State v. Roache

• Decision Date: 07 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. 522A01.,522A01.
• Citation: 358 N.C. 243,595 S.E.2d 381
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Charles Wesley ROACHE.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

595 S.E.2d 381

358 N.C. 243

STATE of North Carolina v. Charles Wesley ROACHE.

No. 522A01.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

May 7, 2004.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by William B. Crumpler, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

James P. Cooney III, Charlotte, for defendant-appellant.

PARKER, Justice.

Defendant Charles Wesley Roache was indicted on 18 October 1999 for the first-degree murders of Earl Phillips, Cora Owens Phillips, Eddie Lewis Phillips, Mitzi Carolyn Blazer Phillips, and Katie Phillips. Defendant was tried capitally and found guilty of first-degree murder based on felony murder alone in the deaths of Earl Phillips and Cora Phillips. Defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder based on premeditation and deliberation and felony murder for the deaths of Eddie Phillips, Mitzi Phillips, and Katie Phillips. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death for the murders of Mitzi Phillips and Katie Phillips, and to life imprisonment without parole for each of the other three murders. The trial court entered judgment accordingly.

The State's evidence tended to show that on the evening of 30 September 1999 defendant and Chris Lippard were on Rabbit Skin Road in the vicinity of the victims' houses. The two had been on a crime spree of approximately forty-eight hours duration, during which defendant killed a man named Chad Watt early in the morning of 29 September 1999 and assaulted a man named Bart Long at a rest area west of Hickory on Interstate 40 in the afternoon of 30 September 1999. Defendant and Lippard were driving on Interstate 40 in an attempt to leave North Carolina when they left the interstate at exit 20, Jonathan Creek Road, which intersects Rabbit Skin Road approximately thirty to fifty yards away. Lippard accidentally backed the truck off the road and into a ditch.

After their truck was disabled, Lippard offered the driver of one vehicle that stopped fifty dollars to drive them to the interstate. Defendant also attempted to stop at least one additional vehicle to get a ride. Two of the people in these cars later testified that one of the two men carried a case of beer. The efforts to obtain a ride from passers-by were unsuccessful.

Defendant and Lippard walked towards the nearest house on Rabbit Skin Road in order to steal a car. This house was 126 Earl Lane, the home of Earl and Cora Phillips. Lippard went into the house. Defendant entered the house after he heard a woman screaming from within. Upon entering, defendant saw the woman, Cora Phillips, on the floor with Lippard holding a shotgun to her head. The woman's husband, Earl Phillips, pleaded with defendant to prevent Lippard from killing the woman. Defendant assured Earl that no one was going to die.

At defendant's request, Earl Phillips showed defendant the cabinet in which Earl kept his guns. Defendant took a 20 gauge shotgun, several shotgun shells, and a .22 caliber rifle. Defendant then disabled the telephone by cutting the cord leading into the wall. He also bound Earl and Cora Phillips' hands together with duct tape. Defendant and Lippard left in Earl Phillips' 1986 Ford pickup truck.

Defendant and Lippard drove Phillips' truck away from the house towards Rabbit Skin Road. While driving down the lane, they passed a small red car heading towards the house. Before reaching the intersection of Earl Lane and Rabbit Skin Road, Lippard overturned the truck. Defendant broke the passenger window in order for the pair to escape. Lippard returned to the house. Defendant stayed behind to gather their items from the truck and then waited in the woods near the wrecked truck.

Shortly thereafter, defendant heard Lippard yelling for assistance. The man from the red car was fighting with Lippard for control of a gun. Defendant shot the man, Eddie Phillips, once in the chest with the shotgun he was carrying. Defendant then reloaded the gun and went to the house with Lippard. The woman from the car, Mitzi Phillips, was standing in the doorway refusing the pair entry. Defendant broke open the door and shot Mitzi Phillips once in the face. Defendant saw a girl, fourteen-year-old Katie Phillips, run into the bathroom. He pushed open the door to find her sitting on the toilet. Defendant shot Katie Phillips once in the side of the head. Lippard, meanwhile, had gone to the living room where he and defendant had left Cora and Earl Phillips bound. Defendant returned to that room to find Earl Phillips slumped over. Cora Phillips was lying on the floor with blood coming from her head. Defendant shot both Cora and Earl Phillips once in the head.

Lippard drove himself and defendant away from the house in the red car, a 1993 Saturn belonging to Mitzi Phillips. While driving down Earl Lane they passed one car, later found to belong to Danny Messer. As they reached the end of the lane they passed another car, later found to belong to Todd Berrong. They drove the Saturn onto Interstate 40.

Danny Messer had been driving home that evening when he saw Earl Phillips' truck upside down at the end of Earl Lane. He turned into the lane to notify Earl Phillips that his truck "had rolled off." As he drove up to Earl and Cora Phillips' house, he saw Mitzi Phillips' red Saturn leave the parking area near the house, heading towards Rabbit Skin Road.

At the house, Messer saw the bodies of four of the victims: Eddie, Mitzi, Earl and Cora Phillips. Messer testified at trial that he believed Eddie Phillips was still alive at that time. After making this discovery, Messer left, encountering Todd Berrong at the end of Earl Lane at Rabbit Skin Road. Although there was some evidence to the contrary, Berrong and Messer apparently returned to the Phillips' house so that Berrong could view the bodies. The two then drove to a convenience store located approximately one-quarter of a mile away, and Berrong called 911.

Berrong testified that he waited at the end of Earl Lane for police. When the police arrived, they noted the locations of the bodies and that all the victims were deceased. The police secured the scene.

After defendant and Lippard left the scene of the crime, they drove for a short distance on Interstate 40 before they hit a concrete divider. The crash disabled the car. The accident occurred approximately one to one and a half miles west of the Jonathan Creek Road exit on Interstate 40. Defendant exited the vehicle and left the highway on the side with the guardrail. Lippard crossed the barrier at the opposite side of the road and disappeared.

Around 8:30 a.m. on 1 October 1999, Jim Fowler discovered defendant hiding under a camper top lying on Fowler's property, about three-quarters of a mile to one mile from the interstate where the red car crashed. Fowler's son called the police while Fowler watched defendant, holding him at gunpoint until a deputy arrived from the Haywood County Sheriff's Department.

Officer Beecher Phillips transported defendant to the sheriff's department, where he turned defendant over to the custody of Detective Larry Bryson and State Bureau of Investigation Agent Toby Hayes. Agent Hayes advised defendant of his rights, and defendant indicated his understanding. Defendant waived his rights by signing a form offered him by Agent Hayes.

Defendant initially told the officers that he had shot the man in the yard, the woman in the kitchen, and the girl in the bathroom. He stated that Lippard had shot the older couple in the living room. During the course of the questioning and the recording of his statement, however, defendant admitted that he had shot all five victims. He persisted in stating that he was responsible for all five deaths even after officers pointed out the discrepancy between this statement and his earlier story.

Defendant also talked to police about the murder of Chad Watt in Alexander County. This murder resulted from a fight between the two, during which defendant "beat [Watt] so bad [defendant] knew [he]'d have to kill him so he wouldn't tell on [defendant]." Defendant gave police information on the location of the body, which led Alexander County Sheriff's deputies to recover Watts' body on 2 October 1999.

Defendant confessed as well to an attack on a man which occurred at a rest area on Interstate 40 west of Hickory. Defendant pretended to use a urinal while waiting for a victim to enter the restroom. When the victim, a man named Bart Long, entered a stall and sat on the toilet, defendant sprayed him with pepper spray and put him in a sleeper hold. Defendant attempted to obtain the man's wallet, but Long's yells attracted a crowd of people, causing defendant to flee.

Defendant additionally gave police information concerning his accomplice, Chris Lippard. At the time of his initial conversations with police, defendant did not know Lippard's last name. Over the next several days, however, defendant made telephone calls which eventually led him to discover Lippard's last name, information which he shared with police. This information led to Lippard's arrest in New Orleans about a week later.

Pathologists performed autopsies on all five victims on 2 October 1999 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Dr. John Butts, the Chief Medical Examiner of North Carolina, either performed or supervised each of these autopsies and testified at defendant's trial about the cause of death for and injuries to each victim. Earl Phillips' autopsy showed severe injury to his head as a result of a contact gunshot wound to the right side of his head, in the area of his right temple, meaning that the barrel of the shotgun was against the body of the victim at the time the gun was fired. Pathologists removed lead shot from his body. Dr. Butts' testified that Earl Phillips' death was caused by a shotgun wound to the head. The pathologists also noted that Earl Phillips' hands were bound with duct tape.

Dr. Butts performed the autopsy of Cora Phillips, which revealed...