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State v. Knight7/28/1995
PARKER, Justice.
Defendant was tried capitally on an indictment charging him with the first-degree murder of Carlos Colon Stoner ("victim"). The jury returned a verdict finding defendant guilty as charged. During a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury was unable to unanimously agree as to its sentencing recommendation, and the trial court imposed a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that defendant's trial was free of prejudicial error and uphold his conviction and sentence.
On the morning of 27 May 1992, the body of Carlos Stoner was discovered in Washington Park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The body was lying half on and half off the Greenway transversing the park.
Dr. Patrick Lantz, the county medical examiner, performed an autopsy on the victim's body. He testified that the victim had been stabbed more than twenty-seven times and that a number of his wounds would have been individually fatal. There was a stab wound at the base of the victim's skull extending into his brain stem, which Dr. Lantz believed had been inflicted prior to the victim's death. Dr. Lantz testified that the victim's heart was still beating at the time this wound was inflicted based on the amount of bleeding near the wound. This wound would have incapacitated the victim although his heart could have continued beating for a period of several minutes after the wound was inflicted.
The victim also had a very large gaping wound in his chest, approximately seven inches by three inches, where his rib cage had been split open. This wound exposed the victim's heart and right lung. Dr. Lantz testified that the victim had likely been alive when he received this wound and could have lived up to five minutes after it was inflicted.
Several other wounds penetrated the victim's lungs and the space surrounding his heart. According to Dr. Lantz these smaller wounds would have leaked blood slowly. Death from these wounds would have taken anywhere from a matter of minutes to possibly more than an hour after they were inflicted.
The victim's penis had been severed from his body and inserted into his mouth. Dr. Lantz testified that this castration occurred at or near the time of the victim's death.
The autopsy further revealed that the victim had a blood alcohol level of 280 milligrams per deciliter (.28). The victim was HIV-positive.
Dwayne Doby ("Doby") testified against defendant at trial. The State's evidence tended to show that on the evening of 26 May 1992, Doby was at a party on Academy Street in Winston-Salem. According to Doby he was standing in the yard of Wendy Britton's home on Academy Street with a group of people including defendant and Mark Smith. The men were drinking beer when the victim walked past them. The victim was drunk and shouting. Smith hollered at the victim and told him to be quiet. The victim rolled up his sleeves and said he was going to "whup somebody's a--." Doby testified that he did not see the victim fight anyone and that he did not see anyone strike the victim at that time. Smith walked over to where the victim was standing and talked with him for a while.
After Smith returned to the party, the victim again began shouting at the people at the party. Smith and defendant went across the street to where the victim was standing. The men shouted at each other for a while, and then the victim was invited to come have a drink at the party. The victim drank part of a beer and was asked to leave the party. The victim then walked up Academy Street to the Circle K.
Doby testified that as the victim was walking away from the party, Andrew Gi
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