State v. Walters

• Decision Date: 02 May 2003
• Docket Number: No. 548A00.,548A00.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina, v. Christina Shea WALTERS.

588 S.E.2d 344

357 N.C. 68

STATE of North Carolina, v. Christina Shea WALTERS.

No. 548A00.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

May 2, 2003.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Jill Ledford Cheek, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Andrea Michelle FormyDuval, Whiteville and Steven E. Williford, Myrtle Beach, SC, for defendant-appellant.

ORR, Justice.

Defendant, Christina Shea Walters, was indicted on 4 January 1999 for two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and robbery with a dangerous weapon, as well as one count each of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. In a second multicount indictment issued 25 January 1999, defendant was also indicted for attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, first-degree kidnapping, and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Defendant was tried capitally, and the jury found her guilty of all charges, specifically finding her guilty of both murders on the basis of premeditation and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for each of the murders, and the trial court entered judgments accordingly. The trial court also sentenced defendant to consecutive terms of imprisonment for each of the nine other felony convictions.

The State's evidence at trial tended to show that defendant was one of nine gang members who set out to steal a car on the evening of 16 August 1998. The gang members included defendant, Francisco Tirado, Eric Queen, John Juarbe, Ione Black, Tameika Douglas, Carlos Frink, Carlos Nevills, and Darryl Tucker. The gang members gathered at and then left from defendant's residence, a trailer at 1386 Davis Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina. All nine gang members were "Crips" but of varying subgroups called "sets."

The gang needed money, and the members decided they would steal a car, drive it into the window of a pawn shop, and steal the property in the pawn shop. Several gang members, including defendant, went to the local Wal-Mart to steal some toiletry items and clothing, and to buy bullets for the occasion. The bullets were taken to the Davis Street trailer, where Tirado painted the tips blue, the color identified with the "Crips" gang, with fingernail polish from defendant's bedroom.

Soon thereafter, defendant and an unidentified deaf black male who was not part of the gang drove Douglas, Black, and Nevills to a neighborhood location and dropped them off with instructions to find a victim to rob, to steal the victim's car, to put the victim in the trunk of the car, and then to return to defendant's trailer within an hour and a half. Defendant provided Nevills with a gun, and then she and the deaf black male drove away, leaving Douglas, Black, and Nevills.

The three gang members walked around looking for someone to rob, and at about 12:30 a.m. on Monday, 17 August, they spotted Debra Cheeseborough leaving the Bojangles where she was the manager. Douglas, Black, and Nevills abducted Cheeseborough at gunpoint and drove around in her car with her in the backseat for a period of time before they stopped the car and put her in the trunk, also robbing her of her jewelry and money. They returned to defendant's trailer, where the remainder of the gang gathered around the car while discussing what to do with Cheeseborough.

Thereafter, with Cheeseborough still in the trunk, defendant, Douglas, Frink, and Queen got into Cheeseborough's car and drove her to Smith Lake, a location on the Fort Bragg military base. Defendant told Cheeseborough to get down on one knee. Defendant attempted to fire the gun at Cheeseborough, but it jammed. Defendant said "hold up" and tried to unjam the gun. Defendant then raised the gun again, this time to the level of Cheeseborough's waist, and fired the bullet into Cheeseborough's right side. After the shot knocked Cheeseborough down onto her stomach, defendant shot her seven more times. The final shot went through Cheeseborough's glasses, grazed her eyelid, and hit her thumb. Cheeseborough pretended to be dead. She was discovered the next morning by a passerby and was subsequently taken to a hospital. Debra Cheeseborough testified that no one told defendant to shoot her, the gun jammed before any shots were fired, it was defendant who told her to go down on one knee, there was no break in the firing of the bullets sufficient for defendant to have handed the gun to any other person to shoot her, and it was defendant who shot her.

After defendant shot Cheeseborough and left her for dead, the gang members returned to defendant's trailer, where they concluded that they needed a second car. Tucker, Black, Queen, and defendant rode around in Cheeseborough's car, ultimately targeting a car driven by Susan Moore in which Tracy Lambert was a passenger. The gang trapped Moore's car at the end of a dead-end road, and defendant handed a gun to Tucker, telling him to "go do what you got to do." Defendant, Frink, and Queen then drove away in Cheeseborough's car after Queen directed Black, Tucker, and Douglas to be back at defendant's trailer in forty-five minutes.

Tucker and Douglas forced Moore and Lambert into the trunk at gunpoint, and then Black, Tucker, and Douglas returned to defendant's trailer with the women in the trunk. At one point during the drive, the car was stopped so that the gang members could open the trunk and rob the women of their jewelry.

Upon the return to defendant's trailer, the entire gang surrounded the car and discussed who would kill the women. Despite the women's pleas for mercy, the entire gang, half in Cheeseborough's car and half in Moore's car, drove to a location in Linden where the women were forced out of the trunk and executed, each by a blue-tipped bullet to the brain. Queen shot one of the women, and Tirado shot the other. The gang members once again returned to defendant's trailer.

After talking for awhile, the group split up, with instructions from Tirado to return by 3:30 p.m. Sometime around dawn, Frink called defendant with news that some bodies had been found. Seven members of the gang, including defendant, subsequently fled to Myrtle Beach using Moore's cell phone to place calls to defendant's trailer. Black and Nevills did not accompany the gang to Myrtle Beach.

On Tuesday, 18 August, Juarbe and Tucker were apprehended in Cheeseborough's car by Myrtle Beach police officers. On Wednesday, 19 August, defendant, Frink, Douglas, Queen, and Tirado were apprehended and arrested at the Bon Villa motel in Myrtle Beach in a room rented by defendant.

Additional facts will be presented as needed to discuss specific issues.

In defendant's first question presented before this Court, she contends that the trial court committed reversible error, or in the alternative plain error, in failing to order a change of venue or in failing to order a special venire, thereby depriving defendant of a fair and impartial trial in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

First, defendant did not move for change of venue prior to trial as required under N.C.G.S. § 15A-957. Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-952, a motion for change of venue must be made prior to trial, unless the trial court, in its discretion, permits the motion to be filed at a later time. Since defendant did not move for change of venue prior to trial, or at any subsequent time, she has failed to properly preserve this argument for appellate review. See N.C. R.App. P. 10(b)(1).

Next, defendant argues that the trial court erred by not ordering a special venire ex mero motu. N.C.G.S. § 15A-958 provides: "Upon motion of the defendant or the State, or on its own motion, a court may issue an order for a special venire of jurors from another county if in its discretion it determines the action to be necessary to insure a fair trial." N.C.G.S. § 15A-958 (2001). For the following reasons, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by not ordering a special venire.

Defendant claims that because of pretrial publicity, she was not able to receive a fair and impartial trial. She states that eight of the twelve jurors who were actually seated on the jury had obtained information relative to the case through the media. She also complains that jurors who were seated in the case heard from other prospective jurors during voir dire facts about the case and their feelings about the case based upon what they heard in the media.

However, each juror about whom defendant complains indicated that he or she would be fair and impartial and decide the case on the evidence that was presented. Also, the jurors indicated that they would disregard any information they heard or read prior to the trial. Furthermore, with regard to two of the jurors about whom defendant complains, defendant had no objection and specifically stated that these jurors were acceptable. After reading the transcripts and considering the arguments by the State and defendant, we are not persuaded that the pretrial publicity prevented defendant from receiving a fair trial from jurors in the county in which the case was tried. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by not ordering a special venire in this case. This assignment of error is overruled.

Defendant next contends that the short-form murder indictment violated her constitutional rights on the grounds that it failed to allege all the elements of first-degree murder. See Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999)

. However, this Court has repeatedly addressed and rejected this argument. See, e.g., State v. Braxton, 352 N.C. 158, 173-75, 531 S.E.2d 428, 437-38 (2000),

cert. denied, 531...