State v. Thomas

• Decision Date: 19 November 1992
• Docket Number: No. 501A91,501A91
• Citation: 332 N.C. 544,423 S.E.2d 75
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Ronald Sheldon THOMAS.

Page 75

423 S.E.2d 75

332 N.C. 544

STATE of North Carolina v. Ronald Sheldon THOMAS.

No. 501A91.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 19, 1992.

Appeal as of right pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing a life sentence upon defendant's conviction of first-degree murder entered by Fullwood, J., at the 25 February 1992 Criminal Session of Superior Court, New Hanover County. Defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals, pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-31, as to his first-degree sexual offense conviction, for which he received a consecutive sentence of life imprisonment, was allowed by this Court on 7 February 1992. Heard in the Supreme Court 8 September 1992.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by John H. Watters, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Mark D. Montgomery, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

MEYER, Justice.

On 12 March 1990, defendant was indicted for the first-degree sexual offense and first-degree murder of Talana Quay Kreeger. Defendant was tried capitally in Superior Court, New Hanover County, in February and March 1991 and was found guilty of all charges. The jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of first-degree sexual offense, as well as first-degree murder based on the theories of premeditated and deliberated murder and felony murder. Following a sentencing proceeding conducted pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury determined that the fourteen mitigating circumstances found were sufficient to outweigh the two aggravating circumstances found and accordingly recommended a sentence of life imprisonment. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment for murder, as well as a consecutive life sentence for the first-degree sexual offense conviction.

On appeal, defendant brings forward numerous assignments of error. After a thorough review of the transcript of the proceedings, record on appeal, briefs, and oral arguments, we conclude that defendant received a fair trial, free of prejudicial error, and we therefore affirm his convictions and sentences.

The evidence presented by the State tended to show the following facts and circumstances. On the evening of 21 February 1990 at approximately 11:00 or 11:30 p.m., defendant, a long-distance truck driver, stopped at the Park View Grill, a bar in Wilmington. Wanda Whitley, the owner of the Park View Grill, and Talana Kreeger, the victim, were sitting at the bar discussing plans for the next day to remodel the back room of the bar. Kreeger was a carpenter who worked for Laney Builders and worked odd jobs on the side. Heidi Crossley, Whitley's roommate, was also at the bar. Defendant was seated two seats away from Crossley, and during the evening, they began to converse. At some point, defendant and Crossley went into the back room to shoot pool. Later in the evening, Whitley and the victim went to the back room, and Whitley commented on defendant's truck. Defendant offered Whitley and the victim his keys to go look at his truck. After looking at the truck, Whitley and the victim returned to the bar.

When the bar closed that evening, the victim, Whitley, Crossley, and defendant discussed going to get something to eat. Whitley suggested they go to Hardee's on Carolina Beach Road, which was roughly one and a half to two miles away. At approximately 1:30 a.m., the victim and defendant left in his truck. The victim went with defendant because she had never ridden in a tractor-trailer truck before. Crossley left immediately after defendant and the victim and stopped at her house briefly before going to Hardee's. When she did not see anyone at Hardee's, she went home and went to sleep.

Whitley left Park View Grill approximately ten or fifteen minutes after the victim and defendant. When Whitley got to Hardee's, she found no one there. Whitley immediately began looking for the truck defendant was driving. After searching during the early morning hours of 22 February 1990, without success, she called Hoggard High School because she recalled that defendant had said he had a fruit delivery to make to the school. While on the phone, Whitley spoke to a man who was identified to her as a trucker making a delivery at Hoggard High School and who said his name was Ron. Ron denied knowing her friend Talana Kreeger or having been in the Park View Grill the previous night. Whitley eventually went to Hoggard High School and spoke with Jerry Cribbs, who showed her a bill of lading that had the name of defendant and the company for which he worked.

On 22 February 1990 at approximately 10:30 a.m., Kenneth Spivey, a minister who lives in Dunn, North Carolina, received a telephone call from a man he later learned was defendant. Defendant told him, "I need some help" because "I've done something terrible." Spivey responded that the Lord could forgive him. Upon further inquiry, defendant informed Spivey that the Lord could not forgive him because he had beaten a woman. Spivey then asked defendant if he had killed her, and defendant said "Yes." Spivey told defendant that he would meet him but that he was bringing along a deputy sheriff.

Spivey and Deputy Lymon McLean met defendant at Robinhood Truck Stop off of Interstate 95. Defendant got into the patrol car and proceeded to tell McLean and Spivey that he had beaten a woman and that when he left her, she was conscious. Defendant stated that he beat the woman because she started "mouthing" and "reminded him of his ex-wife." Once defendant admitted that he had killed a woman, McLean asked him if he knew her name. In response, defendant pulled a check out of his shirt pocket and gave it to McLean. The check was made out to Carolina Builders and was signed by Wanda Whitley. Later, McLean asked defendant what the woman was wearing, and defendant said that her clothes were in the truck. At McLean's request, defendant retrieved the victim's clothing and gave it to McLean. A search of the victim's pocketbook revealed multiple driver's licenses belonging to Talana Kreeger. McLean called the Wilmington Police Department and reported the victim's name. Defendant also told McLean the location of the victim, which McLean relayed to the Wilmington police. As they were waiting for the Wilmington police to call back, defendant told McLean that he had been in Wilmington at the Park View Grill and that three women who were there had become engaged in an argument about homosexuality. Further, he said, to avoid the argument, defendant and the victim had left the bar to go eat. Defendant stated that, while en route to the restaurant, he and the victim had continued the argument and that he had pulled into a parking lot off Shipyard Boulevard. Defendant told McLean that he began to beat the victim with his hand and that when he saw blood, he became more enraged and continued to beat her. He said he then took the victim from his truck, pulled her into the woods, and left the scene.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. the same day, pursuant to the directions relayed by McLean and the defendant to the Wilmington police, searchers discovered the victim's body in an area consistent with the location given. Dennis Pridgen, a detective with the Wilmington Police Department, found the body of the victim. Pridgen described the area as a trailer drop with adjacent woods. The area was heavily wooded, with a lot of trees, briars, and thick bushes. As Pridgen approached the body of the victim, he noted that she was lying face down; her back side was covered with blood and leaves; and she was very, very pale. Within a few feet of the body, there were two places where there were indentations in the leaves and blood spots. One spot was approximately four feet from the body, and the other, two feet. Pridgen noted that there appeared to be some type of internal organ hanging out of her body and over her right thigh. Once the body was turned over, Pridgen noted that the victim had her hands curled up, gripping pine straw and leaves.

At approximately 4:20 p.m. on 22 February 1990, Detective Jerry Lamm of the Harnett County Sheriff's Department spoke to defendant at length in the law enforcement center in Lillington. Before conducting the interview, Lamm advised defendant of his constitutional rights, and defendant replied that he understood his rights. Defendant then signed a rights waiver form. Defendant related the events of 21 February and 22 February basically as follows: Defendant stated that he went to the bar, drank beer, and shot pool with three women, including Wanda, the owner. Defendant claimed that he and the three women were all drunk and that he consumed about ten beers in an hour's time. He also said that he could tell that the three women were lesbians by the way they were acting. At about 2:00 a.m., he asked if there was some place they could go eat, and Whitley informed him that there was a place just around the corner. Whitley and one of the women said they would meet defendant and the victim at the restaurant. The victim said she was going to ride with defendant because she wanted to ride in a big truck. The victim got into the sleeper portion of the truck because defendant had a television and tools in the passenger seat and floor. While trying to find the restaurant, defendant and the victim got into an argument. They started to discuss why the victim and the other women were lesbians. Defendant then pulled into a parking lot in a warehouse to relieve himself. He got out, went to the bathroom beside the truck, and then got back inside. The victim was still in the sleeper. Defendant and the victim again started talking about her being a lesbian, and he asked, "didn't a man satisfy her and [he] reached over and touched her breast." The victim "backhanded" defendant. Defendant then "backhanded" the victim, and she fell back in the sleeper. When defendant went after the victim, ...