State v. Tyler

• Decision Date: 06 June 1997
• Docket Number: No. 11A96,11A96
• Citation: 485 S.E.2d 599,346 N.C. 187
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Stacey Anthony TYLER
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 599

485 S.E.2d 599

346 N.C. 187

STATE of North Carolina v. Stacey Anthony TYLER

No. 11A96.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 6, 1997.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by David F. Hoke, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Benjamin Sendor, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

FRYE, Justice.

In a capital trial, defendant, Stacey Anthony Tyler, was convicted by a jury of the first-degree murder of Mary Jennings Fleetwood. In a capital sentencing proceeding conducted pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended and the trial court imposed a sentence of death. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that defendant's trial and capital sentencing proceeding were free of prejudicial error and that the death sentence is not disproportionate. Accordingly, we uphold defendant's conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death.

The State's evidence presented at trial tended to show the following facts and circumstances. On numerous occasions, prior to and on 5 November 1993, defendant physically and emotionally abused and battered his girlfriend, Mary Jennings Fleetwood (Fleetwood). Several witnesses testified that this abuse included defendant's holding Fleetwood by the hair and hitting her in the face with his fist, throwing the full weight of his body on her, kicking her, yelling at her, calling her names, and threatening to kill her. Approximately six months prior to Fleetwood's death-causing injuries, Fleetwood threatened to call the police and have defendant removed from her home. Defendant told Fleetwood that when she got ready "to go to work in the morning that she better take her clothes and take her children and that they better take their clothes, that he was going to burn the trailer down and said if they are in the trailer, he was going to burn their m----- f a--up in the trailer too." On 5 November 1993, defendant carried out his threat when he poured gasoline on Fleetwood, set her on fire with a match, and watched her burn. Seventy-five percent of Fleetwood's skin was burned off her body. She was transported to a burn-trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, where she died fifteen days later.

Defendant did not testify and did not present any evidence at trial.

The trial court denied defendant's motion to dismiss made at the close of the State's evidence. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder.

At defendant's capital sentencing proceeding, defendant presented evidence tending to show that he had worked for two years unloading produce trucks and that he had been a good employee. Defendant had been a confidential informant on drug activity for the Murfreesboro Police Department and had provided reliable information on four drug cases. Defendant also presented the testimony of Jean Stacy (Stacy), a nurse and a certified emergency medical technician who assisted in taking Fleetwood to the hospital. Stacy testified that Fleetwood did not want to go to the hospital on 5 November 1993 and that she did not mention any pain. She also testified that defendant had been burned on one or both arms. Further, defendant presented testimony tending to show that he had an alcohol-abuse problem.

Defendant testified at the capital sentencing proceeding that he was teased as a child for his stuttering problem and because he was poor. His high-school years were difficult because his mother had died and he had been very close to her. He left high school due to depression over her death. He worked as a laborer and later worked unloading produce trucks. Defendant testified that he had adjusted to incarceration and that he had not been punished for any infractions while in prison. His only prior convictions were for driving while impaired. Defendant also testified that he had become a Christian while in prison.

Defendant denied throwing gasoline on Fleetwood, hitting her, throwing his full body weight on her, calling her names, and threatening to kill her. Defendant testified that he pushed Fleetwood out the back of the trailer when she was on fire and that he helped her inside to the bathtub and turned on the water. Defendant admitted that Fleetwood had attempted to convince him to leave the trailer on several occasions, but he denied threatening to burn the trailer.

At the capital sentencing proceeding, the sole aggravating circumstance submitted to and found by the jury was that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(9) (Supp.1996). The jury considered the following statutory mitigating circumstances, rejecting all but the first: (1) defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(f)(1); (2) defendant's capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(f)(6); (3) defendant's age at the time of this offense is a mitigating circumstance, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(f)(7); and (4) the catchall mitigating circumstance, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(f)(9). The jury also considered twenty-one nonstatutory mitigating circumstances, finding six to exist. The jury unanimously found that the mitigating circumstances were insufficient to outweigh the aggravating circumstance and that the aggravating circumstance was sufficiently substantial to call for imposition of the death penalty when considered with the mitigating circumstances found by one or more of the jurors. Accordingly, the jury unanimously recommended and the trial court imposed a sentence of death. Defendant appeals to this Court as of right from the sentence of death, making twelve arguments based on twenty-one assignments of error.

Defendant's most serious challenge to his conviction relates to the admission of evidence under the residual or "catchall" exception to the hearsay rule. By six assignments of error, defendant contends that the trial court violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and under North Carolina law by admitting, under the residual exception to the hearsay rule, evidence concerning the victim's incriminating responses to questions asked by a nurse, Donna Rosenfeld. Defendant argues that the trial court erred in admitting Rosenfeld's testimony regarding out-of-court statements made by the victim prior to her death in which she identified defendant as the person who poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. Defendant claims that the circumstances surrounding the statements did not have sufficient guarantees of trustworthiness and that the trial court made improper findings in its determination of trustworthiness. Defendant contends that the trial court relied upon testimony by other witnesses about events leading up to the burning and about previous alleged wrongdoing by defendant in order to find circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, rather than on the inherent trustworthiness of the victim's nonverbal responses to questions.

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 801(c) (1992). "Hearsay testimony is not admissible except as provided by statute or by the North Carolina Rules of Evidence." State v. Wilson, 322 N.C. 117, 131-32, 367 S.E.2d 589, 597 (1988). Rule 804(b)(5) of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence provides for the admission of a hearsay statement when the declarant is unavailable and the statement is not covered by any specific exception but is determined to have "equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness." N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 804(b)(5) (1992); see State v. Chapman, 342 N.C. 330, 341-42, 464 S.E.2d 661, 667 (1995) (trial court properly admitted statement under Rule 804(b)(5)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 2560, 135 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1996); State v. Daughtry, 340 N.C. 488, 513-14, 459 S.E.2d 747, 759-60 (1995) (the trial court did not err by allowing, under Rule 804(b)(5), testimony about statements the victim made and a letter she purportedly wrote to defendant), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 789, 133 L.Ed.2d 739 (1996); State v. Brown, 339 N.C. 426, 435-39, 451 S.E.2d 181, 187-89 (1994) (trial court did not err by admitting two out-of-court statements of the victim's wife under Rule 804(b)(5)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 90, 133 L.Ed.2d 46 (1995).

"In State v. Triplett, 316 N.C. 1, 340 S.E.2d 736 (1986), this Court articulated the guidelines for admission of hearsay testimony under Rule 804(b)(5)." State v. Peterson, 337 N.C. 384, 391, 446 S.E.2d 43, 48 (1994). In Triplett, this Court said that a trial court must consider the following factors in determining whether a hearsay statement sought to be admitted under Rule 804(b)(5) is trustworthy: (1) whether the declarant had personal knowledge of the underlying events, (2) the declarant's motivation to speak the truth or otherwise, (3) whether the declarant has ever recanted the statement, and (4) the practical availability of the declarant at trial for meaningful cross-examination. Triplett, 316 N.C. at 10-11, 340 S.E.2d at 742.

In the instant case, before witnesses were allowed to testify as to the victim's statements that defendant poured gasoline on her and set her on fire with a match, the trial court conducted a hearing on the admissibility of the statements. Following that hearing, the trial court concluded that this evidence fell within the residual hearsay exception of Rule 804(b)(5). In determining that the victim's hearsay statements possessed the necessary circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness to allow their admission, the trial court made the following pertinent findings of fact:

1. That the declarant, Mary Jennings Fleetwood, is unavailable as defined in N.C.G.S. section 804(A)4. And that the declarant is now deceased.

2. That the...