Court Opinion

ID: 9580248
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:03:30.755354+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:10.030051
License: Public Domain

Justice MITCHELL
dissenting.
The defendant contends that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury that a person attacked in his place of business has no duty to retreat and may use force in self-defense, including deadly force, when appropriate.
Ordinarily, when a person who is free from fault in bringing on a difficulty is attacked in his home or on his own premises, the law imposes on him no duty to retreat before he can justify his fighting in self-defense. The person is entitled to stand his ground, to repel force with force, and to increase his force to overcome the assault and to secure himself from harm.
State v. Morgan, 315 N.C. 626, 642, 340 S.E.2d 84, 94 (1986) (quoting State v. McCray, 312 N.C. 519, 532, 324 S.E.2d 606, 615 (1985)) (citation omitted). The defendant requested that the trial court instruct the jury with regard to self-defense. Substantial evidence in the present case tended to show that the defendant was free from fault and acted in self-defense to repel an attack made upon him on his business premises. Therefore, the trial court erred by failing to give an instruction negating any duty of the defendant to retreat under such circumstances.
The majority errs in its view that “there was no evidence of an assault by the victim upon the defendant at the time in question.” Frankly, I find that view of the evidence to be incredible.
In ruling on this assignment of error, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the defendant. State v. Baldwin, 330 N.C. 446, 412 S.E.2d 31 (1992); State v. Webster, 324 N.C. 385, 378 S.E.2d 748 (1989). Taken in that light, the evidence tended to show that the defendant was the bartender at the Winner’s Circle Club on 7 September 1988. Gary Gray was in the club at approximately 11:45 p.m. that evening, having been told previously that the defendant and Gray’s wife were “seeing each other.” When the defendant went to a storage room to answer the telephone, Gray followed him and told him that five people in the bar that night had said that the defendant was going out with Gray’s wife. When the defendant denied the accusation, Gray replied, “well, *603I’m going to tell you right now, I’m going to kill you.” Gray reached for the defendant’s shirt, and the defendant stepped away from him. As the defendant stepped away from Gray, he noticed that Gray had what appeared to be a pearl-handled pistol in a holster on his belt. As the defendant stepped back into the club, Gray came to the other side of the bar from him, leaned over the bar and screamed more than once, “shoot me or I’m going to kill you.” After Gray shouted his first threat at the bar, the defendant drew a pistol from his belt and pointed it at Gray. Gray, who was standing on the ledge of the bar, slapped at the defendant’s pistol once. Gray then reached back with his right hand toward his right hip to grab what appeared to be a pearl-handled pistol in the holster on his belt. The defendant then shot Gray.
A jury could reasonably have found from such evidence that Gray had mounted the bar ledge, placing the defendant easily within his reach, and had attempted to slap the pistol from the defendant’s hand. That fact, coupled with the fact that Gray had just made several statements clearly indicating his intent to kill the defendant, had followed the defendant from the storage room to the bar, and was reaching for a weapon on his hip, would clearly support a reasonable finding that the defendant killed in response to an unprovoked and deadly attack by Gray. See, e.g., State v. Thornton, 211 N.C. 413, 418, 190 S.E. 758, 761 (1937). Therefore, the trial court erred in failing to give an instruction negating the duty to retreat on one’s own business premises.
As the issue does not arise under the Constitution of the United States, the burden of showing prejudice is upon the defendant. N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a) (1988). Such errors relating to rights that do not arise under the Constitution of the United States are prejudicial when there is a reasonable possibility that, had the error in question not been committed, a different result would have been reached at trial. State v. Gardner, 316 N.C. 605, 342 S.E.2d 872 (1986). In the present case, the defendant has made the required showing of prejudice.
Here, there was almost no variance between the State’s version of the critical events and the defendant’s version of those events; the disputed factual and legal issues revolved around the question of the defendant’s state of mind at the time he killed the deceased. Taken in the light most favorable to the defendant, as it must be, the evidence at trial required an instruction that *604if the jury found that the defendant was free from fault in bringing on the difficulty and was attacked on his own business premises by the deceased, the law imposed on the defendant no duty to retreat before repelling the assault with whatever force necessary to save himself from harm. Had such an instruction been given, there is a reasonable possibility that the jury would have found the defendant not guilty. Therefore, the defendant has carried his burden of showing that the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury in this regard was prejudicial, and the defendant is entitled to a new trial. Accordingly, I dissent from the decision of the majority.
Justice WEBB joins in this dissenting opinion.