State v. Upchurch

• Decision Date: 01 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. 89A90,89A90
• Citation: State v. Upchurch, 332 N.C. 439, 421 S.E.2d 577 (N.C. 1992)
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. James Bartlett UPCHURCH, III.

Page 577

421 S.E.2d 577

332 N.C. 439

STATE of North Carolina v. James Bartlett UPCHURCH, III.

No. 89A90.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Oct. 1, 1992.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Steven F. Bryant, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Staples Hughes, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

LAKE, Justice.

Defendant was indicted for the murder of Leith Peter Von Stein and was tried capitally at the 2 January 1990 Special Criminal Session of Superior Court, Pasquotank County. The jury found defendant guilty of first-degree murder on the theory of premeditation and deliberation. Following a sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the murder conviction, and on 30 January 1990, the trial court sentenced defendant to death in accordance with the jury's recommendation. Defendant also was sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree burglary, twenty years for felonious assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and six years for felonious larceny and conspiracy to commit murder, all to run consecutively. We find no prejudicial error in the guilt phase of defendant's trial, but conclude that defendant is entitled to a new sentencing hearing under McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U.S. 433, 110 S.Ct. 1227, 108 L.Ed.2d 369, on remand, 327 N.C. 31, 394 S.E.2d 426 (1990).

The evidence presented by the State at trial tended to show that on 25 July 1988, Bonnie Bates Von Stein was residing in Washington, North Carolina, at 110 Lawson Road, with her husband, Leith Peter Von Stein, and her two children from a previous marriage, Chris and Angela Pritchard. Mr. and Mrs. Von Stein were married in 1979 when the children were preteens. According to Mrs. Von Stein, the children had a good relationship with her husband.

In 1987, Mr. Von Stein's parents, who operated a family dry cleaning business in Winston-Salem, died and left Von Stein approximately $1,000,000. Von Stein had a $700,000 life insurance policy on his own life, with his wife as beneficiary and her children as contingent beneficiaries. Upon Leith Von Stein's death, $600,000 of the million-dollar inheritance from his parents was to fund a trust for the benefit of the children. The balance was to fund a spousal trust for the benefit of Mrs. Von Stein. Upon her death, the spousal trust fund was to go to the children's trust fund. The corpus of the children's trust was to be distributed when Angela Pritchard turned thirty-five years old. The children were aware of the inheritance, but were unaware of the mechanics of the trust.

Chris Pritchard graduated from high school in June 1987 and enrolled at North Carolina State University in August for the fall semester. His first semester grades were fair and during the spring semester of 1988, his grades declined.

Between the spring semester and the first session of summer school, Chris Pritchard noticed a sign posted in his dorm with information about the game Dungeons and Dragons. The sign listed a room number for interested persons. Pritchard went to the room and met Neal Henderson and the defendant. The three decided to play the game on a regular basis. Pritchard first learned to play the game when he was twelve years old. Pritchard and the defendant would also drink beer and smoke marijuana together.

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game in which people create their own world of characters. Pritchard, Henderson and the defendant played the game based on the sword and sorcery theme of medieval times. The general classes of characters included bards, magic users, thieves and fighters.

Early during the first session of summer school in 1988, Chris Pritchard returned home to Washington for a brief visit. Mr. Von Stein and Chris argued over Chris' academic performance, with the two almost engaging in a physical fight. During dinner, Von Stein again challenged Chris to a fight, but Chris refused. Following the confrontation, Mr. and Mrs. Von Stein agreed that she should be the one to discipline the children. For the remainder of the first summer session, Chris did not return home, and the Von Steins continued to pay for his education and to provide him with $50 a week in spending money. When Chris failed to welcome his sister when she drove to Raleigh for a prearranged visit on the July 4th weekend, and Bonnie Von Stein could not reach him by phone for two days, Mrs. Von Stein filed a missing person report. Later, when Chris did call, Mrs. Von Stein asked him to begin keeping an account of how he was spending his money. Chris also enrolled for the second session of summer school.

On Wednesday, 20 July 1988, while they were in summer school, Pritchard and defendant discussed the subject of what would happen if Pritchard's parents were dead. Pritchard told defendant that if anything happened to his parents, he would assist defendant in opening his own restaurant and they could live in a big house in North Raleigh and drive fine cars. At this time, Pritchard ostensibly was not serious about the proposals. The next day, Pritchard spoke seriously with defendant for the first time about killing his parents for their money. Pritchard was aware that his stepfather had inherited over a million dollars and told the defendant that his parents were millionaires.

Pritchard and the defendant decided to start a fuse-box fire at the Von Stein house that Saturday and to put crushed sleeping pills in the Von Steins' food so that they would sleep through the fire. They planned to crush a fuse and put it in the fuse box to make it look like an accident. When defendant asked about the possibility of Angela Pritchard being present in the house, Chris Pritchard said, "Well, if she is there, then I guess her, too; but if she is not, that's fine too."

According to the plan, Pritchard went home on Friday, 22 July. On Saturday morning he told his parents he was leaving to go see some friends. Instead, Pritchard drove to Raleigh to pick up the defendant. In Raleigh, the defendant gave Pritchard a package of crushed sleeping pills. The two of them drove back to Washington that afternoon. Pritchard dropped defendant off at a location away from the house where defendant was to wait until Pritchard returned. Pritchard then went home and prepared hamburgers for the family lacing the food with the sleeping pills. After dinner, Pritchard told his family he was returning to Raleigh. After leaving his parents' home, Pritchard drove back to where defendant was staying. The two of them tried unsuccessfully to crush a fuse. Defendant told Pritchard the plan would not work so they returned to Raleigh. The defendant's new plan was to chop off the Von Steins' heads. The defendant wanted to purchase a machete, but no Army surplus stores were open.

The next day, defendant and Pritchard bought a hunting knife at a K-Mart in Raleigh. The new plan involved Neal Henderson driving the defendant to Washington. Chris Pritchard would stay in Raleigh to establish his alibi. Henderson needed to drive Pritchard's 1965 Mustang because defendant did not have a driver's license. If defendant was stopped while driving the Mustang without a license, then the murder could be traced back to Pritchard. The defendant was to commit the murders so that it would look like a burglary. Defendant planned to use the hunting knife and a baseball bat to carry out the murders. Henderson would wait and drive defendant back to Raleigh. To make it look like a burglary, defendant would steal some items of personal property from the house. Pritchard told the defendant where his mother always kept her purse in the kitchen and where she kept money in the bedroom. Henderson said it sounded fine to him, but it was agreed that Henderson and defendant would further discuss it.

While at Henderson's apartment, Pritchard drew a floor plan of his home for defendant and a map of his neighborhood. Both Henderson and defendant were present. Defendant was to receive $50,000 and a Porsche for his part in the plan and Henderson was to receive $50,000 and a Ferrari. Pritchard promised defendant and Henderson the money would come from his inheritance.

On Sunday night, 24 July, Henderson arrived at the campus parking lot where he had agreed to meet the defendant. Defendant was standing by some trees and had with him a green backpack, a baseball bat, black tennis shoes and dark clothing, which included a ski mask. They arrived in Washington around 2:30 a.m. and, after locating the house, they drove around for a short while until defendant told Henderson to park the car. Defendant told Henderson to wait for him to return and that he would be back in thirty minutes.

That evening, the Von Steins had gone out to dinner. Mr. Von Stein went to bed upon returning home. At about 11:00 p.m., after checking on the many cats and her rooster, and making sure that the front and rear doors were locked, Mrs. Von Stein went upstairs to join her husband in their bedroom. She closed the door to their bedroom because their daughter was playing her radio and had a large fan running. After reading in bed, Mrs. Von Stein went to sleep around midnight.

Mrs. Von Stein was suddenly awakened by the sound of her husband's screams. Although there was much confusion, she was aware of an intruder standing at the foot of their bed. Her husband was making a series of short, piercing screams. Mrs. Von Stein reached out her hand to her husband, but was struck by some type of weapon which fractured her thumb. As Mr. Von Stein continued to scream, the intruder continued to strike both of them. She saw her husband being hit with a weapon, and then she was struck repeatedly in the head until she lost consciousness.

Momentarily regaining consciousness, Mrs. Von Stein observed the intruder standing near her feet. Again, the person struck her with an object as she was lying on the floor. She...