State v. Richardson

• Citation: 342 N.C. 772,467 S.E.2d 685
• Decision Date: 08 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 11A94,11A94
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Martin Alexander RICHARDSON.

Page 685

467 S.E.2d 685

342 N.C. 772

STATE of North Carolina v. Martin Alexander RICHARDSON.

No. 11A94.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

March 8, 1996.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Benjamin Sendor, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Chief Justice.

Defendant was tried capitally upon indictments charging him with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, and robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the killing of Sharon Mary ("Sherry") Clark St. Germain. The jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder on the theory of felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, and robbery with a dangerous weapon, but acquitting defendant of first-degree sexual offense. Following a separate capital sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death for the murder, and the trial court entered sentence in accord with that recommendation. The trial court arrested judgment for the first-degree rape because it was the predicate felony supporting the felony murder conviction. The trial court sentenced defendant to consecutive terms of imprisonment for the remaining offenses.

Defendant appeals to this Court as a matter of right from the judgment and sentence of death imposed for first-degree murder. We allowed his motion to bypass the Court of Appeals on his appeal of the judgments entered for the offenses of first-degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we conclude that defendant received a fair trial, free from prejudicial error, and that the sentence of death for first-degree murder is not disproportionate in this case.

Evidence presented at trial, including a statement made by defendant, tended to show that on 11 December 1992 defendant approached Sherry St. Germain as she sat in her car in the parking lot of the Monroe Mall and asked her if she could give him a ride. Defendant then got in the car through the passenger door and locked the door as he sat down. St. Germain told defendant that she would take him where he wanted to go as long as he did not hurt her. Defendant directed St. Germain to drive out into the country and instructed her to stop at the end of a road. He then made advances toward her, and she agreed to have sex with him as long as he did not hurt her and would let her go afterwards. After they had sex, defendant stabbed and killed St. Germain and pushed her body into a stream beside the road. A newspaper carrier found her body on 14 December 1992.

Defendant's first statement to police indicated that although he did not remember the circumstances that led to his being on the deserted road, he had seen the victim trying to climb out of the stream. In a later statement, he confessed to having committed the murder. He also told a cellmate that he "robbed the girl of her money, her body and her life." After killing St. Germain, defendant left her car at the Monroe Mall and made purchases with her credit cards that included a television set and an automobile battery.

Dr. Deborah Radisch testified at trial that either of the two stab wounds that the victim had suffered could have been fatal. One wound was in the right back, piercing both lungs and the esophagus, and was eight inches deep. The other was in the abdomen, perforating the liver, pancreas, stomach, and renal artery, and was also eight inches deep. The victim also had numerous contusions, abrasions, and shallow puncture wounds indicative of a struggle, including linear abrasions to her neck consistent with a knife wound.

Defendant first assigns error to the trial court's refusal to change the status of defendant's privately retained attorneys to appointed indigent counsel, arguing that the trial court's failure to switch counsel's status while providing funds for an investigator and experts requires reversal of defendant's convictions. On 13 January 1993, defendant was found by the trial court to be indigent, and L.K. Biedler, Jr., and Harry B. Crow, Jr., were appointed to represent defendant. On 24 February 1993, two other attorneys, John G. Plumides and T. Russell Peterman, entered a general notice of appearance after defendant's parents retained them to represent defendant in the case. On 1 March 1993, the trial court granted the motion of Biedler and Crow to withdraw as defense counsel. On 7 September 1993, Plumides and Peterman informed the trial court that defendant's parents were facing financial difficulties and had paid less than one-sixth of the fee they had agreed to pay counsel prior to trial. Plumides and Peterman therefore filed a motion for determination of indigency, asking that the trial court order the State to pay for defense counsel and other necessary expenses of representation. The trial court granted the motion as to expenses for experts, but refused to change counsel's status from retained to court-appointed. The record indicates that $26,500 of the $40,000 that defendant's parents promised to pay remains unpaid.

The framework for the disposition of this issue involves several statutory provisions. An indigent person for the purposes of appointment of counsel is one "who is financially unable to secure legal representation and to provide all other necessary expenses of representation." N.C.G.S. § 7A-450(a) (1995). N.C.G.S. § 7A-450(c) provides: "The question of indigency may be determined or redetermined by the court at any stage of the action or proceeding at which an indigent is entitled to representation." N.C.G.S. § 7A-455(a) provides for a determination of partial indigency in situations in which a defendant is unable to pay "a portion, but not all, of the value of the legal services rendered for him by assigned counsel." N.C.G.S. § 7A-450(b) provides that whenever a defendant is found to be indigent for purposes of appointment of counsel, "it is the responsibility of the State to provide him with counsel and the other necessary expenses of representation." N.C.G.S. § 15A-143 provides that "[a]n attorney who enters a criminal proceeding without limiting the extent of his representation ... undertakes to represent the defendant for whom the entry is made at all subsequent stages of the case until entry of final judgment, at the trial stage." Defendant argues that 7A-450(b) and (c) and 7A-455, when read together, required the State to pay for whatever portion of the expenses of his trial representation that he could not afford after it became evident during the case that his parents were no longer able to pay these expenses. We do not agree.

Once defendant accepted the services of properly retained counsel and consented to the withdrawal of appointed counsel, he was no longer indigent within the meaning of 7A-450(a). His retained counsel's general notice of appearance pursuant to 15A-143 meant that Plumides and Peterman were required to represent him in the case through the "entry of final judgment." Plumides and Peterman themselves acknowledged that they were "in the case whether ... compensated or not, and we understand that," and never moved to withdraw from the case. Plumides and Peterman continued their zealous representation of defendant throughout the case despite the possibility that their hard work would go uncompensated.

While defendant contends that N.C.G.S. § 7A-450(c) required the trial court to make a redetermination of defendant's indigent status for the purpose of appointive counsel in this case, this argument is without merit. Under N.C.G.S. § 15A-143, a defendant who has retained counsel who has made a general appearance on his behalf is no longer considered indigent within the meaning of the statutory framework; unless retained counsel is allowed to withdraw from the case, there is no requirement to redetermine defendant's status. Defendant cites State v. Boyd, 332 N.C. 101, 418 S.E.2d 471 (1992), and State v. Hoffman, 281 N.C. 727, 190 S.E.2d 842 (1972), for the proposition that "whenever a defendant's personal resources are depleted and he can demonstrate indigency, he is eligible for state funding of the remaining necessary expenses of representation." Boyd, 332 N.C. at 109, 418 S.E.2d at 475. He argues that the trial court incorrectly failed to apply this rule in its treating legal fees different from other expenses of representation. Both of these cases, however, are distinguishable from the case at bar. Boyd held only that a defendant who has retained counsel may still be indigent for the purposes of expert witnesses and other aspects of representation. We stated in Boyd, "We address here only the question whether defendant's motion for a state-paid mental health expert should have been denied, as it was, because defendant, although financially unable to employ the expert, was not represented by court-appointed counsel." Id. at 107, 418 S.E.2d at 475. While Hoffman involved a defendant who could afford counsel at the time of his interrogation but not at trial, counsel in Hoffman never made a general appearance to represent defendant. As Plumides and Peterman made a general appearance for defendant here, defendant could not be considered indigent under our statutory scheme unless Plumides and Peterman were allowed to withdraw from the case. State v. McDowell, 329 N.C. 363, 407 S.E.2d 200 (1991). The trial court correctly ruled that defendant was not indigent for the purposes of appointment of counsel. Accordingly, this assignment of error is overruled.

By another assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred by allowing the prosecution to exercise a peremptory strike on prospective juror James Gause, an African-American. Defendant contends that the trial court erroneously based its ruling that defendant had not made a prima facie showing of purposeful racial discrimination on its view that such a...