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North Carolina v. Webster5/4/1989
In this non-capital first degree murder case, defendant was originally charged and arrested on 26 July 1987 for the voluntary manslaughter of Cornelius Lee Jeffries (also known as Bert Jeffries). On that same day an attorney was appointed for defendant. The manslaughter charge was dismissed on 5 August 1987 for lack of probable cause. At the probable cause hearing, defendant was represented by his appointed attorney, James H. Burwell, Jr., who spent approximately five hours on the case.
Two months later, on 5 October 1987, the Rutherford County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging defendant with the murder of Jeffries. On 17 February 1988, the prosecutor served defendant with notice of the return of the bill of indictment and an order for arrest. On that same day James H. Burwell, Jr., was again appointed to represent defendant. When the murder case was called for trial on 7 March 1988, defendant's attorney made
an oral motion to continue. Mr. Burwell represented to the court that he was not ready for trial and that he needed to obtain the testimony of Dr. Fred F. Adams, III, defendant's physician. The motion was denied and the case proceeded to trial. All of the evidence was presented that day. On the following day the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On direct appeal to this Court, pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(a), defendant contends that the trial court "erroneously and unconstitutionally" denied his motion to continue; that the trial court erroneously excluded evidence that was relevant to defendant's state of mind in relation to his plea of self-defense; and that the trial court committed plain error in failing to instruct the jury on defendant's right to defend his home. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we hold that the trial court erred by sustaining the State's objection to the question of whether defendant felt that his life was threatened, thus erroneously excluding evidence that was relevant to defendant's state of mind in relation to his plea of self-defense.
The evidence at trial showed that defendant was forty-six years old and was at all material times in extremely poor health with several serious medical conditions. The evidence also showed that defendant, the victim, and the victim's mother all lived in the same neighborhood in Rutherford County.
Calvin Woods testified for the State that defendant had been in the hospital for seven days in late July 1987, had gotten out of the hospital on 24 July, and was in poor health on 26 July 1987. Defendant was so weak that his mother asked Woods to stay with defendant and take care of him. Woods moved into defendant's mobile home and was caring for defendant, "running around and getting his medicine and stuff." On 26 July a group of people, including Jeffries, gathered at defendant's mobile home to socialize and to welcome defendant home from the hospital. While at the mobile home, Jeffries got into an argument with defendant. Defendant retreated toward his bedroom and Jeffries followed. Woods' brother pleaded that Woods "had better stop it." Woods interceded, got Jeffries by the arm and led him into the front yard. Defendant came to the front door with a shotgun and told Jeffries "to git on out of his yard away from his house."
Woods then "took [Jeffries] on to the road." Jeffries came back down the road and said that he was coming back in defendant's yard. Woods testified that he told Jeffries not to go onto defendant's property, but that Jeffries "come on anyway." Woods finally convinced Jeffries to leave the neighborhood and drove Jeffries and some others
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