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[T] State v. Heath5/18/2004
e parties; (5) the dealing of lethal blows after the deceased has been felled and rendered helpless; and (6) evidence that the killingwas done in a brutal manner.
State v. Easter, 101 N.C. App. 36, 42, 398 S.E.2d 619, 622 (1990).
In the instant case, the trial court had before it the transcript of the original sentencing hearing, which included a factual basis given by the State, the autopsy report and certain photographs of the crime scene. At the resentencing hearing, the investigating officer testified about her investigation of the instant crime. During her testimony, the officer referred to statements made by the victim's daughter, granddaughter and niece, which detailed defendant's previous assault on the victim and the victim's resulting hospitalization. Additionally, the statements of the victim's granddaughter and niece detailed the events surrounding the March 1994 stabbing of the victim, indicating that defendant and the victim had been arguing because defendant did not want the victim to go to her cousin's house. When the victim attempted to leave, defendant picked her up by the collar and threw her outside, where he began to beat the victim with his fist. Defendant then pulled out a knife and started stabbing the victim in the chest. Defendant testified at the hearing to having been drinking early on the day of the stabbing, and to remembering that he stabbed the victim twice. The autopsy showed that the victim had been stabbed seven times in the chest, and that she died as the result of blood loss due to one of those stab wounds.
We conclude the evidence before the court at the re-sentencing hearing was sufficient to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant's killing of his wife was done withpremeditation and deliberation. The trial court, therefore, did not err in finding such as a factor in aggravation of punishment.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Judges McGEE and BRYANT concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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