State v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 04 September 1992
• Docket Number: No. 170A91,170A91
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Anthony TAYLOR.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 414

420 S.E.2d 414

332 N.C. 372

STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Anthony TAYLOR.

No. 170A91.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Sept. 4, 1992.

Appeal by the defendant pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from judgments sentencing him to three consecutive life sentences for three counts of first-degree murder and to a sentence of imprisonment for armed robbery, entered by Bowen, J., on 24 August 1990 in Superior Court, Brunswick County. Heard in the Supreme Court on 12 May 1992.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Mary Jill Ledford, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for State.

Daniel F. Read, Durham, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Justice.

The defendant was tried capitally upon proper indictments charging him with three counts of murder and one count of armed robbery. The State's evidence tended to show the following. On or about 12 October 1988, Marion Meetze, his wife Ginger Meetze, and Ginger's daughter Michelle Arnold were shot and killed in their home in Brunswick County. Evidence tended to show that the defendant, who lived in South Carolina, had purchased a gun shop located in South Carolina from Marion Meetze. A dispute arose between the defendant and Marion Meetze over money related to the sale of the gun shop. The defendant shot and killed the three victims using a different weapon for each murder. Marion Meetze was shot with a shotgun, Ginger Meetze with a .22 caliber pistol, and Michelle Arnold with a Desert Eagle .357 magnum pistol.

Ed Barnett, Marion Meetze's supervisor at work, testified that Meetze was employed at the B.F. Goodrich plant in Wilmington, North Carolina. On 12 October 1988, Meetze asked Barnett for the next day off because the defendant was coming to pay him some money for the sale of the gun shop, and Meetze wanted to go to buy a boat. Barnett gave Meetze permission, and Meetze was not at work on 13 October 1988. Meetze did not come to work on Friday, 14 October 1988. Barnett sent two employees to Meetze's house to check on him that day, because it was unusual for him to miss work without an explanation. The two employees found the bodies of Marion and Ginger Meetze inside the house and noted that the interior of the house was covered in soot resulting from a fire. The two employees immediately called the sheriff.

Detective Gary Shay arrived at the Meetze home shortly thereafter and found the bodies of Marion and Ginger Meetze in the den. Shay observed that Ginger Meetze had been shot in the head; Marion Meetze had been shot in the back. Shay searched the house and found the body of the child Michelle Arnold in an upstairs bedroom. She had been shot in the chest. In the den, Shay collected nine .22 caliber shell casings and several plastic cups that were sitting on the coffee table and end tables. Latent fingerprints matching those of the defendant were found on one of the cups. Shay also found a plastic pen holder on an end table. In the upstairs bedroom, Shay collected the bedding from the bed on which Michelle Arnold's body was found and found .357 caliber projectiles in the bedding and the pillow on the bed.

The interior of the house was covered with black oily soot. An arson expert testified that the burn patterns showed that the fire started in the back of the house and moved to the front and that a flammable liquid was used to set the fire.

Autopsies revealed that each victim died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. Marion Meetze was shot in the back with a shotgun. Eight lead pellets were removed from his body. The pellets had passed through his heart and liver. Ginger Meetze was shot nine times: seven times in the back and two times in the head. Seven .22 caliber bullets were removed from her body. Michelle Arnold suffered four gunshot wounds, three of which would have been independently fatal. One .357 caliber projectile was removed from her body.

Roger Benton, the owner of a gun shop in Anderson, South Carolina, testified that the defendant sold him a Desert Eagle .357 magnum pistol on 14 October 1988. Michael McCann, a friend of Marion Meetze, testified that he saw the pistol in the gun shop in October 1988 and recognized it as belonging to Marion Meetze because of its unique serial number. The State entered the gun into evidence at trial. Ed Barnett testified earlier that he had seen that same Desert Eagle .357 magnum pistol at Meetze's house a week before the murders.

Lieutenant Ira Parnell, supervisor of the firearms identification laboratory of the State Law Enforcement Division of South Carolina, conducted ballistics tests on the Desert Eagle pistol the defendant had sold to Benton on 14 October 1988. Parnell concluded that the .357 caliber projectiles taken from the bedding and pillow in the upstairs bedroom and the projectile taken from Michelle Arnold's body had all been fired from that same Desert Eagle .357 magnum pistol.

The defendant presented the following evidence at trial. A fingerprint expert testified that other latent fingerprints found on the plastic cups recovered at the scene of the murders did not match the fingerprints of the defendant or any of the three victims. James Register, a co-worker of Marion Meetze, testified that, during the summer of 1988, a black male unknown to Register visited Marion Meetze at work. Meetze and the man engaged in a heated argument after which Meetze was upset. The man, accompanied by Ginger Meetze and her daughter Michelle Arnold, again visited Meetze at work on 1 July 1988. Meetze appeared upset. On 15 September 1988, the same man again visited Meetze at work. They spoke for about an hour in Meetze's office.

Several witnesses testified that the defendant was a law-abiding, peaceful person. Other evidence introduced at trial is discussed at other points in this opinion where pertinent to the issues raised by the defendant.

The jury found the defendant guilty of three counts of murder in the first degree on the theory that all of the murders were premeditated and deliberate. The jury also found the defendant guilty of armed robbery. At the conclusion of a separate sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended and the trial court entered sentences of life imprisonment for each of the murder convictions; those sentences were entered to run consecutively. The trial court also sentenced the defendant to imprisonment for a term of fourteen years for the armed robbery conviction. The defendant appealed the first-degree murder convictions and life sentences to this Court as a matter of right. This Court allowed the defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals on his appeal from his conviction and sentence for armed robbery.

The defendant first contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress statements he made to David Potter before trial while both of them were in jail. The defendant argues that these statements were made to an agent of the State, while the defendant was in custody and without the presence of counsel, in violation of the defendant's right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment.

At the conclusion of evidence during a suppression hearing, the trial court concluded that David Potter had not acted as an agent of the State and that none of the defendant's state or federal rights were violated. We agree and conclude that the trial court did not err in denying the defendant's motion.

The defendant was arrested for murder on 9 September 1989 and was given the Miranda warnings at that time. The trial court appointed counsel for the defendant sometime during September 1989. In late December 1989, the defendant told David Potter, his cellmate in the Brunswick County Jail, that he had killed a man, a woman, and a child. The defendant said he had shot the man with a 12 gauge shotgun one time, that he had shot the woman with a .22 caliber weapon one time in the head, and that he had shot the child with a .357 magnum pistol. The defendant then attempted to set their house on fire, but the fire extinguished itself because of a lack of oxygen. The defendant stated that he had disposed of the guns used in the murders and that the killings had involved a dispute over the sale of a gun shop.

After the defendant made these statements to Potter, Potter asked to speak to an investigating officer. North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation ("S.B.I.") Agent Kelly Moser came to the jail and interviewed Potter on 22 December 1989. During the interview, Potter told Moser everything the defendant had said. At the end of the interview, Moser told Potter not to make any further contact with the defendant about the crimes and specifically told Potter that he was not an agent of the State and was not working for any law enforcement agency. Potter asked if Moser could make a deal to reduce some of the charges against him. Moser stated that he had no authority to make such a deal.

A short time later, Potter requested a second meeting with Moser. Moser interviewed Potter on 28 December 1989. Potter stated that the defendant had said he had taken the murder weapons apart. In addition, the defendant had told Potter that Marion Meetze had placed a pen and pencil carrier on the table in the den before the defendant shot him. The defendant also stated that the fire he set was smothered. At the end of the interview, Moser again told Potter not to discuss the crimes with the defendant and that Potter was not working for the State. In addition, Moser had Potter sign a statement stating that Moser had told Potter on 22 December and 28 December 1989 to have no further contact with the defendant and that he was not an agent of the State.

On 15 January 1990, Moser interviewed Potter a third time at Potter's request. The defendant had told Potter of an episode of insurance fraud in which the defendant had participated. The defendant also had stated that the police...