2001, Durham Emergency Response received a 911 call from an apparently distressed defendant. He informed the operator that his wife "had an accident" and that she was "still breathing." He told the operator that she had fallen down the stairs and that she was unconscious. In response to questioning from the 911 operator, defendant answered that the victim had fallen down "15, 20 [stairs], I don't know." Defendant terminated the call and then again telephoned 911 moments later and told the operator the victim was no longer breathing. Defendant again disconnected the call.

Initial Observations of the Crime Scene

First responders arrived at the scene less than eight minutes after defendant made the initial 911 call. When they arrived, defendant's son Todd Peterson, who had just entered the residence, told defendant that the victim was dead and to "step aside, move, the paramedic's [sic] here." Paramedic James Rose testified that there was an "enormous amount of blood" at the scene and "[a] lot of the blood that [was] on the walls [was] dry. The blood under her head was ... coagulated. It had already clotted and started to harden." He additionally testified that there was dried blood on the stairs and stairwell, and it "looked like it had been wiped away or wiped on. It had been smeared, instead of just blood droplets just soaking down the wall." Defendant told the paramedics "he had just [gone] outside to turn off the lights, and came back in and found her at the bottom of the steps." While defendant had indicated at 2:41 a.m. to the 911 operator that the victim was still breathing, Rose examined her at approximately 2:50 a.m. and discovered her pupils were dilated six millimeters— indicating a substantial time period in which she was without oxygen. Rose also testified that he had been to thirty or forty incidents involving falls and the worst injury he had observed was a broken neck. He had never "seen wounding to the back of the head like was present in this case."

Paramedic Ron Paige gave similar testimony concerning the amount of blood, and he noted that the blood on the victim's clothes appeared to be dry. Both paramedics indicated that defendant had blood on his shirt and hands. Rose testified that defendant's "shirt was partially blood-soaked with [spatter] spots, there were speckles of blood over his shirt. Blood on his hands and arms, and I believe his legs and feet." Later observation of defendant's clothing indicated blood spatter on defendant's tennis shoes and inside the right leg of his shorts.

Shortly after the arrival of the paramedics and firefighters, a man and a woman were admitted into the residence. According to a first responder, the woman described herself as a "doctor or something." In addition, other individuals entered the residence. Eventually, the first responders determined that the area should be secured until the arrival of police investigators. Therefore, a police officer stationed at the door was instructed to stop all civilian traffic into the residence until it was determined whether the area was a crime scene.

Soon, investigators from the Durham Police Department Criminal Investigations Division arrived at the scene. Sergeant Francis J. Borden noted a large amount of blood and blood spatter. Sergeant Borden and Detective Art Holland conferred after viewing the crime scene and made a decision to apply for a search warrant for the premises. Detective Holland left the scene to obtain the warrant, which was issued by a magistrate. Dan George of the Forensic Services Unit of the City of Durham observed "large quantities of blood all over the floor, all over the victim, her hands, feet, her clothing, the walls, the stair." He also testified that the blood on the stairway "appeared to have either been wiped or smeared."

Medical and Forensic Evidence

Kenneth Snell, M.D., the local medical examiner, examined the victim's body and discovered a four-inch laceration to the back of the skull and what appeared to be three or four injuries that may have been caused by a fall. He advised the investigators to look for some sort of instrument that may have been used to cause the lacerations. He was uncertain whether a fall was the cause of the injuries and withheld final determination until an autopsy could be performed. After the autopsy, Dr. Snell opined that the "injuries [were] not consistent with a fall," but were "consistent with an assaultive, beating-type pattern."

North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Duane Deaver was contacted to perform a blood spatter analysis. Dan George, who assisted Deaver, observed a large amount of blood, with the blood being found "on the steps, blood on the risers, blood in the corners ... blood all over the walls and on the molding, both the inside and out." Forensic unit supervisor Eric Campden also assisted Deaver in his investigation. Campden sprayed luminol, a preliminary indicator of blood, in various portions of the crime scene, being careful not to spray visible blood. Luminol testing revealed barefoot tracks leading to the laundry room and two footprints facing the "janitorial sink." Testing revealed no bloody shoe prints; only bloody barefoot prints were found.

The autopsy of the victim's body was performed by Deborah Radisch, M.D., a forensic pathologist in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. She observed multiple blunt traumatic injuries on the victim's body, including bruises, abrasions, and lacerations— many of which were found on the victim's head and face. Dr. Radisch opined that the bruises and abrasions to the victim's face were inconsistent with a fall against a flat surface and that the injuries to her head were primarily found on the back and side of the head. Seven lacerations were present on the back and side of the victim's head, each of which were caused by separate impacts. According to Dr. Radisch, the lacerations were inconsistent with a fall but were consistent with being struck by an object that would have lacerated the flesh without fracturing the skull. While some of the injuries may have been caused by a fall, the collective nature of the injuries was inconsistent with a fall. Dr. Radisch opined that the...