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State v. Goodson9/8/1995
The defendant was tried for the first-degree murder of his wife in a case in which the State did not seek the death penalty. The evidence showed that the defendant and the deceased were married in 1974 and that their marriage was a stormy one. On the evening of 12 November 1992, the couple were arguing in a bar when the defendant told his wife, "I ought to kill you, woman." Later in the evening, the defendant drove his truck into the Town of Mount Olive and shouted to a policewoman to follow him. The policewoman followed the truck to the City Hall. The defendant then told the policewoman that he had shot his wife. The defendant's wife was seated on the passenger side of the truck and had been shot through the head. She died in the hospital.
A Mount Olive policeman testified that he went to the police station and talked to the defendant, who was distraught. He said the defendant told him:
They were coming back from Goldsboro. They had been to a club up there. She wanted to go to another club or another party. He wanted to go home. He pulled the gun, said, I ought to kill you. He pulled the gun up, said he pulled it the first time. It would not go off. He pulled it the second time and glass went out on the passenger side and his wife, you know, had been shot.
A pathologist testified that in his opinion the wound was a contact wound and that the gun was being held against the head of the victim when it was fired.
The defendant contended the shooting was accidental. He testified that his wife had attacked him on previous occasions while he was driving his truck and showed the jury two scars which he said resulted from her scratching him. He testified further that he and his wife began to argue as they were riding and that she became more and more angry. He was afraid she would strike him, and he removed a .38-caliber revolver from under the armrest in the truck. He realized that the gun had cocked as it was being removed. In order to uncock it, he held the hammer while he pressed the trigger and let the hammer slowly go down. He placed the pistol on his wife's arm, which was on the armrest, and pointed it at the floor of the truck. The defendant said that as he was completing the uncocking of the pistol, his wife jerked her arm and the gun went off.
The defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder. He appealed to this Court.
WEBB, Justice.
In his first assignment of error, the defendant argues two questions pertaining to evidence. He first says it was error for the court to exclude testimony as to the victim's reputation for violence.
The defendant contended that the killing in this case resulted from an accident. In State v. Winfrey, 298 N.C. 260, 258 S.E.2d 346 (1979), we held that evidence of a victim's violent character is irrelevant in a homicide case when the defense of accident is raised. The character of the deceased in such a case is not at issue. See also State v. McCray, 312 N.C. 519, 324 S.E.2d 606 (1985).
The Evidence Code, chapter 8C of the North Carolina General Statutes, became effective on 1 July 1984, after the trials of the above two cases. N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 404 provides in part:
(a) Character evidence generally. -Evidence of a person's character or a trait of his character is not admissible for the purpose of proving that he acted in conformity therewith on a particular occasion, except:
(2) Character of victim. -- Evidence of a pertinent trait of character of the victim of the crime offered by an accused . . . .
N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 404 (Supp. 1994). We do not believe this rule changes the law. We required before the rule w
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