Court Opinion

ID: 9581405
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:14:34.617889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:55.261253
License: Public Domain

Justice EXUM
concurring.
Although I concur in the result reached by the majority in the case today, I cannot agree that certain portions of the testimony of Detective Daniel Qualls concerning the 12 January conversation Qualls had with the state’s witness Robert Moore were competent to “corroborate” Moore’s earlier testimony. Moore’s testimony about the fatal incident at Stoney Creek Bridge reveals at most that defendant pulled the deceased from defendant’s car and “went to the bridge with him”; that Charlie Phillips then said, “Don’t throw that boy in that cold-. . . water”; and that Moore then heard a splash. Detective Qualls’ testimony, on the other hand, clearly indicates that Moore told Qualls that the defendant took the deceased “over to the side of the bridge and [threw] him over. He [Moore] heard the man hit the water . . . .” Far from merely corroborating, strengthening, confirming, or making more certain Moore’s direct testimony as to the incidents observed at the bridge, Qualls’ testimony goes further to add the crucial element that Moore had told Qualls of actually *606seeing the defendant commit the very crime for which he is charged. In this respect, Qualls’ testimony was inadmissible hearsay which should have been stricken had a proper and timely objection been offered.
In State v. Brooks, 260 N.C. 186, 132 S.E. 2d 354 (1963), this Court recognized that the state may not, under the guise of “corroboration,” introduce “new” evidence — i.e., evidence which substantially and materially goes beyond that which it is intended to corroborate. If, however, presumably “corroborative” testimony is generally consistent with the evidence which it purports to buttress, slight variations between the two will not render the testimony inadmissible. “Such variations affect only the credibility of the evidence which is always before the jury.” Id. at 189, 132 S.E. 2d at 357. The majority’s analysis purports to adhere to the continued viability of the rule in Brooks by characterizing Qualls’ “corroborative” testimony as bearing no more than slight variations from the substance of Moore’s statements on the stand. I disagree. A witness’ statement that a defendant was in a position, or even in actual preparation, to commit a crime is far different from a statement that the witness saw the defendant do the criminal act. The latter does not corroborate the former; rather it adds to it an element of central importance to the prosecution’s case. Although it may be true in the instant case that “the clear implication of Moore’s testimony is that defendant did precisely that act” for which he is charged, such an implication nevertheless was one for the jury to accept or reject on the basis of competent evidence adduced at trial. It should not be embellished by subsequent hearsay testimony improperly admitted under the guise of “corroboration.” Corroboration is a matter of supporting the substance of prior evidence, not its inferences or implications.
The cases cited by the. majority on this point merely serve to sketch the contours of permissible variation between evidence and its subsequent corroboration. In State v. Case, 253 N.C. 130, 116 S.E. 2d 429 (1960), cert. denied, 365 U.S. 830 (1961), the prosecuting witness testified that her assailants tied her to a tree and told her she had fifteen seconds to escape before they would come back and take her life. A second witness testified in corroboration that the prosecutrix had told him that she was given sixteen seconds to escape. This Court found no error in the admission of *607the corroborating testimony. In State v. Westbrook, 279 N.C. 18, 181 S.E. 2d 572 (1971), death sentence vacated, 408 U.S. 939 (1972), defendant was on trial for the murder of Carla Jean Underwood. The state’s chief witness, defendant’s accomplice, testified that defendant shot Miss Underwood and that he and defendant then left the scene of the crime and drove to a residence at which a Mr. and Mrs. Bozart were visiting. A police officer’s subsequent testimony as to statements made by the witness to him corroborated the witness’ testimony in all respects except that the officer testified that the witness had stated that the purpose of going to the house where the Bozarts were had been to rob a safe in the house. Noting that the officer’s testimony “substantially” corroborated the witness’ statements from the stand, this Court found no error in its admission. Similarly, in State v. Lester, 294 N.C. 220, 240 S.E. 2d 391 (1978), a first degree murder case based upon a theory of premeditation and deliberation, defendant’s accomplice testified that the victim had voluntarily submitted to his and defendant’s sexual advances before defendant stabbed her. The witness’ brother then testified in corroboration that the witness had told him that the victim had been raped by the witness and defendant. This Court found no prejudice in the admission of the brother’s testimony: “The statement objected to substantially corroborated the principal witness as to the crime of murder.” 294 N.C. at 230, 240 S.E. 2d at 399. (Emphasis supplied.)
In both Lester and Westbrook, then, the variation between the substantive evidence and its subsequent corroboration was deemed slight where the bits of “new” evidence added by the corroborative testimony had no bearing on any of the elements of the crimes charged. In the instant case, however, the “new” evidence brought in by Detective Qualls’ corroborative testimony was that Moore had stated that he had seen the defendant push the victim off the bridge —a fact not testified to by Moore and one which goes to the very heart of the state’s case in chief. The additional element embodied in Qualls’ testimony thus cannot be casually dismissed as constituting only a “slight variation” from the witness’ narrative it is intended to corroborate.
On point is State v. Fowler, 270 N.C. 468, 155 S.E. 2d 83 (1967), a first degree murder case wherein State’s witness testified that defendant forcibly took a gun from a police officer, forced the officer into a jail cell, and then shot him. Another *608witness testified in corroboration that the first witness had stated that defendant, before firing the gun, had said he “was sorry but he had to do this.” This Court granted a new trial on the basis that the second witness’ hearsay testimony was not corroborative and described an occasion of a fixed and premeditated purpose to kill. See also State v. Warren, 289 N.C. 551, 223 S.E. 2d 317 (1976), for another instance where prejudice was found in the admission of purportedly corroborative testimony which actually added evidence material to the state’s case.
That the quoted portion of Detective Qualls’ testimony was improperly admitted, however, does not require a finding of reversible error under the facts of this case. In the first place, defendant made no objection, either general or specific, to the testimony. It is well settled in this state that a general objection will not suffice to challenge the offering of corroborative evidence which is arguably incompetent in some respects. “Rather, it is the duty of the objecting party to call to the attention of the trial court the objectionable part” with a specific objection. State v. Britt, 291 N.C. 528, 536, 231 S.E. 2d 644, 650 (1977); accord, State v. Lester, supra, 294 N.C. 220, 240 S.E. 2d 391. A fortiori, defendant cannot preserve an exception where no objection at all was taken. His counsel will not be heard to complain of error discovered for the first time on appeal. Secondly, there was plenary competent evidence offered at trial from which the jury could have determined defendant’s guilt of the crime charged. In the absence of any indication that a different result would have occurred had Detective Qualls’ testimony not been admitted, there was no prejudice to defendant such as to warrant a new trial. G.S. 15A-1443. I thus concur with the majority’s result in this case.
Justices COPELAND and BROCK join in this concurring opinion.