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North Carolina v. Everhardt10/17/1989
the associated physical illnesses was the result of the incidents of 1984.
The jury, having heard the details of Ms. Everhardt's ordeal and having heard Ms. Everhardt's testimony of its emotional impact, had sufficient evidence from which to determine Ms. Everhardt immediately incurred severe psychological injury from the defendant's abuse. Expert testimony was not necessary since the issue presented is not "so far removed from the usual and ordinary experience of the average man that expert knowledge is essential to the formation of an intelligent opinion. . . ." Gillikin v. Burbage, 263 N.C. 317, 325, 139 S.E.2d 753, 760 (1965). In other words, the defendant's actions were so outrageously abusive that the jury was not faced with a complicated medical question in determining those actions caused the victim severe psychological harm.
Proving the next link in the causal chain perhaps would have been more difficult in the absence of expert testimony. However, we need not decide whether the victim's testimony would have sufficed alone. The State also presented expert testimony to the effect that Ms. Everhardt's mental condition and the physical symptoms associated therewith could have been caused by traumatic abuse such as Ms. Everhardt experienced. "Whether the physical injury was the natural and proximate result of the fright or shock is a question to be determined by the jury upon the evidence, showing the conditions, circumstances, occurrences, etc." Watkins v. Kaolin Mfg. Co., 131 N.C. 536, 541, 42 S.E. 983, 985 (1902). Here the jury had the victim's detailed account of these factors as well as the expert testimony of Drs. Schmitt and de la Garza relating her physical conditions to physical and sexual abuse.
The defendant argues the jury would have no basis for determining whether Ms. Everhardt's physical symptoms were the result of the abuse of July 1984 or the abuse and stress she underwent in earlier years. However, the State was not required to prove that Ms. Everhardt's physical condition absolutely could not have
been caused by something other than the events of July 1984. It was only required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant's abuse in July 1984 caused her eventual mental breakdown and physical injuries. See State v. Minton, 234 N.C. 716, 721, 68 S.E.2d 844, 847 (1952) (homicide case); see also Cummings, 301 N.C. at 377, 271 S.E.2d at 279. The jury could reasonably have found that some preexisting mental condition or instability could have been aggravated by the abuse of July 1984, thus causing serious injury.
The consequences of an assault which is the direct cause of the death of another are not excused nor is the criminal responsibility for the death lessened by a preexisting physical condition which made the victim unable to withstand the shock of the assault and without which preexisting condition the blow would not have been fatal.
State v. Atkinson, 290 N.C. 673, 682, 259 S.E.2d 858, 864 (1979), overruled on other grounds, 302 N.C. 101, 273 S.E.2d 666 (1981) (citations omitted); see also 22 C.J.S. Criminal Law § 45 (one whose act results in a criminal offense is guilty of the crime even though a concurrent cause is an "existent infirmity" of the victim).
IV
The defendant also argues the trial court erred to the defendant's prejudice by admitting evidence of assaults occurring prior to those for which the defendant was tried. Indeed, Ms. Everhardt testified the defendant had violently abus
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