State v. Riddick

• Decision Date: 18 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 113A85,113A85
• Citation: 315 N.C. 749,340 S.E.2d 55
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. William Thomas RIDDICK.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 55

340 S.E.2d 55

315 N.C. 749

STATE of North Carolina v. William Thomas RIDDICK.

No. 113A85.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Feb. 18, 1986.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Reginald L. Watkins, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for State.

William T. Davis, Elizabeth City, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Justice.

By his assignments, the defendant contends that the trial court made several errors. He contends the trial court erred by allowing witnesses to respond to leading questions, to questions for which a proper foundation had not been laid, and to a question that assumed facts not yet in evidence. The defendant also contends the trial court erred by admitting irrelevant testimony and by allowing a witness not qualified as an expert to give opinion testimony. Finally, he contends that the trial court erred by denying his motions to dismiss the charges against him. We find no error.

The State's evidence tended to show that on the night of 12 January 1984, the Elizabeth City Fire Department responded to an alarm for a fire at 208 Oak Grove Avenue. The house which burned was the dwelling place of Ruth Cowell and her four children: Don Earl Davis, Michele Cowell, Latoyia Cowell & Lateyia Cowell. The defendant, William Thomas Riddick, was living with them at the time of the fire. Lateyia Cowell was killed as a result of the fire, and Latoyia and Don were burned.

Around 10:00 p.m. on 12 January 1984, Marie Brooks looked out of her window and across the street and saw smoke coming from 208 Oak Grove. She told her daughter to call the fire department. Her daughter called the fire department and reported the fire. By that time Ruth Cowell's house at 208 Oak Grove was "in blazes."

Michele Cowell, eleven years old, testified that she lived at 208 Oak Grove with her mother Ruth Cowell, the defendant William Riddick, and her three siblings. Approximately four days before the fire, Vernon Brooks, Ruth's friend and Lateyia's father, picked up Ruth and the children. They stayed at various places and went to Godley Temple's house on the day of the fire. Ruth sent Michele to the defendant's shop to ask him to send her food stamps and a television. The defendant told Michele that Ruth would have to come and get them. The defendant later came to Godley Temple's house. Upon his assurances that he would not beat Ruth anymore, Ruth told her daughters to get into the defendant's car. The defendant took the girls to his shop where they were later joined by Ruth and Don.

At nightfall Ruth and her four children left the shop and went to 208 Oak Grove with the defendant. It was cold in the house, so the defendant lit a fire in the wood heater located in the living room by putting wood, paper, and kerosene in the heater. He got the kerosene from a can located on the back porch and returned the can to the porch. Michele testified that this was the first time that she had seen the defendant put kerosene in the wood heater. No other heater was lit in the house that night.

Michele got a quilt, and she and Lateyia covered up on a chair located about one foot from the heater and fell asleep. Ruth and Latoyia went to sleep on a couch in the bedroom. The defendant was in the kitchen.

Michele testified that she was awakened when she felt something warm on her back. She turned and saw fire in the kitchen and going into the dining room. The room she was in was also on fire with fire coming from the wood heater and spreading. Michele smelled a strong odor of kerosene. She felt for Lateyia but could not find her. She moved a table that was in her way and went out the front door. She then heard Lateyia and Latoyia crying in the house.

Michele went to the house of a neighbor, Mr. Lamb, and then to the house of Miss Spellman, another neighbor. While at Miss Spellman's she heard the defendant say: "Umm that house caught on fire like that." He also said: "That was a lot of money riding on this fire." and "I messed up." The defendant was smiling when he came to Miss Spellman's from the fire.

Michele testified that the defendant treated Lateyia "kind of mean." He forced a hotdog down her throat once because she ate slowly. He would make her stand on one leg on a chair if she did something wrong, and if she put the other leg down he "would beat her." Michele also testified that she had seen the defendant throw Lateyia down and "[t]ake her by the back of the neck and pick her up."

Ruth Davis Cowell testified that she and her children left the house at 208 Oak Grove for four days because she and the defendant had been arguing. While they were running errands before returning home on the night of the fire, the defendant purchased kerosene which he put in a five gallon can and placed in the back of the truck. After the defendant started the fire in the wood heater, he carried a kerosene heater into the bedroom. Ruth then fell asleep. She was awakened by the defendant who pulled her and said: "Get out. The house is on fire." He pulled her from the house. Then he ran around the house calling Don and breaking out windows. When Ruth was awakened she detected a strong odor of kerosene.

Ruth testified that she had a $5,000 life insurance policy on each of her four children. She is the beneficiary of each policy and received payment under the policy on Lateyia. She had attempted to make the defendant a beneficiary but was unsuccessful because he was not a relative.

Ruth's son Don testified that when he came home the night of the fire, he went to the kitchen and warmed food for everyone. He ate some cake, and went to the back bedroom where he fell asleep. Next, he heard the defendant calling him, so he went to the back door but could not get it open. When Don first came out of the bedroom he "smelled something like gas...." The house was full of smoke and fire. He finally got the back door open and escaped. His ears and nose were burned. Don also testified that this was the first time he had seen the defendant use kerosene to light the wood heater. He corroborated Michele's accounts of the defendant's treatment of Lateyia.

Louise A. Spellman lived next door to 208 Oak Grove Avenue. The defendant came to her house the day following the fire. Her testimony concerning the conversation she had with the defendant on that occasion included the following:

Q. And did you--what, if anything, did he--did he say about money?

....

A. Well, we were talking about the children and he said to me "There is a lot of money riding on those children." So I said "How do you know?" He said "I ought to know. I helped pay it sometime."

Q. Pay what?

A. The insurance.

She also testified that the defendant brought up the subject of insurance on the children's lives, and that she had never mentioned the subject to him because it was none of her business.

James Michael Meads testified he was one of the firemen who responded to the alarm for the fire at 208 Oak Grove Avenue. He entered the flaming house and rescued Latoyia. He also found Lateyia dead in the living room and described her as "[a] mass of burnt tissue."

Lieutenant James Stanley, an eleven-year veteran with the fire department, also responded to the alarm. He stated that: "[In] my opinion, a flammable liquid was used or was burning at this residence." Specifically, he testified that in his opinion a flammable liquid was burning "[i]n the living room trailing backwards to the kitchen."

Cecil Richardson, Jr. and Floyd Douglas Allen were found by the trial court to be experts on the origin and causes of the fire. Both witnesses corroborated Stanley's testimony regarding the presence of a flammable liquid. Allen testified that in his opinion two and one-half to five gallons of a flammable liquid were poured onto the floor at the time of the fire. Richardson examined the kerosene heater located in the bedroom shared by Ruth Cowell and the defendant. He testified that it showed no signs of having been used and contained no fuel. Allen testified that the kerosene heater in the bedroom was not associated with the fire's origin.

The defendant testified in his own behalf and offered several character witnesses. He testified that on the night of the fire he refueled the kerosene heater in the bedroom and the woodburning heater in the living room and started fires in both. He then went to get some water. When he returned and opened the bedroom door, fire rushed out at him. The defendant testified that he did not pour kerosene on the floor nor did he set fire to the house or have any intention to harm the children or Ruth. He said that he considered Ruth and her children his family and would not hurt them.

By his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court committed prejudicial error by allowing Michele Cowell and Don Davis to respond to leading questions asked by the prosecutor. "A leading question is generally defined as one which suggests the desired response and may frequently be answered yes or no." State v. Britt, 291 N.C. 528, 539, 231 S.E.2d 644, 652 (1977). The general rule is that leading questions should be asked only on cross-examination. N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 611(c) (Cum.Supp.1985). However, a trial judge must "exercise reasonable control over the mode ... of interrogating witnesses...." N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 611(a) (Cum.Supp.1985). Leading questions should be permitted on direct examination when necessary to develop the witness's testimony. N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 611(c) (Cum.Supp.1985). Among other things, this means that it is within the discretionary power of the trial judge to allow leading questions on direct examination. Counsel may be allowed to lead a witness on direct examination when the witness has difficulty in understanding the question because of immaturity or advanced age. See State v. Greene, 285 N.C. 482, 492, 206 S.E.2d 229, 236 (1974). Rulings by the trial judge on the use of leading questions are discretionary and reversible only for an abuse of...