State v. Stroud

• Decision Date: 06 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 162A95,162A95
• Citation: 478 S.E.2d 476,345 N.C. 106
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Isaac Jackson STROUD.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 476

478 S.E.2d 476

345 N.C. 106

STATE of North Carolina v. Isaac Jackson STROUD.

No. 162A95.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 6, 1996.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by William P. Hart, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Anthony Lynch, Marion, for defendant-appellant.

LAKE, Justice.

The defendant was indicted on 17 May 1993 for the first-degree murder of Jocelyn Mitchell and on 7 November 1994 for the first-degree kidnapping of Mitchell. The defendant was tried capitally, and the jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder on the basis of felony murder and on the basis of murder by torture. The defendant was also found guilty of second-degree kidnapping. Following a capital sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended that the defendant be sentenced to death. Judge Allen entered a prayer for judgment continued on the kidnapping conviction and sentenced the defendant to death for the murder conviction.

At trial, the State presented evidence tending to show that Jocelyn Mitchell died on 1 May 1993 from dozens of blunt force injuries to her body. Defendant was in the apartment with the victim the night of the beating. John McPhatter, the defendant's next-door neighbor, and McPhatter's girlfriend, Debra Approximately seven hours later, the defendant called 911 from his apartment. He told the dispatcher that Mitchell had collapsed, that he could not wake her and that she was breathing lightly. The victim was not breathing when paramedics arrived, she had no pulse and her neck and arms were stiff. Defendant told the paramedics that Mitchell had been assaulted around 6:00 p.m. the night before at the school where she was employed as a teacher. The paramedics called the police.

                Harper, each testified that on 1 May 1993, between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m., they awoke to a loud thump from defendant's apartment.  McPhatter and Harper also heard the defendant arguing and the victim talking and crying.  They specifically heard the defendant say, "You shouldn't have gone to that party," and heard the victim say, "Look what you've done to my face."   McPhatter and Harper testified that as the night went on, the defendant [345 N.C. 110] continued to argue, but the victim stopped talking and only cried.  McPhatter testified that when he left his apartment at 5:30 a.m., he could still hear the defendant arguing and the victim crying.  Similarly, when Harper left the apartment between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m., she could still hear the defendant arguing and the victim "whimpering."   Linda Baldwin, an upstairs neighbor, testified that by 7:30 a.m., there were no noises coming from the apartment occupied by the defendant and Mitchell
                

Officers M.L. Hayes and J.A. Pickett, Jr., of the Durham Police Department arrived at the defendant's apartment around 3:00 p.m. The defendant told Officer Hayes that he and Mitchell had been fighting all night. Defendant also told the officers that Mitchell had come home around 8:00 p.m. and stated that she had been attacked and could not breathe. At trial, however, the State presented evidence that at about 8:00 p.m., Mitchell was seen parking her car and that she looked normal, had no visible injuries, was not bleeding and had no trouble walking. The State also presented evidence from a co-worker who observed Mitchell shopping at a grocery store around 11:55 p.m. The co-worker noticed nothing strange about Mitchell's appearance or actions and testified that Mitchell was not crying and appeared to be in good health.

Dr. John Butts, Chief Medical Examiner of the State of North Carolina, performed an autopsy on the victim. Dr. Butts' examination revealed, among other injuries, bruising on either side of the eyes, behind the right ear, on the lower part of the neck and over the front part of the skull. There was a laceration on the top of the head that extended into the deeper skin tissue that covers the skull. There were multiple bruises on the upper and mid-back, as well as extensive bruising of the right side and back, upper left arm and elbow, buttocks, back of the right thigh and all along the front part of the legs. The victim's skin was torn and scratched in several places. One back left rib was broken in two places, and ribs eight through eleven on the right side in the back were broken. One of the victim's ribs punctured the right lung, causing it to collapse and causing bleeding into the chest cavity. Dr. Butts characterized the wounds to the hands and forearms as defensive wounds from fending off her assailant's blows.

Dr. Butts testified that, in his opinion, Jocelyn Mitchell was struck dozens of times, causing her tissues to rupture and bleed into the muscles and fat beneath her skin. Further, some of her fat was broken up by the blunt-force trauma. The fat liquified and flowed into the victim's lungs, causing hypoxia, a lack of oxygen to the tissues. The overall process of internal bleeding, loss of blood to the tissues, collapse of the lung and fat in the lungs gradually resulted in loss of consciousness, coma and then death. Dr. Butts further testified that the victim's injuries would have been very painful, would have affected the victim's ability to move or walk and eventually would have incapacitated her.

In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to dismiss the second-degree kidnapping charge. This is based on defendant's assertion that all of the blows dealt to the victim in this case were essential to or related to the victim's death. Therefore, the argument continues, the restraint that resulted in the victim's murder is indistinguishable When a defendant moves for dismissal, the trial court must determine whether the State has presented substantial evidence of each element of the offense charged and substantial evidence that the defendant was the perpetrator of such offense. State v. Olson, 330 N.C. 557, 564, 411 S.E.2d 592, 595 (1992). If substantial evidence of each element is presented, the motion to dismiss is properly denied. State v. Quick, 323 N.C. 675, 682, 375 S.E.2d 156, 160 (1989). Substantial evidence is "that amount of relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." State v. Porter, 303 N.C. 680, 685, 281 S.E.2d 377, 381 (1981). In ruling on a motion to dismiss, the trial court must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and the State is entitled to every reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom. Olson, 330 N.C. at 564, 411 S.E.2d at 595.

from the restraint used by the State to support the kidnapping charge. As a result, defendant contends, all three theories of first-degree murder submitted to the jury were tainted by the failure to dismiss the second-degree kidnapping charge. We disagree.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence is clearly sufficient to establish that the blows used for restraint were separate and apart from the blows causing death. An argument ensued between the defendant and the victim sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. and continued for six or seven hours, during which time the victim's talking degenerated to crying, then whimpering and finally silence. The autopsy evidence shows that the victim suffered dozens of blunt-force injuries. In addition to a number of broken ribs, she had bruises and cuts all over her body, from her head down to her legs. These injuries caused internal bleeding, loss of blood to the tissues, accumulation of fat in the lungs and collapse of one lung. The medical examiner testified that the injuries would have affected the victim's ability to move or walk and eventually would have incapacitated the victim. From this evidence, it is reasonable to infer that at some point the victim's injuries were severe enough to prevent her from leaving but not so severe as to cause death. Based on this evidence, we find sufficient evidence that the restraint and death blows were separable and conclude that the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to dismiss the second-degree kidnapping charge.

Defendant attempts to analogize this case to State v. Prevette, 317 N.C. 148, 345 S.E.2d 159 (1986). In Prevette, the victim suffocated to death from a gag being placed in her mouth. The evidence established that the victim would not have died from the gag if her hands, knees and ankles had not been bound. As a result, the bonds could not be regarded as a separate and distinguishable restraint because they were necessary conditions of the cause of death. In the present case, however, there were innumerable and various blows struck over the course of many hours, some of which initially merely immobilized and restrained and others of which proximately caused death. Because not all of the blows were necessary conditions of the cause of death, Prevette is not applicable in the present case.

Moreover, the evidence regarding restraint is irrelevant to the charge of first-degree murder based on murder by torture. In this case, the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder on the basis of felony murder and on the basis of murder by torture, as well as convicted of second-degree kidnapping. In order to sustain a conviction of first-degree murder by torture, the State must prove that the defendant intentionally tortured the victim and that such torture was a proximate cause of the victim's death. State v. Crawford, 329 N.C. 466, 479-81, 406 S.E.2d 579, 586-88 (1991). Conviction for kidnapping requires proof that "the defendant unlawfully confined, restrained, or removed the person for one of the eight purposes set out in the statute." State v. Moore, 315 N.C. 738, 743, 340 S.E.2d 401, 404 (1986).

In State v. Wilson, 322 N.C. 117, 367 S.E.2d 589 (1988), this Court considered and rejected a restraint argument similar to defendant's. In Wilson, the defendant tied the victim's hands behind his...