State v. Wiley

• Decision Date: 28 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 100A01.,100A01.
• Citation: 565 S.E.2d 22
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Keith Dedrick WILEY.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

565 S.E.2d 22

STATE of North Carolina v. Keith Dedrick WILEY.

No. 100A01.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 28, 2002.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Robert C. Montgomery, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Margaret Creasy Ciardella, Wrightsville Beach, for defendant-appellant.

MARTIN, Justice.

On 3 November 1997 Keith Dedrick Wiley (defendant) was indicted for the first-degree murder of George Richard "Richie" Futrelle, II (Futrelle or the victim). Defendant was tried capitally at the 10 May 1999 session of Superior Court, New Hanover County, and on 25 May 1999, the jury found defendant guilty of first-degree murder based on malice, premeditation, and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction, and the trial court entered judgment in accordance with that recommendation. The trial court also entered consecutive sentences of 116 to 149 months for first-degree kidnapping and 103 to 133 months for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Defendant gave notice of appeal.

The state's evidence at trial tended to show the following: On 18 October 1997, fourteen-year-old Alicia Doster ran away from home to live with defendant and another male named Justin Pallas in an abandoned house located at 440 Morning Glory Drive in Wilmington. On the morning of 20 October 1997, Doster heard defendant say he was going to kill Richie Futrelle because Futrelle owed him twenty or twenty-five dollars for cocaine snorted the previous night. Defendant later explained to Doster and Pallas that he planned to kill Futrelle whether or not Futrelle had the money owed to defendant. Doster testified that Pallas asked Futrelle to come to the abandoned house. Defendant told Doster that his plan to kill Futrelle was as follows: Defendant and Pallas were to beat Futrelle after he sat down on the bed in a back bedroom, and then Doster was to give defendant and Pallas some cables to tie Futrelle up.

When the victim arrived at the abandoned house, defendant hit Futrelle in the head with a juice bottle. Futrelle fell to the floor, whereupon defendant and Pallas kicked and beat him. Defendant and Pallas took the victim's wallet, and defendant placed it in his jeans. Doster and Pallas then gagged the victim with a bandanna and hog-tied his hands and feet with the cables.

Defendant and Pallas then put the victim-still bound and gagged?€”into the trunk of the car in which he had arrived. The victim repeatedly banged on the trunk and called out for help. In response, Pallas turned up the radio, and defendant commented on the song playing, saying, "this is the shit."

They drove to a remote area off Murrayville Road. When they opened the trunk, they saw that Futrelle had freed himself from the cables and was trying to get up. They removed him from the trunk and forced him to his knees so they could tie him up again. Doster gagged Futrelle while defendant and Pallas tied his hands behind his back and bound his feet so he could barely walk. As Doster followed behind with the gun, defendant and Pallas led Futrelle to a ditch filled with water and laid him on his back. Futrelle freed himself and tried to run, screaming, "no, man, no, don't do it." Defendant fired the gun at Futrelle, handed the gun to Pallas, and told him to "finish him off." Pallas then shot Futrelle twice.

Defendant, Pallas, and Doster then drove to the residence of John Mullins. En route, defendant and Pallas discussed how they shot Futrelle. Upon their arrival, defendant and Pallas told Mullins how they had killed Futrelle. Defendant told Doster to dispose of the victim's wallet, which Doster did. Defendant and Pallas returned to the victim's car and wiped it down to clean it. En route, they ran into friends Brian Jacobs and Jeremy Joesting, to whom they described the killing.

Deputy Carlton Floyd and Detective Kevin Foss of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department went to the abandoned house around 3:00 p.m. the same day searching for Doster and Doster's car, which she had taken from her mother. They saw that the house was in disarray, and they found the car behind the house. Inside the house, they found a sawed-off .410 shotgun, a jacket, and some tools. The detectives, at that time unaware of Futrelle's murder, went to Mullins' house. When Mullins arrived at the door, Detective Floyd and other officers entered the residence and apprehended Doster and Pallas. Upon patting down Pallas, Detective Floyd found a box of .410 shotgun shells in his right pants pocket. Officers found a twelve-gauge shotgun, knives, and drug paraphernalia in the house. Defendant, Pallas, Doster, and Mullins were arrested, handcuffed, and transported to the Sheriff's Department for processing on various charges. During the booking process at the jail, Pallas took the victim's car keys out of his pocket and put them on the floor, where they were discovered by a jailer.

On 21 October 1997, Futrelle's mother called the police to report that her son was missing. On 23 October 1997, hunters contacted police about a body in a ditch off Murrayville Road. Deputy B.E. Parker and other officers from the Sheriff's Department went to the scene and observed the body of a man face-down in shallow water with his feet bound. Crime scene investigator Larry Hines observed three wounds, two on the back and one in the arm. The victim's feet were bound with a belt and cord, but the hands were not tied. Hines found tied cord about seven feet from the body. Officers also found plastic wadding from a shotgun shell when the body was rolled over and found another piece of wadding nearby.

Jim Gregory, special agent and forensic chemist with the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), examined the cords and cables and determined that those found on Futrelle's body matched those recovered at the abandoned house.

An autopsy of Futrelle's body, performed by Onslow Memorial Hospital pathologist Dr. John Almeida, revealed a large, gaping gunshot wound in the right arm above the elbow, with an entrance in the front and an exit in the back. Dr. Almeida testified that this wound would have been painful but not fatal. The body also had a shotgun wound on the left thigh, two pellet wounds to the chest, and shotgun wounds to the back and buttock area. The slug to the victim's thigh broke his hip and would have been very painful but only fatal if left untreated. The buckshot in the victim's back, which ripped through his left lung and ruptured his aorta, also would have been very painful and immediately fatal. The slug to the victim's buttock damaged his kidney and partially ruptured the left lobe of his liver, which would have been excrutiatingly painful and would have caused death in five to ten minutes. Dr. Almeida testified that the cause of death was multiple shotgun wounds.

On 23 October 1997, Deputy Floyd learned that Futrelle wore a white baseball cap and recalled that he had seen a white baseball cap at the abandoned house. Deputy Floyd went to visit Doster at her mother's home, but Doster said she knew nothing about Futrelle's death. On 26 October 1997, Doster went to the Sheriff's Department for an interview. While at the Sheriff's Department, Doster told officers that she was the one who had tied up Futrelle, had put him in the trunk, and had driven to the Murrayville Road location. She said that she did not see who shot Futrelle and that she did not know where his car was taken. She later testified that she did not tell the truth at the Sheriff's Department because she was scared and wanted to protect defendant and Pallas, whom she believed would get into more trouble than she would as a juvenile.

After Doster talked with officers at the Sheriff's Department on 26 October, Investigator Mike Sorg transported her to the juvenile service center. While en route to the center, Doster told Sorg that she felt bad about what had happened and that she had taken credit for something she did not do. Doster took Sorg to the area where defendant and Pallas had left Futrelle's car, and the next day, Sorg found the car in the woods. Deputy Hines examined the car and the surrounding area, and found a cord, a dishcloth, and an ashtray. No usable fingerprints were found on the car.

Eugene Bishop, SBI special agent assigned to the firearm and tool mark section, performed tests on the twelve-gauge shotgun. The tests showed that the shotgun was fired less than two feet from Futrelle's back. The wound in Futrelle's arm was consistent with having been caused by a shot from less than two feet away.

Charles Brown, an inmate housed in the same cell as defendant, informed investigators that defendant stated that he had killed a man because he was angry about a drug debt. Defendant said he shot the victim with a sawed-off shotgun once in the arm and once in the leg, causing the victim to fall into a ditch. Defendant said he handed the gun to another man, who went into the ditch and shot the victim.

Defendant presented no evidence in the guilt phase of the trial. Additional facts are provided as necessary below.

PRETRIAL AND JURY SELECTION ISSUES

Defendant argues that the trial court committed reversible error by denying his motion to suppress a letter intercepted by jail personnel. The letter contained the word "alibi" and listed various dates, times, and information concerning defendant's whereabouts and activities. The state used the letter during its case-in-chief as evidence tending to show that defendant was attempting to manufacture an alibi.

Evidence presented on voir dire showed that defendant had asked personnel at the New Hanover County jail to give an unsealed letter to defendant's father, who had visited defendant and who was still in the waiting room. In accordance with jail policy for incoming and outgoing mail without the words "legal mail" written on them and not addressed to an attorney,...