State v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 03 November 1981
• Docket Number: No. 108,108
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Norris Carlton TAYLOR.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 761

283 S.E.2d 761

304 N.C. 249

STATE of North Carolina v. Norris Carlton TAYLOR.

No. 108.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 3, 1981.

Rufus L. Edmisten, Atty. Gen. by Asst. Atty. Gen. Donald W. Stephens and Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen. Isaac T. Avery, III, Raleigh, for the State.

Mary Ann Tally, Public Defender, Fayetteville, for defendant.

MEYER, Justice.

This appeal presents sixty-two assignments of error for our review. No meaningful summary statement of these numerous assignments is possible. Each of the assignments susceptible of merit is treated separately. Our conclusion is that defendant is entitled to a new trial on the kidnapping charge. On all other charges, we find no error.

In relevant summary the facts are: On 30 August 1978, Patty Bazemore was accosted by the defendant in Woodland, North Carolina. At gunpoint, he forced her to drive with him, in her automobile, to Fayetteville, where they spent the night in a park. The next day defendant told Bazemore that they would leave her car and try to obtain another, because defendant was afraid the police would be looking for the Bazemore automobile. Defendant was unsuccessful in his efforts to secure another car, and that night, 31 August 1978, Bazemore and defendant slept on a railroad track. On the morning of 1 September 1978, defendant left Bazemore in a downtown park, warning her not to move, and went to obtain a car.

Clarence Edward Davis testified for the State that he was in the parking lot of the Cardinal Building in Fayetteville on the morning of 1 September 1978. As he watched, he saw a man whom he identified as defendant come out from behind the building, cross a wall and approach a young woman, later identified as Mrs. Murchison, who had just parked her car. Davis testified that the two argued, the defendant apparently wanting her pocketbook and car keys. As Mrs. Murchison turned away, Davis Defendant then returned to where he had left Bazemore and ordered her into the car. Within five minutes defendant and Bazemore abandoned the car, went to the bus station nearby and took a taxi to the Eutaw Shopping Center. Across the street from the shopping center was a Winn Dixie grocery store, and in the parking lot of that store defendant approached Malcolm Biles. Defendant told Biles that he had had car trouble, and Biles offered to help. Once in Biles' car, a 1974 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, defendant brandished a handgun and ordered Biles to drive. After driving for a time, defendant ordered Biles to stop the car. Defendant then locked Biles in the trunk of the car and began driving. Biles became uncomfortable in the trunk and began to make noise by beating on the trunk with the tire iron. Defendant stopped the car, ordered Biles into the back seat, and drove on. A short time later defendant turned off onto a dirt road, forced Biles into the woods and shot him.

said he heard two gunshots and saw Mrs. Murchison stagger. Defendant fled in Murchison's car, a tan 1976 Buick Electra 225 with two doors, passing within fifteen to twenty feet of Davis.

Defendant then drove into the town of Woodland, North Carolina, and released Patty Bazemore. As defendant drove out of town, he was observed by Roosevelt Britt, a part-time Woodland police officer. Defendant was captured after a high-speed chase and taken to the Sheriff's Department in Jackson, North Carolina.

Other facts necessary for an understanding of the questions posed on appeal are included in the body of the opinion.

We now consider defendant's assignments of error:

GUILT/INNOCENCE PHASE

I.

Defendant brings forward as his assignment of error number 1 the denial by the trial court of his motion for a bill of particulars stating the aggravating circumstances upon which the State would rely in seeking the death penalty. ¹ Defendant made that motion in pretrial proceedings, and renewed it immediately after the jury returned a verdict of guilty of first degree murder. Judge Canady denied the earlier motion, and upon the later motion Judge Gavin found that the State had fully complied with the statutory discovery procedures and therefore also denied the motion.

By his brief, defendant argues that in a trial for first degree murder where the State seeks the death penalty, the defendant is entitled as a matter of constitutional right, guaranteed by the sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, to notice, prior to trial, of any and all aggravating circumstances upon which the State intends to rely in seeking the death penalty. Failure to require the State to give such particularized notice, says defendant, violates due process requirements that a defendant be fully apprised of the charge against him, and also interferes with defendant's right to effective assistance of counsel.

Defendant's first contention arises from his characterization of this State's capital punishment law as "an enhanced punishment law." The defendant contends that the presumed punishment for first degree murder in North Carolina is life imprisonment. Therefore, if the State intends to rely on a statute providing for enhanced punishment, i. e. death, such a statute should, as a matter of constitutional law, require separate pleadings with respect to the enhancing circumstance. The practical effect of agreeing with defendant's argument would be paramount to saying that by proceeding on a theory of aggravation the State has in effect brought a separate charge against defendant, requiring separate pleadings. We decline to reach such a result.

To begin with, we do not find defendant's characterization of life imprisonment as the "presumed" punishment to be accurate. It is true that life imprisonment is, under G.S. 15A-2000, the minimum punishment, but no sentence can be imposed until after a separate sentencing phase. The factors enumerated in G.S. 15A-2000 are not elements of the offense but rather are guidelines defining the parameters of the jury's discretion in determining punishment. The only aggravating circumstances upon which the State may rely are enumerated in G.S. 15A-2000(e). Consistent with the holding in Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 976, 99 S.Ct. 1548, 59 L.Ed.2d 796 (1979), we hold that this statutory notice is sufficient to meet the constitutional requirement of due process. See Clark v. State, 379 So.2d 97 (Fla.1979), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 936, 101 S.Ct. 1402, 67 L.Ed.2d 371 (1981); Bowden v. Zant, 244 Ga. 260, 260 S.E.2d 465 (1979); cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1103, 100 S.Ct. 1068, 62 L.Ed.2d 788 (1980); Houston v. The State, 593 S.W.2d 267 (Tenn.1980); State v. Berry, 592 S.W.2d 553 (Tenn.1980).

Defendant is not entitled to notice of the evidence which the State intends to offer in support of and to prove aggravating circumstances. Although some other states which also leave the question of punishment to the jury do require the prosecution to provide evidence to defendant of the aggravating circumstances the State will pursue, such a requirement is purely statutory. See e. g. Delaware Code Ann. 11 § 4209(c)(1) (1979); Georgia Code Ann. § 27-2503 (1978); Maryland Code Ann. Art. 27, § 412(b) (Cum.Supp.1978). Our legislature has not enacted such a requirement. G.S. 15A-925 provides that a defendant may move for a bill of particulars requesting items of factual information which "pertain to the charge" and without which "the defendant cannot adequately prepare or conduct his defense ...." The indictments were sufficient to provide defendant with a factual basis necessary to understand the State's cases against him. Defendant was adequately apprised of the charge by the State and was provided with evidence necessary to the preparation of his defense. A motion for a bill of particulars is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court and not subject to review except for palpable and gross abuse of discretion. State v. Silhan, 302 N.C. 223, 275 S.E.2d 450 (1981); State v. Swift, 290 N.C. 383, 226 S.E.2d 652 (1976). We find no abuse of that discretion here. Accordingly, this assignment of error is overruled.

II.

Defendant next contends in assignment of error number 2 that the trial court erred in allowing an assistant district attorney to testify as to a material fact during a hearing on a motion to suppress statements of the defendant. Defense counsel argues that this testimony violated professional ethical standards because the assistant district attorney is in effect a member of the "law firm" prosecuting this defendant. This argument was considered and dismissed as meritless by this Court in a previous opinion involving this same defendant. See State v. Taylor, 301 N.C. 164, 270 S.E.2d 409 (1980). Once again we deem this argument completely without merit.

III.

Defendant's assignment of error number 3 charges error in the denial by the trial court of defendant's motion to suppress certain statements made by defendant. The record before us shows that at the time defendant was arrested, he was ordered at gunpoint to lay on the ground as he was handcuffed and read his Miranda rights. A hostile crowd began to gather. After defendant was read his rights and defendant acknowledged that he understood them, Chief Sandlin, the arresting officer, asked where Miss Bazemore and Malcolm Biles were. Defendant answered that he had released Miss Bazemore unharmed and had shot Mr. Biles on Highway No. 97. Defendant now complains that his statements to Chief Sandlin were not voluntarily made since he was being held at gunpoint and was surrounded by a hostile

crowd. This contention, and defendant's companion objections to the admissibility of statements later made by defendant to police investigators were treated in our opinion in State v. Taylor, 301 N.C. 164, 270 S.E.2d 409 (1980). We deem it unnecessary to [304 N.C. 259] retread ground so ably covered by Justice Carlton in that opinion. Accordingly, this assignment is...