State v. Sanderson

• Decision Date: 24 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. 374A86-3,374A86-3
• Citation: 488 S.E.2d 133,346 N.C. 669
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Ricky Lee SANDERSON.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 133

488 S.E.2d 133

346 N.C. 669

STATE of North Carolina v. Ricky Lee SANDERSON.

No. 374A86-3.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

July 24, 1997.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General, by William N. Farrell, Jr., Senior Deputy Attorney General, and Ellen B. Scouten, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Burton Craige, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Chief Justice.

Defendant Ricky Lee Sanderson was indicted in Davidson County on 3 March 1986 for the first-degree kidnapping and murder of Sue Ellen Holliman. He pled guilty to both charges on 7 April 1986. Venue for sentencing was changed to Iredell County. A capital sentencing proceeding was held in May 1987, and the jury recommended the death sentence. The trial court sentenced defendant to death and to a term of forty years' imprisonment for the kidnapping. On appeal, this Court found McKoy error in the capital sentencing proceeding and sent the case back for resentencing. State v. Sanderson, 327 N.C. 397, 394 S.E.2d 803 (1990). A second capital sentencing proceeding was conducted in May 1991. Again, the jury recommended death, and the trial court sentenced defendant accordingly. On a second appeal to this Court, we concluded that the proceeding was tainted by the prosecutor's "persistent misconduct" and remanded for another capital sentencing proceeding. State v. Sanderson, 336 N.C. 1, 442 S.E.2d 33 (1994). This, defendant's third capital sentencing proceeding, was conducted at the 16 October 1995 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Iredell County. This jury also recommended a sentence of death, and the trial court sentenced defendant accordingly.

The State's evidence tended to show, inter alia, that on 14 March 1985, defendant abducted sixteen-year-old Sue Ellen Holliman from her home and drove her to a secluded area. There he raped, strangled, and stabbed her and then buried her body in a shallow grave. Sue Ellen was last seen alive by her father at around 12:30 p.m. on 14 March. She had stayed home from school because of an illness, and Mr. Holliman had come home during lunch to check on her condition. He found his daughter to be feeling better and returned to work after ten or fifteen minutes. When Sue Ellen's mother came home later in the afternoon, she could not find Sue Ellen and called the police.

The body of Sue Ellen Holliman was found on 15 April 1985 in a remote field in the woods. The body was clothed in sweatpants that were gathered around the ankles, a T-shirt that had been pulled up prior to the stabbings, a bra that appeared to have been torn or cut, and a pair of panties pulled down to the lower thighs. The body had three stab wounds just below the breastbone, most likely caused by a knife. Decomposition of the body precluded any possibility for the medical examiner to examine it for physical evidence of strangulation or rape. The victim died of stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

On 15 May 1985, Elwood "Woody" Jones, an employee of a business managed by the victim's family, confessed to the murder of Sue Ellen Holliman. He was indicted for first-degree murder and was awaiting trial when defendant, in prison for another crime, confessed to the same murder.

On 21 January 1986, defendant, then an inmate at Central Prison, called the Davidson County Sheriff's Department and indicated that he wished to make a statement about a murder. During the initial interview, defendant told officers from the Davidson County Sheriff's Department and the State Bureau of Investigation that he had stabbed, raped, and buried Sue Ellen Holliman.

On 5 February 1986, defendant made another statement to the effect that on 14 March 1985, he had been driving around the Sapona area of Davidson County looking for a home to break into. He selected the Hollimans' house because it was surrounded by woods. As he attempted to enter the home, the victim met him at the door. Defendant, surprised to see her, asked if he could use the phone. When she replied that she was not allowed to let anybody into the house while her parents were away, defendant barged into the house. Defendant asked the victim if there was money in the house, and she told him there was not. Defendant decided to "just get out of there" and took the victim with him to prevent her from reporting his license plate number. He told her to get on the floorboard of his car. He then drove to a secluded area, laid the victim on the ground, and raped her. After this, defendant forced the victim into the trunk of his vehicle while he dug her grave. Defendant then removed the victim from the trunk, forced her to sit down, and began choking her until she lay on her side. Unsure whether she was dead, defendant then got a knife from his car, rolled the victim over, and stabbed her in the chest.

Paint chips recovered from the victim's clothing were consistent with paint from defendant's car, and a pubic hair recovered from the driver's seat was microscopically consistent with the victim's pubic hair. Various fibers recovered from the victim's clothing were found to match fibers taken from defendant's car.

By his first assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to exclude references to the alleged rape and by submitting the aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed during the commission of a rape.

At defendant's first capital sentencing proceeding, the trial court excluded portions of defendant's confession where he confessed to raping the victim. Rape was not submitted for jury consideration as an aggravating circumstance at that capital sentencing proceeding. At defendant's second capital sentencing proceeding, the prosecutor stated that he had no evidence of rape and would not refer to any alleged rape or seek to use it as an aggravating circumstance. At this second capital sentencing proceeding, defendant's brother testified that defendant admitted he raped the victim before killing her, and defense mental health expert Dr. Sultan testified that defendant told her he raped the victim. The prosecutor thereafter requested that rape be submitted as an aggravating circumstance, but the trial court denied the request.

At the third capital sentencing proceeding, defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude references to the alleged rape and argued that submitting rape as an aggravating circumstance would violate double jeopardy principles set out in this Court's opinion in State v. Silhan, 302 N.C. 223, 275 S.E.2d 450 (1981). The trial court denied defendant's motion, and the State presented evidence that defendant had raped the victim before he killed her. The trial court also submitted the aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed during the commission of a rape. The jury found that aggravator to exist and used it to support its recommendation of the death sentence. Defendant contends that the denial of the motion in limine and the submission as an aggravating circumstance that the murder occurred during the course of a rape violated constitutional principles against double jeopardy. We disagree.

Once a defendant has been tried for and acquitted of a crime, the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment protects him from being tried again for that crime. United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 129-30, 101 S.Ct. 426, 433-34, 66 L.Ed.2d 328, 343 (1980). The principles of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969). The prohibition against double jeopardy is also embodied in the "Law of the Land" clause of the North Carolina Constitution. N.C. Const. art. I, § 19; State v. Crocker, 239 N.C. 446, 80 S.E.2d 243 (1954).

In State v. Silhan, decided in 1981, this Court was faced with the application of double jeopardy principles to a second sentencing proceeding in a capital case. 302 N.C. 223, 275 S.E.2d 450. We compared a North Carolina capital sentencing proceeding with a determination of guilt or innocence in a trial. We concluded in Silhan that the Double Jeopardy Clause could therefore apply to capital sentencing proceedings. We further stated If upon defendant's appeal of a death sentence the case is remanded for a new sentencing hearing, double jeopardy prohibitions would not preclude the state from relying on any aggravating circumstance of which it offered sufficient evidence at the hearing appealed from and which was either not then submitted to the jury or, if submitted, the jury then found it to exist. The dictates of double jeopardy would preclude the state from relying on any aggravating circumstance of which it offered insufficient evidence at the hearing appealed from.

Id. at 270, 275 S.E.2d at 482. We also enunciated a rule in Silhan whereby an aggravating circumstance could properly be submitted at a new capital sentencing proceeding, stating:

[I]f upon defendant's appeal, this Court vacates a death sentence for trial error, it will remand for a new sentencing hearing only if there are aggravating circumstances which would not be constitutionally or legally proscribed at the new hearing. An aggravating circumstance would not be so proscribed at the new hearing if (1) there was evidence to support it at the hearing appealed from; and (2) it was not submitted to the jury or, if submitted, the jury found it to have existed; and (3) there is no other legal impediment (such as the felony murder merger rule) to its use. If all aggravating circumstances would be constitutionally or legally proscribed at the new hearing, this Court will not remand for a new sentencing hearing but will order that a sentence of life imprisonment be imposed. An aggravating circumstance would be so proscribed at the new hearing if (1) there was no[t] sufficient evidence to support it at the hearing appealed from; or (2) the jury at the hearing appealed from, after...