State v. Wilds

• Decision Date: 18 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. COA98-797.,COA98-797.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Curtis Eugene WILDS.

515 S.E.2d 466

133 NC App. 195

STATE of North Carolina v. Curtis Eugene WILDS.

No. COA98-797.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

May 18, 1999.

Attorney General Michael F. Easley, by Assistant Attorney General Dennis P. Myers, for the State.

White & Crumpler, by David B. Freedman, Dudley A. Witt, and Laurie A. Schlossberg, Winston-Salem, and Causey & Nixon, L.L.P., by William G. Causey, Jr. and Alec Carpenter, High Point, for defendant-appellant.

EAGLES, Chief Judge.

We first determine whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied defendant's request for a pre-trial, so-called Watson hearing to determine whether the evidence was sufficient for the case to proceed to trial as a capital case. See State v. Watson, 310 N.C. 384, 312 S.E.2d 448 (1984)

. The trial court refused to hold a pre-trial hearing on the basis that "premature evidence might come out during the case itself to support an aggravating factor that was not brought out at the Watson hearing." Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to offer a "sustainable reason for denying the defendant's motion." Defendant further contends that the trial court's failure to conduct a Watson hearing resulted in a trial of defendant before a death-qualified jury in violation of his constitutional right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury.

Defendant's argument fails. Defendant bases his argument for a pre-trial hearing on State v. Watson, 310 N.C. 384, 312 S.E.2d 448 (1984). In Watson, the trial court held a pre-trial hearing to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to support the submission of an aggravating factor to the jury. Id. at 388, 312 S.E.2d at 452. The Watson Court "commend[ed]" the procedure for "its judicial economy and administrative efficiency." Id. However, it is clearly within the broad discretion of the trial court to hold a pre-trial hearing, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion here. Furthermore, our courts have uniformly rejected the argument that "death-qualifying" a jury deprives a defendant of his constitutional right to a free trial. See, e.g., State v. Young, 312 N.C. 669, 686, 325 S.E.2d 181, 191 (1985)

. Finally, we note that, although the trial was held before a "death-qualified" jury, the jury found that mitigating circumstances outweighed the aggravating circumstances and recommended a life sentence rather than death. Accordingly, defendant has failed to show that he was prejudiced in any way by the trial court's refusal to hold a Watson hearing. Defendant's assignment of error is overruled.

Defendant next contends that the evidence was insufficient to support a first-degree murder conviction. Defendant contends that "other than unreliable and inadmissible hearsay, no evidence was presented to indicate that the defendant had at any time formed the specific intent to kill his wife or that he did so in a cool state of mind in furtherance of any plan or design. The defendant's evidence ... tended to show that the victim initiated the violent conduct ... by being the first to pick up a knife." We disagree. "First-degree murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice, premeditation and deliberation." State v. Misenheimer, 304 N.C. 108, 113, 282 S.E.2d 791, 795 (1981). "Malice," which can be express or implied, is not necessarily "hatred or ill will," but rather "is an intentional taking of the life of another without just cause, excuse or justification." State v. Robbins, 309 N.C. 771, 775, 309 S.E.2d 188, 190 (1983). "Premeditation" occurs when the defendant forms the specific intent to kill some period of time, however short, before the actual killing. State v. Weathers, 339 N.C. 441, 451, 451 S.E.2d 266, 271 (1994). "Deliberation" is when the intent to kill is formed while the defendant is in a cool state of blood rather than under the influence of a violent passion suddenly aroused by sufficient provocation. Id. at 451, 451 S.E.2d at 271-72.

In order for the trial court to submit a charge of first degree murder to the jury, there must have been substantial evidence presented from which a jury could determine that the defendant intentionally [ ] killed the victim with malice, premeditation and deliberation. "Substantial evidence" is that amount of relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as sufficient to support a conclusion. In ruling upon defendant's motion to dismiss on the grounds of insufficient evidence, the trial court is required to interpret the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, drawing all reasonable inferences in the State's favor.

State v. Corn, 303 N.C. 293, 296-97, 278 S.E.2d 221, 223 (1981) (citations omitted). Because premeditation and deliberation ordinarily are not susceptible of proof by direct evidence, the State generally must establish them by circumstantial evidence. Weathers, 339 N.C. at 451, 451 S.E.2d at 271. Examples of circumstances that may raise an inference of premeditation and deliberation include (1) "conduct and statements of the defendant before and after the killing," (2) "threats made against the victim by the defendant, ill will or previous difficulty between the parties," and (3) "evidence that the killing was done in a brutal manner." State v. Bullard, 312 N.C. 129, 161, 322 S.E.2d 370, 388 (1984).

Here, the State presented testimony by defendant's daughter China Wilds that on the morning of the killing defendant seemed "pretty angry" and "got up and went over there and got the knife while [Tonya] was looking down ironing her clothes and that was when he put [the knife] behind his back." China further testified that defendant then "put [the knife] around [Tonya's] neck and then pushed her down on the floor." China testified that the struggle moved to the living room, where [defendant] "was over there stabbing her." China further testified that Tonya did not pick up a knife or otherwise attack defendant before he began stabbing her. Furthermore, the State also introduced into evidence the 911 call that China Wilds made, in which she told dispatchers that "Curtis Wilds is trying to kill Tonya Wilds."

At trial, forensic pathologist John D. Butts, M.D., testified that when he performed an autopsy on Tonya's body, he found "a number of stab cutting injuries present on her body" that were "centered mostly around the face and neck region, [and] she had cuts on her hands, both hands, as well as a few minor cuts and scratches on her right upper arm." Dr. Butts described the wounds on Tonya's hands as "defensive wounds."

The State also introduced testimony by witnesses stating that defendant had threatened to kill Tonya in the weeks before he killed her. Tonya's sister Candi Crawford testified that in the two weeks before Tonya's death, defendant told Candi twice that "[s]omebody has to die." Furthermore, Tonya's mother, Joan Crawford, testified that defendant told her the week before Tonya died that Tonya would end up like another woman who had been murdered by her spouse two months earlier.

After careful review of the record and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and allowing the State every reasonable inference, we conclude that the State offered substantial evidence from which the jury could determine that the defendant intentionally killed Tonya with malice, premeditation, and deliberation. This assignment of error is overruled.

Defendant next contends that the trial court erred when it submitted to the jury the aggravating factor that the killing was especially "heinous, atrocious, or cruel." Defendant contends that the killing did not rise to the level of "heinous, atrocious, or cruel." We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the trial court's finding that the multiple stabbings of Tonya, while in the presence of defendant's and Tonya's children, were especially "heinous, atrocious, or cruel." See State v. Evans, 120 N.C.App. 752, 463 S.E.2d 830 (1995),

cert. denied,

343 N.C. 310, 471 S.E.2d 78 (1996). Even if the evidence had not been sufficient, defendant was not prejudiced by the submission because the jury answered that the mitigating circumstances outweighed the aggravating circumstances and recommended life imprisonment. State v. Green, 321 N.C. 594, 612, 365 S.E.2d 587, 598,

cert. denied, 488 U.S. 900, 109 S.Ct. 247, 102 L.Ed.2d 235 (1988). This assignment of error is overruled.

We next determine whether the trial court erred when it introduced evidence of defendant's 1986 conviction for assault on a female and injury to personal property pursuant to Rule 404(b) to show intent, ill will, and malice. At trial, a security officer from Community General Hospital testified that on 11 January 1986, he was summoned to one of the hospital's locker rooms, where defendant "had one hand around [Tonya's] throat and he was propped up with the other one against her." The security officer testified that after he persuaded defendant to turn Tonya loose, defendant then became angry and "he and I got into it after that" and "we knocked a few pictures off the wall...." The security officer further testified that police officers arrived and arrested defendant. Defendant was convicted of assault on a female and injury to personal property. The trial court admitted the conviction under Rule 404(b) on the theory that "it goes to show intent, ill will, and malice" and stated that the "probative value outweighs prejudicial effect."

G.S. 8C-1, Rule 404(b) provides:

(b) Other crimes, wrongs, or acts.—Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake, entrapment or accident.

G.S. 8C-1, Rule 404(b) (1992). Rule 404(b) is "a clear general rule of inclusion of relevant evidence of other...