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North Carolina v. McKoy9/7/1988
hen terminated the interview.
During the interview defendant appeared rational, and his statements made sense. Defendant was able to sit upright in the van by himself. Defendant did complain about stiffness in his hip. He appeared sober despite a slight to moderate odor of alcohol about his person.
Defendant is blind in his right eye, and his left eye was swollen shut because of the injury to his forehead. When defendant complained of being cold, the officers turned up the heat and maintained a comfortable temperature in the van. Jackson did not offer defendant any reward in return for a statement. Jackson did not coerce or pressure him to make a statement. Defendant never asked for an attorney. Jackson knew that defendant had been convicted of first degree murder in 1951 and felonious assault with intent to kill in 1977.
Robert Rollins, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that:
Defendant suffers from mixed personality disorder including features of paranoid thinking, impaired abstract thinking, impaired judgment and impaired perception. He also suffers from organic delusional syndrome, manifested by false beliefs. Generally antisocial, defendant tends to overreact violently to perceived threats. Defendant engages in episodic alcohol abuse, but, according to defendant's supervisor, he was a good worker who did not drink on the job. When defendant was admitted to Dorothea Dix Hospital in February 1985, he achieved an I.Q. test score of seventy-four, which places him in the "borderline range of intellectual
functioning." However, he did achieve an I.Q. score of eighty-nine in May 1980.
Based on Dr. Perry's description of defendant's condition and treatment on the night of the shooting, Rollins believed that defendant's intoxicated condition would have improved over time. Nonetheless, defendant would have been substantially intoxicated when the interrogation took place, and this intoxication would have exacerbated defendant's mental disabilities. Because of his mental disorders, defendant would not have been capable of voluntarily waiving his rights at the time of the interview.
The above voir dire testimony establishes that the pertinent findings are supported by competent evidence. They thus are binding on this Court. State v. Perdue, 320 N.C. at 59, 357 S.E.2d at 350.
In addition to a general challenge to the findings, defendant specifically disputes the finding that he made an express waiver of his rights. He contends that, rather than merely declining to sign a waiver he could not see, he in fact refused to waive his rights. Agent Jackson explicitly testified, however, that defendant stated that he understood his rights and agreed to talk with the officers. This evidence supports the trial court's finding.
Defendant also specifically challenges the finding that he never expressed a desire to terminate the interview; he contends that he invoked his rights by asking the officers to terminate the questioning at 10:20 p.m. Jackson expressly testified, however, that defendant wanted to take a break because he was tired, and that he subsequently agreed to resume the conversation. Thus, the finding is again supported by the evidence.
Defendant further contends that the findings do not support the conclusions that he made a voluntary confession and waiver of his Miranda rights. While the findings, if supported by evidence, are binding upon this Court, the conclusions of law are fully reviewable. Id. The legal significance of the findings is a question of law for this Court. State v. Jackson, 308 N.C. at 582, 304 S.E
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