Opinion ID: 1422450
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: arguments of defendant chambers

Text: In another assignment of error, defendant Chambers argues that the trial court erred by allowing Howard Crabb to testify during the sentencing proceeding that Chambers had previously assaulted and robbed Crabb. The State presented Crabb to support the submission of the N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3) aggravating circumstance, that defendant had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person. Crabb testified that on 3 June 1992, he was bound, robbed, and severely beaten by an intruder he knew as Richard Chambers. When asked to identify his assailant in the courtroom, Crabb failed to point to Chambers. However, the State then introduced certified copies of the indictment, transcript of plea, and judgment in which Chambers pled guilty to breaking and entering Crabb's residence on 3 June 1992. Defendant first argues that Crabb's testimony was insufficient to establish that Chambers was Crabb's assailant since Crabb was unable to either visually identify Chambers in the courtroom or verbally state that Frank Junior Chambers (instead of Richard Chambers) committed the crime. However, we have previously held that the most appropriate way to show the `prior felony' aggravating circumstance would be to offer duly authenticated court records, State v. Silhan, 302 N.C. 223, 272, 275 S.E.2d 450, 484 (1981), or to introduce the judgment itself into evidence, State v. Maynard, 311 N.C. 1, 26, 316 S.E.2d 197, 211, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 963, 105 S.Ct. 363, 83 L.Ed.2d 299 (1984). Because the State introduced into evidence certified copies of the transcript of plea and judgment against Chambers for breaking and entering Crabb's residence on 3 June 1992, a proper in-court identification was unnecessary to establish that Chambers committed the prior felony. In a related argument, defendant contends that the charge of breaking and entering to which he pled guilty was not a sufficient prior felony to support the submission of the (e)(3) aggravating circumstance because breaking and entering does not include an element of force or the threat of force against another person. We disagree. In State v. McDougall, 308 N.C. 1, 301 S.E.2d 308, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 104 S.Ct. 197, 78 L.Ed.2d 173 (1983), we stated: By using involving instead of language delimiting consideration to the narrow class of felonies in which violence is an element of the offense, we find the legislature intended the prior felony in N.C.G.S. 15A-2000(e)(3) to include any felony whose commission involved the use or threat of violence to the person. Thus we hold that for purposes of N.C.G.S. 15A-2000(e)(3), a prior felony can be either one which has as an element the involvement of the use or threat of violence to the person, such as rape or armed robbery, State v. Hamlette, 302 N.C. 490, 276 S.E.2d 338 (1981), or a felony which does not have the use or threat of violence to the person as an element, but the use or threat of violence to the person was involved in its commission. McDougall, 308 N.C. at 18, 301 S.E.2d at 319. Crabb testified that Chambers entered Crabb's bedroom; bound Crabb's wrists and feet with strips of towels; repeatedly struck Crabb; and eventually stole Crabb's microwave oven, television, VCR, and vehicle. Crabb's testimony was corroborated by photographs illustrating his injuries and by the testimony of Sergeant Steve Whitley regarding his investigation of the assault on Crabb and the bindings that Chambers used to restrain Crabb during the assault. This evidence, in conjunction with Chambers' guilty plea to breaking and entering, supports the conclusion that violence against Crabb was an integral part of the commission of the breaking and entering of Crabb's residence. Therefore, the trial court did not err by concluding that Chambers' prior conviction for breaking and entering was an appropriate prior felony upon which to submit the N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3) aggravator to the jury. This assignment of error is overruled. In another assignment of error, defendant Chambers contends that the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of four witnesses regarding his release from jail a few hours before the murders were committed. At the outset, we note that Chambers discusses the testimony of two of the witnesses, J.D. Barber and Donna Lowman, but fails to argue against the testimony of Teresa Scott or Greg Pullman. Therefore, the assignments of error relating to Ms. Scott and Mr. Pullman are deemed abandoned. N.C.R.App.P. 28(b)(5). Chambers argues that the fact that he was incarcerated in the Rowan County jail until approximately 5:00 p.m. on the day of the murders should have been excluded from the evidence because it was irrelevant and highly prejudicial. We disagree. The evidence involving Chambers' tenure in jail and his release on the day of the murders was relevant under a number of different theories. First, the evidence tended to show that Chambers knew Mr. Tutterow and had targeted him for the robbery. Chambers had met Mr. Tutterow while incarcerated at the Rowan County jail, where Mr. Tutterow cooked part-time and served as a deputy sheriff. Mr. Tutterow was known to carry significant amounts of money in his wallet and had given Chambers money to buy cigarettes and food while he was in jail. This fact helped to establish premeditation and deliberation as well as a motive for the killings: A reasonable inference is that Chambers decided to rob the Tutterows after getting to know Mr. Tutterow and did not want Mr. Tutterow to identify him later on. Furthermore, the evidence tended to show that Chambers had no money and that he wanted money when he was released from jail. Shortly after his release from jail, Chambers met up with defendant Blakney and Antonio Mason at a nearby convenience store. Chambers told Blakney and Mason that he had been released from jail without any money, that he knew someone who lived nearby who had plenty of money, and that he was willing to kill someone if it was necessary to get some money. Accordingly, this assignment of error is overruled.