State v. Gosnell

248 S.E.2d 756, 38 N.C. App. 679, 1978 N.C. App. LEXIS 2306
Court of Appeals of North Carolina·Decided November 21, 1978·No. No. 7824SC544·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MORRIS, Judge.

By their first assignment of error, defendants argue that the court committed reversible error in consolidating the charges against the defendants for trial.

“Consolidation of cases for trial is generally proper when the offenses charged are of the same class and are so connected in time and place that evidence at trial upon one indictment would be competent and admissible on the other. State v. Taylor, 289 N.C. 223, 221 S.E. 2d 359 (1976); State v. Bass, 280 N.C. 435, 186 S.E. 2d 384 (1972). As a general rule, whether defendants who are jointly indicted should be tried jointly or separately is in the sound discretion of the trial court, and, in the absence of a showing that appellant has been deprived of a fair trial by consolidation, the exercise of the court’s discretion will not be disturbed upon appeal. State v. Taylor, supra; State v. Jones, 280 N.C. 322, 185 S.E. 2d 858 (1972).” State v. Brower, 289 N.C. 644, 658-659, 224 S.E. 2d 551, 561-562 (1976).

Obviously the charges against these two defendants are of the same class. It is difficult to imagine offenses more connected in time or in place. The two were seen jumping from the pickup truck and together running in the woods. They were together when apprehended. The evidence was the same as to both with the exceptions of the evidence relating to glass fragments found in Gosnell’s pocket and boots. Testimony with respect to finding the fragments of glass came in without objection. When the expert was allowed to testify that the fragments matched fragments from the store door, defendant, although he did object, did not request the court to give the jury limiting instructions that the jury not consider that testimony as to defendant Hipps. Defendant Gosnell has shown neither abuse of discretion nor prejudice to his defense by reason of the trial court’s consolidating for trial the charges against these defendants.

By their assignments of error Nos. 2, 3, and 4, defendants contend that incompetent evidence was admitted. They refer to [682] testimony the State attempted to elicit with respect to the use of bloodhounds. However, defendants’ objections were sustained, and the State was never able to lay a proper foundation for the admission of the evidence. Nor did defendants move to strike the voluntary information given in response to a question by the solicitor. The court denied defendants’ motion for mistrial. Defendants have shown no sufficient prejudice or abuse of discretion to warrant a new trial.

Defendants next (assignments of error Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8) urge that the court committed reversible error in allowing Deputy Sheriff Arrowood to testify with respect to footprints. He testified that he followed two sets of footprints from the overturned pickup truck; that one set was made by about a size 8 or 9 shoe with a reasonably high heel and the other, by “just an ordinary shoe approximately 9 or 10”. He followed these tracks to the hard-surfaced road, picked them up again on the other side in a church yard, followed them to the road and up the road to a house owned by a Mr. Carr on the left of Indian Creek Road, across Indian Creek, and back across Indian Creek coming back into Indian Creek Road across from Mr. Carr’s residence. He observed the same tracks near Metcalf Creek, on the Yancey County side, “going up Shepard Hollow on Indian Creek into what is known as the Grady Robinson Farm on the head of Indian Creek, leading around to a gap going down into Metcalf Creek”. A good part of this testimony came in without objection, and defendants vigorously cross-examined the witness, going over his testimony as to the size of the shoes worn by the people and the directions travelled. On appeal, they urge that the evidence was not competent because it did not comply with the requirements of State v. Bass, 253 N.C. 318, 116 S.E. 2d 772 (1960). There the Court said that shoeprint evidence has no logical tendency to identify a defendant as the one who committed the crime with which he is charged unless “the attendant circumstances support this triple inference: (1) That the shoeprints were found at or near the place of the crime; (2) that the shoeprints were made at the time of the crime; and (3) that the shoeprints correspond to shoes worn by the accused at the time of the crime.” Id. at 322 (quoting from State v. Palmer, 230 N.C. 205, 52 S.E. 2d 908 (1949)). Here there was no attempt to fit the prints to the shoes worn by defendants at the time. However, here the defendants were seen [683] leaving the overturned pickup truck on foot and running into the woods. These were the tracks the witness followed. In Bass, the defendant was not seen leaving footprints at the scene of the crime — peeping into an occupied lady’s bedroom at night. A similar situation obtained in Palmer; ie., there was no witness who saw the person make the shoeprints which were followed. We think the situation here is sufficiently different than Bass and Palmer that the failure of the State to introduce evidence that the prints corresponded to shoes worn by defendants at the time is not fatal and does not result in the inadmissibility of the shoeprint evidence. The weight of the evidence is for the jury. See State v. Mays, 225 N.C. 486, 35 S.E. 2d 494 (1945).

Assignments of error Nos. 9 through 17, and the exceptions which support them, “pertain solely to evidence offered by (sic) the State over objection by defendants”. Defendants’ contention, as we understand it from their brief, is that the evidence was obtained “directly or indirectly by the illegal arrest of the defendants and for that reason the evidence under all these exceptions is incompetent”. The record indicates that when the State attempted to question Sheriff Banks with respect to the shirt worn by defendant Gosnell when arrested, defendants objected, and the court conducted a voir dire directed to the legality of the search and seizure, as he was required to do. State v. Crews, 286 N.C. 41, 209 S.E. 2d 462 (1974); State v. Basden, 8 N.C. App. 401, 174 S.E. 2d 613 (1970). The court, upon conclusion of the evidence on voir dire, found facts as follows:

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State v. Gosnell, 248 S.E.2d 756, 38 N.C. App. 679, 1978 N.C. App. LEXIS 2306 (N.C. Ct. App. 1978).

248 S.E.2d 756 (State v. Gosnell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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