State v. Gunther

248 S.E.2d 97, 38 N.C. App. 279, 1978 N.C. App. LEXIS 2168
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedOctober 17, 1978
DocketNo. 783SC445
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 248 S.E.2d 97 (State v. Gunther) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gunther, 248 S.E.2d 97, 38 N.C. App. 279, 1978 N.C. App. LEXIS 2168 (N.C. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinions

MARTIN (Harry C.), Judge.

Defendant argues four assignments of error.

First. Defendant contends the court erred in excluding testimony on cross-examination of State’s witness Guill as to [281]*281statements made by the defendant. If permitted to answer, the witness would have said, “He [the defendant] told me that he had been robbed.” The assignment of error is overruled. The State had not introduced any part of the statements made by defendant. The defendant did not testify. The statement was self-serving hearsay. The court properly excluded this evidence. State v. Davis, 246 N.C. 73, 97 S.E. 2d 444 (1957); State v. Vinson, 287 N.C. 326, 215 S.E. 2d 60 (1975); State v. Williams, 38 N.C. App. 138, 247 S.E. 2d 630 (1978).

Second. Defendant contends the court erred in admitting testimony of State’s witness Parker as to where defendant lived. Defendant argues Parker acquired this knowledge from a hearsay source. Although Parker testified Melvin Gunther told him where defendant lived, the record shows that Parker had known defendant for about two years and knew where he lived prior to Melvin Gunther’s statement. Eyvonne Summerell had previously testified, without objection, she knew defendant and knew where he lived and had shown Parker where he lived. Such evidence is ordinarily harmless when testimony of the same import is introduced without objection. State v. Creech, 265 N.C. 730, 145 S.E. 2d 6 (1965); State v. Barrow, 6 N.C. App. 475, 170 S.E. 2d 563 (1969). This assignment of error is overruled.

Third. Defendant makes a broadside exception to the charge of the court. This assignment is ineffective to challenge the correctness of the charge. State v. Everette, 284 N.C. 81, 199 S.E. 2d 462 (1973). This assignment is overruled.

Fourth. Defendant contends there was error in the signing of the judgments because of the above assignments of error. We do not agree. However, the record in this case raises this question: Can Gunther be lawfully sentenced upon conviction of the charge of assasult with intent to commit rape (No. 77CRS18040) when the State has included that charge as a part of the kidnapping bill of indictment in order to subject defendant to the greater punishment under N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-39(b)? The answer requires analysis of the facts in this case as well as the opinions in State v. Fulcher, 34 N.C. App. 233, 237 S.E. 2d 909 (1977), 294 N.C. 503, 243 S.E. 2d 338 (1978), and State v. Banks, 295 N.C. 399, 245 S.E. 2d 743 (1978).

In this case, Gunther was charged as follows:

[282]*282The Jurors For The State Upon Their Oath Present that on or about the 2nd day of November, 1977, in Pitt County Thurman Gunther unlawfully and wilfully did feloniously kidnap Eyvonne Wooten Summerell, a female person who had attained the age of sixteen years, by unlawfully removing her from one place to another without her consent and for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony, to wit: rape. The person kidnapped was sexually assaulted during the kidnapping.

He was also charged in a separate bill for assault with intent to commit rape on Mrs. Summerell. The trial judge charged the jury with respect to two possible kidnapping verdicts. The first included as a fourth element that the State must prove the defendant sexually assaulted the victim during the kidnapping. The second charge on kidnapping eliminated this fourth element. Thus, the court required the State to prove as a part of the offense of kidnapping, to which the jury returned a verdict of guilty, the circumstance that would subject the defendant to the greater punishment of a maximum of life imprisonment. The court sentenced defendant as hereinabove set out. The evidence disclosed only one sexual assault of the victim by the defendant. From the moment defendant pulled his knife, he disclosed his intent to rape his victim. All of his conduct during the travel to the barn and until the escape of Mrs. Summerell constituted the assault with intent to rape her. There is no evidence of any sexual assault on Mrs. Summerell during the kidnapping other than the assault with intent to rape her. There is no evidence of any assault with intent to rape Mrs. Summerell other than that committed by the defendant during the kidnapping of her.

In Fulcher, the State did not allege in the kidnapping bill that defendant actually committed the offense of crime against nature. This was alleged in a separate indictment. In Fulcher’s appeal he contended that N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-39 was unconstitutional as subection (a)(2) subjected him to conviction for two crimes, ie., kidnapping and crime against nature, when he committed only crime against nature. Defendant contended the kidnapping was merely incidental to the commission of crime against nature. Fulcher contended that as applied in the case against him, G.S. 14-39(a)(2) violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United [283]*283States and Article I, Section 19, of the North Carolina Constitution. This would subject defendant to a penalty of twenty-five years, rather than ten years for the offense of crime against nature, by charging the defendant with kidnapping for the purpose of facilitating the felony of crime against nature. Thus, we see that in Fulcher the Court was concerned with the question of whether the facts of that case were sufficient to support convictions of both crime against nature and kidnapping. The Supreme Court held that the restraint of the victim was separate and apart from, and not an inherent incident to, the offense of crime against nature. There being two separate and distinct crimes, Fulcher’s constitutional rights were not violated by the two convictions. Counsel in Fulcher did not challenge the validity of the bill of indictment to support a sentence of greater than twenty-five years. Neither appellate court addressed this question. Likewise, the Court was not faced in Fulcher with the question of whether a defendant can be sentenced on the felony, which the State relies upon for the increased punishment, on a separate bill, where the State alleges in its kidnapping indictment that such felony was actually committed and the jury so finds. The Supreme Court, on page 524 of its opinion, referred to the possibility of these problems in this language:

Let us suppose, for example, a restraint for the purpose of committing rape followed by a rescue of the victim before the contemplated rape is accomplished. Such a restraint would constitute kidnapping under G.S. 14-39. We need not presently determine whether the perpetrator thereof could also be convicted of and punished for assault with intent to commit rape.

In Fulcher, the Court further held that upon proof of the unlawful restraint of the victim with the purpose of facilitating the commission of the felony of crime against nature, the crime of kidnapping was complete, irrespective of whether the then contemplated crime against nature ever occurred.

In State v. Banks, supra, the State alleged in its kidnapping bill of indictment that the kidnapping was for the purpose of facilitating the commission of the felonies of crime against nature, assault with intent to rape, and armed robbery. The State also alleged in the kidnapping bill: “The person kidnapped was sexual[284]

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People v. Carroll
2022 IL App (2d) 210069-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2022)
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249 S.E.2d 709 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
248 S.E.2d 97, 38 N.C. App. 279, 1978 N.C. App. LEXIS 2168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gunther-ncctapp-1978.