State v. Steele
| Citation | 868 S.E.2d 876 |
| Decision Date | 18 January 2022 |
| Docket Number | COA20-894 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Thomas Wayne STEELE |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Special Deputy Attorney General Amy Kunstling Irene, for the State.
Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, PLLC, Charlotte, by Noell P. Tin, for defendant-appellant.
¶ 1 Defendant Thomas Wayne Steele appeals from judgments entered upon a jury's verdicts finding him guilty of one count of embezzlement and four counts of exploitation of an older adult. On appeal, Defendant contends that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to dismiss the embezzlement charge for insufficient evidence, and (2) declining to give Defendant's proposed special jury instruction. After careful review, we conclude that Defendant received a fair trial, free from prejudicial error.
¶ 2 Defendant first met Lillie Monk and her late husband, Pastor Mike Monk, Jr., in 1985. They became very close, eventually considering themselves family; Defendant called Mrs. Monk and Pastor Monk "Mom" and "Dad," and the Monks referred to Defendant as their "son." On 28 March 2015, Pastor Monk passed away unexpectedly. Defendant, who was also a pastor, delivered the eulogy at Pastor Monk's funeral.
¶ 3 Mrs. Monk struggled to return to her daily life. She testified that her husband's death "almost took [her] out[,]" and she felt like she "couldn't make it without him[.]" Mrs. Monk's family was concerned about her because she was so "grief-stricken" and "distraught."
¶ 4 Following the funeral, Mrs. Monk visited Defendant and his wife for a week in their home in Concord, North Carolina, against her family's advice. Over the next few months, she stayed with Defendant and his wife periodically. Defendant told Mrs. Monk that "he was there to help" her. Mrs. Monk testified at trial that she "thought [Defendant] was a man of God" who "loved [her]" and was "going to take care of [her.]" Mrs. Monk had little experience managing the household finances, as that had been her husband's responsibility throughout their marriage. Because she trusted Defendant and thought of him as family, Mrs. Monk "just turned everything"—including the keys to her home and post office box—over to Defendant after Pastor Monk's death.
¶ 5 On 16 April 2015, less than a month after her husband's death, Mrs. Monk added Defendant as joint holder on her State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) savings and money-market accounts. She also redeemed over $146,000 in savings bonds and deposited that money into the joint money-market account. That same day, Mrs. Monk added Defendant as a joint holder on her First Citizens Bank accounts as well. In addition, at some point, Defendant linked his personal SECU accounts to Mrs. Monk's SECU accounts, with the effect that any overdrafts on Defendant's personal SECU account would be paid from the joint SECU accounts funded with Mrs. Monk's money.
¶ 6 Shortly thereafter, on 12 June 2015, Defendant drove Mrs. Monk to an attorney's office. Mrs. Monk testified that at Defendant's behest, she executed a power of attorney naming Defendant as her attorney-in-fact. She also executed a will, naming Defendant to serve as her executor and leaving the majority of her estate to him.
¶ 7 A few months later, on 4 September 2015, funds were withdrawn from the joint First Citizens accounts and used to fund two bank accounts at Wells Fargo Bank. Mrs. Monk and Defendant were named as joint holders of the new Wells Fargo accounts. There was conflicting evidence as to who opened the Wells Fargo accounts. Defendant testified that Mrs. Monk agreed to open these joint accounts. Mrs. Monk testified that the signatures on the applications for the two Wells Fargo accounts did not look like her handwriting; that she did not give Defendant permission to open the Wells Fargo accounts; and that she "didn't know what was going on" with the Wells Fargo accounts because Defendant "took over."
¶ 8 Concerned that Defendant was committing financial crimes against Mrs. Monk, her brother contacted the Pamlico County Sheriff's Office, which transferred the case to Agent Kevin Snead at the State Bureau of Investigation. On 22 April 2019, a Pamlico County grand jury returned indictments charging Defendant with four counts of exploitation of an older adult and one count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more. On 21 October 2019, a Pamlico County grand jury returned a superseding indictment amending the range of dates alleged for one of the charges of exploitation of an older adult.
¶ 9 On 28 January 2020, this matter was called for trial in Pamlico County Superior Court, the Honorable John E. Nobles, Jr., presiding. At trial, SBI Agent Snead testified that Defendant obtained a total of $123,367.09 from the accounts that he held with Mrs. Monk.
¶ 10 Agent Snead explained that, because Defendant linked his personal SECU checking account to Mrs. Monk's now jointly held SECU accounts, SECU transferred $21,350 from the joint money-market account to Defendant's personal checking account to cover his overdrafts between 11 August 2015 and 11 May 2016. He also testified that Defendant used $102,017 of Mrs. Monk's money from the jointly-held SECU, Wells Fargo, and First Citizens accounts for his benefit, including $15,000 for a down payment on a Ford truck titled to Defendant; $6,000 in contributions to his IRA; $4,850 for repairs to his Mercedes; $8,000 in payments on his credit card account; and $25,250 in cash withdrawals.
¶ 11 Defendant testified that the money in the joint accounts belonged to Mrs. Monk, stating, He maintained that he had "no idea" that SECU was transferring money from the SECU accounts that he held with Mrs. Monk to cover overdrafts from his personal checking account, because he had not reviewed the SECU statements and instead "just stuck them in a drawer." Defendant also testified that Mrs. Monk asked him to recruit a new pastor for Pastor Monk's church and agreed to fund that project, and that he withdrew money from the accounts as she requested. However, Defendant conceded that he suffered from financial difficulties. Although his annual salary was $80,000, he had to pay the IRS "a bunch of money back" at one time and had struggled with his finances and bookkeeping.
¶ 12 Mrs. Monk testified that, although she "just turned everything over" to Defendant after her husband's death, she never authorized Defendant to link his personal SECU checking account to any joint account in order to cover his overdrafts, never gave Defendant permission to withdraw money from the joint accounts for his personal use, and never requested that Defendant find a new pastor for the church. She also stated that she never gave Defendant permission to use her money to purchase a new truck or to fix his Mercedes.
¶ 13 At the close of the State's evidence, Defendant moved to dismiss the embezzlement charge due to insufficient evidence, and he renewed the motion at the close of all evidence. The trial court denied the motion both times.
¶ 14 At the charge conference, Defendant submitted a written request for the following special jury instruction with regard to the embezzlement charge:
Pursuant to NC law, NCGS [§] 54C-165, Any two or more persons may open or hold a withdrawable account or accounts. The withdrawable account and any balance of the account is held by them as joint tenants. You should consider this as well as all other evidence as you evaluate whether the State has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
¶ 15 Defense counsel argued that the proposed special instruction was necessary because "if the jury finds that [Defendant] was lawfully on the joint accounts, meaning that there was no deception involved, then he would have been entitled to use those funds regardless." The trial court denied Defendant's request on the grounds that the special instruction was likely to confuse the jury.
¶ 16 On 31 January 2020, the jury returned its verdicts finding Defendant guilty of all charges. The trial court sentenced Defendant to 6-17 months for three of the four counts of exploitation of an older adult and an additional 13-25 months for the fourth count, with the sentences to run consecutively in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Correction. The court also sentenced Defendant to 73-100 months for the embezzlement conviction, to run concurrently with Defendant's other sentences. In addition, the court ordered Defendant to pay $123,367.09 in restitution to Mrs. Monk. Defendant entered oral notice of appeal in open court.
¶ 17 On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to dismiss the embezzlement charge, and (2) declining to deliver his requested special jury instruction. We disagree.
¶ 18 Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss because the State presented insufficient evidence that (1) he had a fiduciary relationship with Mrs. Monk when he converted the funds to his use; (2) he wrongfully converted Mrs. Monk's money to his own use, when he was entitled to the funds in the bank accounts as a joint holder; and (3) Defendant embezzled at least $100,000.
¶ 19 We review the denial of a motion to dismiss based on an insufficiency of evidence de novo. State v. Parker , 233 N.C. App. 577, 579, 756 S.E.2d 122, 124 (2014).
¶ 20 "A motion to dismiss is properly denied where there is substantial evidence of each element of the offense charged and of [the] defendant being the perpetrator of that offense." Id. "Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The evidence ...
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