State v. Quesinberry

• Decision Date: 07 April 1987
• Docket Number: No. 407A85,407A85
• Citation: 354 S.E.2d 446,319 N.C. 228
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Ray QUESINBERRY.

Page 446

354 S.E.2d 446

319 N.C. 228

STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Ray QUESINBERRY.

No. 407A85.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 7, 1987.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Ellen B. Scouten, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Gordon Widenhouse, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Evidence presented, in the light most favorable to the State, tended to show the following:

Van Buren Luther, age 71, was discovered lying on the floor of Luther's Grocery Store at 1:37 p.m. on 20 July 1984. The rescue squad arrived within minutes, by which time Mr. Luther was walking carefully out of the door of the store, holding his head. He was covered with blood, but was no longer bleeding. An ambulance arrived at 2:09 p.m. and took him, intermittently unconscious and restless, to the hospital, where he died at 5:53 p.m.

Defendant was taken into custody and advised of his rights at around 4:30 p.m. the same day. At 7:00 p.m. defendant made a statement to an SBI agent confessing that he had inflicted blows to the victim's head with a hammer.

The jury found defendant guilty of robbery with a dangerous weapon and murder in the first degree on the bases of both felony murder and malice, premeditation, and deliberation. See N.C.G.S. 14-17 (1986). The jury found that mitigating circumstances were insufficient to outweigh aggravating circumstances and recommended a sentence of death.

GUILT PHASE

Defendant raises six issues concerning the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. In three of these defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to dismiss the charge of first degree murder because the evidence was insufficient to prove (1) a specific intent to kill, (2) premeditation and deliberation, and (3) that defendant proximately caused the victim's death. This Court has observed that while specific intent to kill is an essential element of first degree murder, it is also a necessary constituent of the elements of premeditation and deliberation. State v. Propst, 274 N.C. 62, 71, 161 S.E.2d 560, 567 (1968). "Thus, proof of premeditation and deliberation is also proof of intent to kill." State v. Jones, 303 N.C. 500, 505, 279 S.E.2d 835, 839 (1981). We therefore treat these contentions together.

Premeditation has been defined as "thought beforehand for some length of time, however short." State v. Welch, 316 N.C. 578, 589, 342 S.E.2d 789, 796 (1986) (quoting State v. Corn, 303 N.C. 293, 297, 278 S.E.2d 221, 223 (1981)). A killing is committed with deliberation if it is done in a " 'cool state of blood,' without legal provocation, and ... to accomplish some unlawful purpose. (Citation omitted.) The intent to kill must arise from 'a fixed determination previously formed after weighing the matter.' " Id. at 589-590, 342 S.E.2d at 796 (quoting State v. Corn, 303 N.C. 293, 297, 278 S.E.2d 221, 223).

Because premeditation and deliberation relate to mental processes, they are rarely susceptible to proof by direct evidence. State v. Gladden, 315 N.C. 398, 430, 340 S.E.2d 673, 693, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 871, 107 S.Ct. 241, 93 L.Ed.2d 166 (1986). This Court has identified a number of circumstances that may be considered in determining whether a killing was with premeditation and deliberation. Among these are (1) a lack of provocation on the part of the deceased, (2) the conduct and statements of the defendant before and after the killing, (3) the dealing of lethal blows after the deceased has been felled and rendered helpless, (4) evidence that the killing was done in a brutal manner, and (5) the nature and number of the victim's wounds. E.g., State v. Gladden, 315 N.C. at 430-31, 340 S.E.2d at 693.

In this case there was both direct and circumstantial evidence before the trial court from which the jury could find the presence of premeditation and deliberation. Direct evidence consisted of defendant's statement, which indicated that defendant had left work around 1:00 p.m., had gone to his truck and smoked marijuana, then had driven to Luther's Grocery on his way home. Defendant said that he stopped to get a drink, but noticed there was no one else around.

While sitting in the truck, I started thinking about how broke I was and the baby needing diapers and other things. I saw a hammer laying in the floorboard of the truck. I reached down and put the hammer in my back pocket. I went into the store and got me a Pepsi Cola and told the man I wanted a pack of cigarettes. The old man who was running the store turned to get the cigarettes. When the old man turned to get the cigarettes, I took the hammer from my pocket and hit him in the back of the head. The man fell on the floor. I hit the man one more time in the head. I got the money out from under a box in the back of the cash register. The money was in a zip-up purse. I took the money and the hammer and ran out to the truck and got in it.

Defendant's statement concluded by describing how he had thrown the hammer out of the truck window, hidden the money under a rock in a field, and returned to work some time after 2:00 p.m.

The statement alone reveals defendant's emotional state just prior to the attack. He had been reflecting on his inability to provide for his family when he was inspired to pick up a hammer lying on the floor of the truck. He pocketed it, entered the store, fetched a soft drink, then approached the victim, asked for cigarettes, and hit the victim over the head while his back was turned. The jury could reasonably have concluded that these actions resulted from deliberation--that they were not impulsive but governed by cool, reasoned thought.

Jason Coggins, defendant's co-worker, testified that defendant had left work around 1:30 p.m. because he said he had something he needed to do. When defendant returned approximately a half an hour later, Coggins noticed nothing unusual about defendant's conduct or demeanor. Coggins' testimony describing defendant's absence of agitation, along with defendant's deliberate disposal of the bloodied hammer and the money, similarly support the jury's finding of the deliberation element of murder in the first degree.

In addition, defendant's statement reveals the unprovoked and brutal nature of the assault upon the shopkeeper. Defendant confessed that he inflicted a second blow to the victim's head after the victim had already been knocked to the floor. If, as defendant contends, the first blow was the result of a premeditated and deliberate decision only to rob but not to kill, then the second blow provided sufficient evidence for the jury to find these essential elements for first degree murder. The brutality of the attack was also apparent from the testimony of the forensic pathologist who conducted an autopsy on the victim. He described the injuries to the victim's head as ten distinct lacerations, "the majority" of which reached to the skull. In his opinion these wounds had been caused by more than one blow of a blunt object.

For his contention that the evidence was insufficient to prove that his hammer blows proximately caused the victim's death, defendant relies upon the testimony of a hospital physician who arrived in the emergency room five to ten minutes before the official time of the victim's death and while cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was in progress. The physician initially determined that the probable cause of the victim's death was myocardial infarction. However, in his testimony the physician stressed that this conclusion was a first impression and that it was not borne out by the autopsy.

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that the victim had had severe heart disease, including severe occlusion of two of his three main coronary arteries. He noted an area of fibrosis, indicating that the victim had suffered a heart attack in the past, but he testified unequivocally that in his opinion the victim's death had been caused by blunt-force injuries to the head. If the victim had had a heart attack "at the last minute," the pathologist testified, the injuries to his head and the ensuing trauma had caused that attack.

A person is criminally responsible for a homicide if his act caused or directly contributed to the death of the victim. State v. Brock, 305 N.C. 532, 539, 290 S.E.2d 566, 571 (1982); State v. Atkinson, 298 N.C. 673, 682, 259 S.E.2d 858, 864 (1979), overruled in part on other grounds, State v. Jackson, 302 N.C. 101, 273 S.E.2d 666 (1981). The testimony of the pathologist was definitive on the issue of proximate cause. The cause of death tentatively cited by the emergency room physician was, according to the physician's own testimony, not medically conclusive. Even if the jury had perceived that testimony as contradicting the findings of the forensic pathologist, such contradictions and discrepancies are for the jury to resolve and do not warrant dismissal. State v. Brown, 315 N.C. 40, 58, 337 S.E.2d 808, 822 (1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1164, 106 S.Ct. 2293, 90 L.Ed.2d 733 (1986); State v. Powell, 299 N.C. 95, 99, 261 S.E.2d 114, 117 (1980).

In considering a motion to dismiss, the trial court must view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and the State is entitled to every reasonable inference that may be drawn therefrom supporting the charges against the defendant. State v. Penley, 318 N.C. 30, 48, 347 S.E.2d 783, 793 (1986). "The trial court must determine as a matter of law whether the State has offered 'substantial evidence of all elements of the offense charged so any rational trier of fact could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offense.' " Id., 347 S.E.2d at 794 (quoting State v. Riddick, 315 N.C. 749, 759, 340 S.E.2d 55, 61 (1986)). If the trial court determines that "there is substantial evidence (a) of each essential element of the offense charged, ... and (b) of defendant's being the perpetrator of the offense," then the motion to dismiss is properly denied. I...