State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 27 January 1992
• Docket Number: No. 384A91,384A91
• Citation: 330 N.C. 711,412 S.E.2d 359
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Waverly WILLIAMS.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 359

412 S.E.2d 359

330 N.C. 711

STATE of North Carolina v. Waverly WILLIAMS.

No. 384A91.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Jan. 27, 1992.

Appeal of right by defendant pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a) from a judgment imposing a sentence of life imprisonment entered by Hobgood, J., at the 7 May 1990 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Vance County, upon a jury verdict finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Heard in the Supreme Court 12 December 1991.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Valerie B. Spalding, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Daniel R. Pollitt, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Defendant was tried on an indictment charging him with the first-degree murder of Marcelleta (Marcie) Youlande Williams. In a noncapital trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment.

Defendant and the victim, Marcie Williams, were first cousins and members of a close family, some members of which lived in New York City and some in Henderson, North Carolina. In the fall of 1988, defendant occupied a room in the trailer of his and Marcie's mutual aunt, Sharon Williams, in Henderson. When Marcie graduated from college in December 1988, defendant moved out of the room and into the home of another aunt, Carolyn Williams, and Marcie moved into the trailer of Sharon Williams. On the afternoon of 19 January 1989, Marcie was found shot to death in the living room of the trailer. She sustained a shot to the top of her head and a patterned bruise on her face and forehead, consistent with an impact from ridged boots.

Defendant was arrested for first-degree murder two months later. At trial, the State's case rested almost exclusively on the testimony of William Carroll, who was also charged with the murder. Carroll testified for the State pursuant to an agreement under which he received a ten-year sentence in return for pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against defendant. At trial, Carroll admitted that he was afraid of serving a life sentence and had heard that ten years can mean less in actual time served. According to Carroll, he witnessed a fight between defendant and Marcie over some cocaine about 9:30 a.m. on the day of the murder, which resulted in defendant's shooting Marcie in the head with Carroll's father's shotgun.

While defendant presented alibi witnesses, his main defense strategy was to impeach Carroll's credibility with evidence that, among other things, Carroll had a drug habit, had attempted suicide twice, and had received psychiatric counselling as a result. Specifically, defendant sought to impeach Carroll by cross-examining him about two suicide attempts in 1987. On voir dire, defendant elicited testimony from Carroll that he first attempted suicide in January 1987 by taking an overdose of Hydroxin and Vistaril. In June 1987, Carroll attempted suicide a second time by pouring rubbing alcohol on himself and setting himself on fire, sustaining second-degree and third-degree burns. As a result of the suicide attempts, Carroll received psychiatric counselling for a period of two or three months. At the time of the attempts, Carroll was depressed because of personal problems and problems with some teachers in his high school, one of whom he had assaulted. Also at the time, and through 1989, Carroll regularly smoked marijuana and cocaine.

While the trial court allowed defendant to inquire about Carroll's drug use on the day of the crime, it precluded him from cross-examining Carroll about his suicide attempts, psychiatric history, and drug habit. Defendant argues that as a result he was precluded from pursuing his main defense. The court based its ruling on Rule 608(b), which governs admissibility of evidence of specific instances of conduct bearing on truthfulness or untruthfulness. We hold that the trial court erred in excluding this evidence because it was admissible impeachment evidence under Rule 611(b). We further conclude that the error was prejudicial and award defendant a new trial.

Carroll testified as follows:

He first saw defendant at Carolyn Williams' house on the morning of 19 January around 8:00 a.m. When Carroll asked defendant where he wanted to go, defendant asked him for a gun. Carroll responded that he did not have his gun, but he offered to, and did, secure his father's shotgun. Defendant then asked him to drive him to Marcie's residence so he could attend to some business. They arrived at the trailer around 9:00 a.m.

At first, Carroll stayed in the car at defendant's request. Marcie answered the door. Ten minutes later, defendant asked Carroll to come inside, and he did. He sat on a couch with Marcie. Defendant then came from the back of the trailer with the gun. When Carroll asked him what was going on, defendant responded, "When somebody fucks me, I fuck 'em back." Defendant demanded his cocaine and his money, and Marcie stood up and began to scream. Defendant pointed the gun at Carroll and told him to silence Marcie, whereupon Carroll grabbed her and fell to the floor with her. While they were on the floor, with Carroll's head only six inches from Marcie's, defendant kicked Marcie in the face with his boots, hit her with the butt of the gun, and shot her in the head.

The two men then went to the home of Carroll's father to return the gun. On the way, defendant told Carroll only he and Carroll knew about the incident, so defendant would know the source of any rumors. Once there, defendant gave Carroll a bag of cocaine and asked him to sell it and bring defendant the money. Carroll originally told the officers he was not successful in selling the cocaine, so he threw it in the sewer.

Both men then went to Carolyn Williams' house, where they remained for about an hour. They then went to another relative's house to try to sell the cocaine. Next, they returned to the home of Carroll's father, where defendant asked Carroll to obtain $130--enough, defendant said, for two bus tickets. Carroll went to Revco Warehouse, his mother's place of work, seeking the money, but she did not give it to him. That afternoon, while defendant and Carroll were together at Carolyn Williams' home, another relative called to say that Marcie had been shot. Carroll took a bus to New York two days later because he was afraid of defendant.

The State presented no other evidence, physical or otherwise, which placed defendant at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder. The remainder of the State's case consisted of testimony of the officers who questioned Carroll and investigated the crime scene, and corroborative testimony by Carroll's attorney.

On cross-examination of Carroll, defendant elicited the following testimony:

On 15 March 1989, officers questioned Carroll for over five hours. For the first three hours Carroll maintained that he had nothing to do with the murder. After the officers indicated they did not believe his story, Carroll advised them that while he did not kill Marcie, he was present and knew who did kill her. He also was willing to "turn State's witness," saying that he had not been telling the truth but that he would tell them the whole truth. Carroll then gave a statement, less detailed than his testimony at trial, implicating himself and defendant.

Carroll met with officers again on 6 November 1989 in the presence of his attorney and the district attorney. He then added details, such as defendant's kicking Marcie in the face before shooting her, which he did not relate in his initial statement. In his original statement, he had said he was with defendant throughout the day of the murder, but in the 6 November interview he mentioned for the first time that he left defendant around noon to ask his mother for money. While Carroll originally told the officers he had thrown the cocaine from the trailer into the sewer, at trial he admitted that he sold it for $200 in order to buy the bus ticket to New York. Although in his first statement Carroll described restraining Marcie at defendant's instruction, at trial he mentioned for the first time that his head was only six inches from Marcie's when defendant brought the gun down on her head and shot her.

Defendant also elicited evidence that Carroll had prior convictions for resisting an officer and injuring real property, that following these convictions Carroll was directed to seek help from the Vance County Mental Health Clinic, and that Carroll smoked marijuana cigarettes laced with cocaine once or twice a week on or about 19 January 1989.

Three relatives of defendant and Marcie testified about defendant's and Marcie's whereabouts on the day of the murder. The first, Sharon Williams, testified that Marcie was still alive when Sharon left the trailer at 10:00 a.m.--a half hour later than the time of death according to Carroll's testimony--to go to work. At about 7:00 a.m., someone driving a blue car had knocked on the door, but Sharon was still in bed and Marcie did not open the door. Sharon learned of Marcie's death at about 1:00 p.m. when a neighbor called her at work.

The second witness, Carolyn Williams, testified that after waking at 7:00 a.m. on the day of Marcie's death to ready her youngest son for school, she woke defendant, who had slept on the sofa in her den. At 9:00 a.m., defendant and Carroll, who was present, helped Carolyn load laundry into the car and Carolyn left for the laundromat, first dropping off Carroll on the corner near his home. Carolyn returned with the clean laundry around 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. and found defendant and her older sons at home and still asleep. After waking them and talking with them for about a half hour, she left to run errands with and for her mother, returning at 1:30 p.m. to prepare for work at 2:00 p.m. Both times Carolyn returned home, defendant and her sons were present, but Carroll was...