Title: State v. Self

State: north-carolina

Issuer: North Carolina Supreme Court

Document:

187 S.E.2d 93 (1972) 280 N.C. 665 STATE of North Carolina v. Kermit Allen SELF. No. 91. Supreme Court of North Carolina. March 15, 1972. *95 Atty. Gen. Robert Morgan, Special Counsel Ralph Moody, Raleigh, and Deputy Atty. Gen. Andrew A. Vanore, Jr., for the State. John S. Freeman and H. Edward Knox, Charlotte, for defendant appellant; Wardlow, Knox, Caudle & Knox, Charlotte, of counsel. MOORE, Justice. Defendant contends that the court erred in admitting testimony to the effect that defendant was married at the time of the alleged offenses. Defendant testified without objection that he was married, that he had four daughters and had had two wives, that his present wife Louise was in the courtroom at the trial. When asked if this was the same lady he was married to on 2 December 1969, defendant objected. The objection was overruled and he answered, "No." Defendant then testified that he was working for his present wife when he was arrested in August 1970 and that he married his present wife on 20 January, 1971. Over objection, he further testified that when he was arrested he was still married to his wife in Winston-Salem. Defendant then further testified without objection that "when I was arrested I was going by the name of Bill Miller. As to why I had gone to Florida and take up the assumed name of Bill Miller, my first wife had called me on December 17. I had been out of work several months with an operation. I had to give up truck driving after 18 years. On December 17, my wife called me up and said she was going to have me picked up because I was three weeks late on the support payment." Thus, defendant *96 fully explained, without objection, his marital status at the time of the alleged crime, at the time of his arrest, and at the time of his trial. In State v. McDaniel, 272 N.C. 556, 563, 158 S.E.2d 874, 881 (1968), Justice Lake quotes with approval from State v. Adams, 245 N.C. 344, 95 S.E.2d 902 (1957): This assignment is overruled. Defendant next contends the court erred in allowing testimony as to a separate unrelated offense in another county and in denying defendant's motion for mistrial with regard thereto. This assignment is based upon the following proceedings: Defendant admits that the objection to the challenged question was sustained by the court and that the jury was instructed not to consider the question. Defendant contends, however, that the import of the question was apparent before the question was completed, that the jury should have been excused so that the court could have ruled on the completed question in the absence of the jury, and that the question itself left an impression upon the minds of the jurors which could not be erased by the court's instruction. We hold, however, that the court's prompt action in sustaining defendant's objection to the question and in excusing the jury and instructing the solicitor not to ask further questions along that line, coupled with the court's specific instruction to the jury not to consider the question but to strike it from their mind, was sufficient to remove any possibility of error. In State v. Moore, 276 N.C. 142, 149, 171 S.E.2d 453, 458 (1970), Justice Sharp quoted with approval from State v. Ray, 212 N.C. 725, 729, 194 S.E. 482, 484 (1938): This assignment is without merit. Defendant next assigns as error the admission of testimony as to defendant's leaving the State of North Carolina. Defendant contends that the record indicates that he left Winston-Salem on 18 December 1969, sixteen days after the commission of the alleged crime, and that the record is silent as to when he left North Carolina except that it does show he established residence in Florida in April 1970. Defendant contends that such a lapse of time renders the relationship between his departure and any supposed consciousness of guilt too remote for the evidence to be considered by the jury. North Carolina has long followed the rule that an accused's flight from a crime shortly after its commission is admissible as evidence of guilt. See State v. Sheffield, 251 N.C. 309, 111 S.E.2d 195 (1959); State v. Dickerson, 189 N.C. 327, 127 S.E. 256 (1925); State v. Hairston, 182 N.C. 851, 109 S.E. 45 (1921); State v. Nat, 51 N.C. 114 (1858). The State contends that the fact defendant left his home immediately after being questioned by Sergeant Eller, that he left his children with Mr. Dewey Armstrong in Winston-Salem and told Mr. Armstrong not to tell the officers where he had gone, and that months later defendant was found living in Florida under an assumed name, were all circumstances for the jury to consider. In State v. Ball, 339 S.W.2d 783 (Mo. 1960), cited by the defendant in his brief, it was held that flight occurring approximately three weeks after the crime was a relevant circumstance and that the remoteness of the flight goes only to the weight not the admissibility of the evidence. See *98 29 Am.Jur.2d, Evidence § 280; Annot., 25 A.L.R. 886 (1923). In the present case, evidence that defendant left his home 16 days after the alleged offenses were committed is competent to be considered by the jury in connection with other circumstances in passing upon the question of guilt. State v. Payne, 213 N.C. 719, 197 S.E. 573 (1938), and cases therein cited. Finally, defendant's sixth assignment of error states: "The Court erred in failing to state defendant's contention and declare and explain the applicable law, with regard to the defendant's leaving the State of North Carolina. Defendant's exception No. 23 (R. p. 77)." This assignment could be dismissed for failure to comply with the rule stated in State v. Kirby, 276 N.C. 123, 131, 171 S.E.2d 416, 422 (1970), as follows: However, an examination of the record in the case at bar discloses that the court correctly charged the jury: The record further discloses that the court stated that defendant contends he left the State to prevent his first wife from having him picked up for nonsupport. If defendant wished the court to give additional contentions, it was his duty to request them. State v. Butler, 269 N.C. 733, 153 S.E.2d 477 (1967); 3 Strong, N.C. Index 2d, Criminal Law § 163. Nothing appears in the record which would warrant disturbing the verdicts or the judgments. They will therefore be upheld.