State v. Thomas

• Decision Date: 07 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. 435A96.,435A96.
• Citation: 514 S.E.2d 486
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Walic Christopher THOMAS.

514 S.E.2d 486

STATE of North Carolina v. Walic Christopher THOMAS.

No. 435A96.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

May 7, 1999.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General, by John G. Barnwell, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

James R. Parish, Fayetteville, for defendant-appellant.

MITCHELL, Chief Justice.

On 2 October 1995, defendant was indicted for first-degree murder. On 19 February 1996, he was also indicted for first-degree burglary, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and first-degree kidnapping. Defendant was tried capitally at the 22 July 1996 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Guilford County. The jury found defendant guilty of firstdegree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. The jury also found defendant guilty of first-degree burglary, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and first-degree kidnapping. Following a separate capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction. On 9 August 1996, the trial court sentenced defendant to death. Defendant was sentenced to consecutive terms of imprisonment on his convictions for burglary, robbery, and kidnapping. Defendant appealed his conviction for first-degree murder and death sentence to this Court as of right. On 12 May 1997, this Court granted defendant's motion to bypass the Court of Appeals on his appeal of the robbery, burglary, and kidnapping convictions.

The State's evidence tended to show that defendant, Walic Christopher Thomas, entered the home of the victim, Kenneth Dale Tuttle, Jr., bound and gagged him, robbed him, and stabbed him to death. On the evening of 10 September 1995, defendant asked Carmichael Wilson to give him a ride so that he could get some money from his supervisor. Wilson had his friend, William Thomas Warren (known as "Rabbit"), drive them to where defendant wanted to go. Rabbit parked his car on a side street around the corner from the intersection of Spring Garden Road and Holden Road in Greensboro. While Wilson and Rabbit waited in the car, defendant walked to J.P. Looney's, a sports bar located at that same intersection. A bartender working that night later identified defendant as the man who came into the bar sometime "around midnight" and asked for free food. Several times Wilson checked on defendant, who assured him that he would have the money soon. Finally, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Wilson talked to the bartender, who told him that defendant had left the bar a short time before.

That same night, Tuttle went to the home of a friend to watch a football game. At about 11:30 p.m., Tuttle left the friend's house to return to his own house located at 707 South Holden Road, a few hundred feet from J.P. Looney's. At 1:41 a.m. on 11 September 1995, a dispatcher for Daniel Keck Cab Company received a call requesting a taxi to come to Tuttle's address. The dispatcher testified that the caller called a second time to find out why the cab had not arrived. At 2:10 a.m., a driver was dispatched to 707 South Holden Road. The driver testified that when he arrived no one came outside and that he noticed a light blue or gray car parked in the driveway.

At 4:30 a.m., Tuttle's roommate arrived home. As he was starting to open the back door, he looked in the window and saw Tuttle on the floor, against the door. The roommate went to a neighbor's house and called the police.

The first officer on the scene determined that Tuttle was dead. Tuttle was found with a towel, a rag, and a stuffed toy around his head, an apron around his feet, and his hands tied behind his back with a telephone cord. An autopsy revealed that he had bled to death from thirty-six stab wounds to his neck, chest, and abdominal area, most of which were inflicted while Tuttle was still alive. According to the testimony of Dr. Thomas Clark of the Chief Medical Examiner's Office, Tuttle's wounds "could have been inflicted by a butcher knife."

Tuttle's roommate went through the house and discovered that several items of personal property were missing, including two knives from a knife block in the kitchen, Tuttle's clothing, a television set, a stereo, and Tuttle's wallet. Also missing was Tuttle's car, a silver-gray Nissan Sentra. One of the prints lifted from the stove door handle in the home was later determined to have been made by the left palm of defendant. The investigating officer also found a telephone book opened to the taxicab pages and an ice tray and plastic cup next to the kitchen sink.

After Wilson had returned to his house on Martin Luther King Drive, he saw defendant, who lived two houses away from him, arrive in a car. Defendant told Wilson that his supervisor had let him keep the car and that his supervisor had also given him the clothes which were in the car. Defendant asked Wilson to help him carry the clothes upstairs to defendant's room. Wilson then drove with defendant to a bank where defendant was videotaped attempting to withdraw cash using Tuttle's automatic-teller machine card at 4:20 a.m. on 11 September 1995. While waiting in the car, Wilson noticed a wallet containing a white man's driver's license on the seat.

On 11 September 1995, a member of the Greensboro Police Department stopped Tshamba Wynn while he was driving Tuttle's car on Julian Street. James Harold Edwards testified that he saw defendant give the keys to the stolen car to Wynn. Edwards directed the officers to defendant's address at 707 Martin Luther King Drive. When the police knocked on the door, defendant answered. Defendant gave his consent for a search of his room. On a couch, officers found a stack of men's clothes still on plastic hangers. These clothes were later identified as belonging to Tuttle. Defendant was arrested. At the time of his arrest, defendant was wearing a shirt and a pair of pants belonging to Tuttle. The stereo and television set stolen from Tuttle's house were later recovered from a crack house where Wilson testified he had gone with defendant.

Defendant testified on his own behalf, admitting that he had been in Tuttle's home with Wilson and Rabbit on the night of the murder. According to defendant, Wilson came to him asking for a ride to a "white dude's house" to settle a drug debt. Defendant testified that when he left the house with Rabbit, Wilson stayed behind, and Tuttle was still alive.

PRETRIAL AND JURY SELECTION

By his first assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying the motion of his two attorneys to withdraw. Just prior to the start of the trial, defendant threatened to tip over a table and refused to come into the courtroom voluntarily. The trial court ordered that he be handcuffed and shackled. After returning to the courtroom, defendant became very disruptive and refused to be quiet. The trial court then directed a bailiff to remove defendant and gag him.

Defense counsel met with defendant in the holding cell in an effort to get him to cooperate. During this meeting, defendant threatened defense counsel with physical violence, stating, "I'll have my people on the street take care of you." Defendant also threatened a deputy sheriff. In addition, during trial preparation, defendant had refused to cooperate or to speak to defense counsel. Defense counsel informed the court that they feared for their safety and could no longer effectively represent defendant. They moved to withdraw pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-144. Defendant argues that this created an actual conflict of interest and that forcing defense counsel to represent him violated his constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel and his due process right to a fair trial.

N.C.G.S. § 15A-144 provides that "[t]he court may allow an attorney to withdraw from a criminal proceeding upon a showing of good cause." In order to establish prejudicial error arising from the trial court's denial of a motion to withdraw, a defendant must show that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. State v. Cole, 343 N.C. 399, 411, 471 S.E.2d 362, 367 (1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1064, 117 S.Ct. 703, 136 L.Ed.2d 624 (1997). To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, defendant must satisfy a two-prong test which was promulgated by the United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, 693 (1984). We reviewed the operation of this test in the recent case of State v. Lee:

[D]efendant must first show that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness as defined by professional norms. [State v. Braswell, 312 N.C. 553, 561-62, 324 S.E.2d 241, 248 (1985)

.] ... Second, once defendant satisfies the first prong, he must show that the error committed was so serious that a reasonable probability exists that the trial result would have been different absent the error. [Strickland, 466 U.S.] at 695 , 80 L.Ed.2d at 698. Thus, defendant must show that the error committed was so grave that it deprived him of a fair trial because the result itself is considered unreliable. Id. at 687 , 80 L.Ed.2d at 693.

348 N.C. 474, 491, 501 S.E.2d 334, 345 (1998).

In the present case, a careful review of the record and transcript reveals that during the hearing on the motion to withdraw and throughout the trial, defendant was rational, conferred with defense counsel, and did not exhibit any more violent behavior or threaten defense counsel in any way. We find no indication that defendant's earlier outburst adversely affected the representation of defendant by his attorneys at trial. Defendant was cooperative and never requested that defense counsel be removed. At the hearing on the motion to withdraw, defendant stated, "I don't have a problem with them at all." At most, defendant indicated to the trial court that his only dissatisfaction with defense counsel was their handling of certain statements of several individuals. However, disagreements over trial tactics...