State v. Thompson, 41

Citation214 S.E.2d 742,287 N.C. 303
Decision Date06 June 1975
Docket NumberNo. 41,41
PartiesSTATE of North Carolina v. Charles D. THOMPSON.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

Atty. Gen. James H. Carson, Jr. by Asst. Atty. Gen. Charles M. Hensey, Raleigh, for the State.

Robert W. Wolf, Forest City, and Charles V. Bell, Charlotte, for defendant.

BRANCH, Justice.

Defendant assigns as error the trial judge's denial of his motion for change of venue or for a jury to be summoned from a county other than Rutherford. Defendant based his motion on the grounds that the prominence of the victim and the inflammatory publicity contained in the local newspapers would prevent a fair trial in Rutherford County or by jurors drawn from that county. After considering defendant's affidavit, the record, and oral arguments of counsel, Judge Martin denied defendant's motion.

The newspaper accounts upon which defendant depends do not appear to be beyond the bounds of propriety or to be inflammatory. Neither does defendant show that the prominence of the victim has unfairly affected his trial. This record does not disclose that defendant exhausted his peremptory challenges or that defendant had to accept any juror objectionable to him.

Defendant's motion was addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. State v. Jarrette, 284 N.C. 625, 202 S.E.2d 721; State v. Blackmon, 280 N.C. 42, 185 S.E.2d 123; State v. Ray, 274 N.C. 556, 164 S.E.2d 457. No abuse of discretion on the part of the trial judge is shown.

This assignment of error is overruled.

The principal question presented by this appeal is whether the trial judge erred in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence of in-custody statements made by defendant to police officers.

During the direct examination of Blaine Yelton, Sheriff of Rutherford County, the solicitor inquired about statements made by the defendant to the Sheriff. Upon defense counsel's objection, the jury was excused and a Voir dire hearing conducted.

On Voir dire Sheriff Yelton testified that about 5:20 p.m. on 27 February 1974, pursuant to his request, defendant's father, a sergeant on the police force in Spindale, North Carolina, brught defendant to the jail for the purpose of interrogation concerning a gun which had been taken from P. G. Woods. Defendant signed a waiver of his constitutional rights, including waiver of counsel, on this occasion, but the Sheriff stated 'it is possible that he did not at first want to sign the waiver of rights and that his father told him to sign it . . ..' The Sheriff could not recall whether the murder of Watkins was mentioned at this first encounter. This interrogation lasted for over an hour, and upon its completion defendant was taken into custody upon authority of a telegram from the North Carolina Parole Board indicating a revocation of defendant's parole. Defendant was questioned several times during the night or early morning hours of 28 February. According to the Sheriff's notes, the second interrogation occurred at 1:35 a.m. on 28 February, and the last questioning during this interval took place about 5:00 a.m. on 28 February. He could not say whether defendant had any sleep or food during the night of 27 February. The Sheriff next questioned defendant at 1:55 p.m. on 28 February. At this time defendant's father was present, and defendant signed a waiver of his constitutional rights at the suggestion of his father. Prior to signing the waiver, defendant asked his father if he should answer questions, and the father on two occasions said that it was up to him and another time or two told his son that he had nothing to hide and should therefore talk to the Sheriff. After signing the waiver, defendant made statements implicating Alexander Hamilton and Randy Wesley and also to some degree incriminating himself in the murder of Watkins. Another interrogation took place at 7:50 p.m. on 28 February in the presence of Alexander Hamilton, Randy Wesley, Officers Hatcher, Simmons, Chambers, and the Sheriff. Following this interrogation defendant was charged with murder, and Hamilton and Wesley were released without being charged. On 1 March the Sheriff, together with Officers Hatcher and Pressley, questioned defendant for about an hour and a half concerning inconsistencies in his previous statements.

On 2 March defendant was again questioned and at that time told the Sheriff where he could find the murder weapon. Search for the weapon was made to no avail.

On the night of 2 March about 7:00 p.m. defendant's mother and father were allowed to talk to him, and after they had talked with him for about thirty minutes, defendant's mother told the Sheriff that defendant wanted to make a statement. On this occasion, in addition to the Sheriff, Officers Pressley, Hatcher, and defendant's mother and father were present. The Sheriff again advised defendant that he had a right to remain silent, that anything that he said could be used against him in a court of law, that he had a right to have an attorney present during any questioning, and that he did not have to answer any question until he talked to his attorney. In addition, the Sheriff stated that he read defendant's rights to him and that defendant signed a waiver of his constitutional rights, including waiver of counsel, before making any statement. The Sheriff denied that he ever told defendant that it might be easier on him if he confessed or that he would recommend the death penalty if defendant did not tell the truth. He said that at the time defendant seemed remorseful and was crying part of the time.

Dorothy Thompson, defendant's mother, testified that when she talked to her son on 2 March, he told her that the Sheriff had told him that if defendant didn't tell the truth, the Sheriff would recommend the death penalty. At that time her son was very upset and was crying and trembling. Upon her inquiry the Sheriff told her that he told the defendant about the death penalty 'to get him to tell the truth because he (the Sheriff) had been on so many wild goose chases.' She gave testimony which indicated that defendant was mentally and emotionally unstable. She was present when defendant made his statements on 2 March, and, according to her testimony, the Sheriff on several occasions suggested details to which defendant consented. She admitted that defendant told her that he killed Watkins, but only after the Sheriff had mentioned the death penalty to him.

Forrest Thompson, defendant's father, testified that, prior to arriving at the Sheriff's Department on 27 February, he asked defendant whether he had killed Watkins, and defendant had replied in the negative. At the initial questioning, defendant at first refused to sign a waiver of rights, but he, the father, told him to go ahead and sign it. The witness stated that he so advised his son because 'I felt like if he didn't kill the man, he could go ahead and talk to them freely.' It was his opinion that had he not told his son to sign the waiver, the boy would not have signed it. The father was in the police station at that time as an officer of a municipality in Rutherford County, and if he had not been a policeman, he would have told his son not to say a word. With regard to the length of interrogation, the witness testified:

I brought him to the jail somewhere around 3:15 to 3:30 and I left the jail at approximately 5:00 a.m. the next morning on the 28th. I stayed at the jail because Charles was in the Sheriff's office being interrogated continuously from 3:30 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. the next morning. He never told the Sheriff that he had killed the deceased but he remained in the Sheriff's office all this time. He was placed in a cell at approximately 4:30 or a quarter to five, in fact the Sheriff never put him under arrest until about 2:00 a.m., no warrant was issued for him but the Sheriff kept telling him I've got papers to put you in the jailhouse right now but he never produced those papers until about 2:00 a.m. The papers were for violation of probation and it was a telegram that he had received that gave him the authority to pick Charles up.

* * *

* * *

During the time I was at the jail he did not have anything to eat and I left about five a.m., none of us had anything to eat. There were quite a few men interrogating him, Sheriff Yelton, Earl Hatcher, Charles Chambers and Johnny Wilkins all interrogated him. I was not present during all of the interrogation. The room where the interrogation took place was an eight by ten room, everyone was sitting down at a table, there was no windows in the room.

During the interrogation he didn't appear nervous until over in the morning, then he got real nervous. After I left at 5:00 a.m. the next time I returned to the jail was about noon on the 28th and when I got to the jail he was in the Sheriff's office, but I don't recall who was in there with him. When I went in he appeared nervous and he was sleepy then because he said he didn't go to bed until after he eat (sic) breakfast that morning and this was a little after noon then.

The witness further testified that he himself, at the direction of the Sheriff, arrested Alexander Hamilton, whom defendant first implicated in the criminal act. This individual was later released when it appeared that he had nothing to do with the crime. The father also stated that his son made five confessions in reference to this case, all of which statements were reduced to writing by the Sheriff. He said that two of the confessions were taped and that during these taped sessions, 'the Sheriff would ask Charles about it and go over it and if Charles wouldn't say anything about it the Sheriff would go back until he got it down to just where he wanted it. He would get it down to where he wanted it and then say let's tape it. On one occasion Charles refused to tape it, but I myself asked him to go ahead and tape it. . . .'

I did not tell him to sign all of the waivers, I told him to sign the first one, and...

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    ...These findings in turn support the trial court's conclusions of law and ruling denying the motion to suppress. State v. Thompson, 287 N.C. 303, 214 S.E.2d 742 (1975), death penalty vacated, 428 U.S. 908, 96 S.Ct. 3215, 49 L.Ed.2d 1213 Finally, we have previously held unpersuasive Carraway's......
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