State v. Heavner

741 S.E.2d 897, 227 N.C. App. 139, 2013 WL 1876655, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 486
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedMay 7, 2013
DocketNo. COA12-1005
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 741 S.E.2d 897 (State v. Heavner) 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. Heavner, 741 S.E.2d 897, 227 N.C. App. 139, 2013 WL 1876655, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 486 (N.C. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

DILLON, Judge.

Brent Shaun Heavner (Defendant) appeals from judgments entered upon his convictions of three counts of assault on a governmental official and two counts of malicious conduct by prisoner. Defendant also appeals from the trial court’s denial of his motion for appropriate relief. We find no error.

The evidence of record tends to show the following: In 2008, Defendant, who was in his early twenties, lived with his grandmother (“Ms. Heavner”), who was eighty-three years old, in Vale, North Carolina. Defendant had substance abuse problems. Ms. Heavner testified that when Defendant drinks alcohol, “he just loses it.”

On 16 February 2008, Defendant started drinking alcohol late in the afternoon, which concerned Ms. Heavner. Later that evening, Defendant became violent towards Ms. Heavner and also threatened to harm himself. Ms. Heavner testified that at approximately 10:00 p.m., Defendant “went and got the butcher knife and told [her] that he was going to cut himself, which he . . . did quite often.” Ms. Heavner retreated from the house and started across the street to the home of her sister and brother-in-law (the Lovings). Defendant followed her and encouraged her to come back into the house. Ms. Heavner testified that Defendant did not want her to “call the law.”

[141]*141The Lovings heard the disturbance and turned their porch light on, whereupon Defendant retreated to Ms. Heavner’s house. However, Ms. Heavner proceeded to the Lovings’ house, and Mr. Loving called the police.

Deputy Christopher Locklear (Deputy Locklear), Deputy J. Owens (Deputy Owens), and Sergeant C.D. Stamper (Sergeant Stamper) responded to Mr. Loving’s call. The officers saw Defendant on the front porch of Ms. Heavner’s house, but when the officers reached the driveway, Defendant retreated inside. The officers then saw Defendant through a kitchen window holding a butcher knife. The officers discovered that the front door to the house was unlocked, and the officers entered the house. Deputy Locklear approached Defendant, placed him under arrest, and attempted to handcuff Defendant. Deputy Locklear said, when he attempted to handcuff Defendant, the following transpired:

I reached for his right hand, and as soon as I did that he kind of blew up, started resisting. ... He bucked up and kind of pulled away ... for me not to be able to handcuff him. ... We took him to the floor. . . and told him to stay on the ground while we tried to handcuff him.... He was very belligerent, started threatening to kill all of us. . . . [W]e finally got his other hand cuffed, [but] he continued to try to get up. ... I think I asked him to calm down and let us help ... get him up and he told me I could go to hell. He proceeded to ... try to call his dog to attack us.
[We] [finally got him on his feet, where we held his arm. We walked him 3 to 4 [feet], [but then he] fell to the floor. I asked him to stand back up. And that’s when he stated that if he was going anywhere we [had to] carry him, and he wished he could spit in our mouths.... [So] when I went to pick him up he spit towards my face [and] hit me in the forehead area.... Sergeant Stamper began to help Deputy Owens try to get [Defendant] up, as I was wiping the spit off my forehead.
They got him up . . . and before they could get him out of the house ... we placed him on the ground one more time because he was kicking. . . . After he got back up I think Sergeant Stamper and Deputy Owens had carried him and placed him on the ground outside in the driveway.. . . [W]e got him outside, stuck him on the ground, his clothes were pulled off where he had struggled so much, his pants. So we pulled his clothes back up so he would be more [142]*142appropriate. When I went to try to pull his clothes back on him he attempted to bite me on the leg, and then spit on me again. It hit me on the right arm— And after he had spit on me for the second time, and this was probably a five minute difference, a five minute time frame difference in between the first spit and the second spit, after he had done that I think I -1 don’t think I even wiped it off that time. I think we just - myself and Sergeant Stamper picked him up and put him in the back seat of Deputy Owens’ car....

Defendant was indicted on two counts of malicious conduct by prisoner based on the two alleged instances of spitting on Deputy Locklear and on three counts of assault on a governmental official.1 Defendant’s case came on for trial at the 12 July 2010 session of Lincoln County Superior Court. On 13 July 2010, the jury found Defendant guilty of three counts of assault on a governmental official and two counts of malicious conduct by prisoner. The trial court, the Honorable F. Lane Williamson presiding, entered judgments on 13 July 2010 consistent with the jury’s verdicts, sentencing Defendant to two consecutive terms of 28 to 34 months incarceration.

The day after the jury returned its verdict, Defendant’s mother, Janet Elmore, contacted defense counsel and informed him that while waiting in the courthouse hallway prior to jury selection, she had spoken extensively to a person about Defendant’s case and about Defendant’s mental and substance abuse problems. She later realized that the person served on the jury in Defendant’s case. Defendant filed a motion for appropriate relief pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1414(b)(3), alleging that Defendant did not receive a fair trial based on this contact. At the hearing on Defendant’s motion for appropriate relief, the juror to whom Ms. Elmore had spoken, Roger Diffendarfer, admitted that the conversation took place but that he did not take it into account in arriving at a verdict. The trial court, the Honorable Forrest D. Bridges presiding, denied Defendant’s motion for appropriate relief after making oral findings and conclusions in open court. Judge Bridges also entered a written order denying Defendant’s motion for appropriate relief.

Defendant appeals from the 13 July 2010 judgments. Defendant also appeals from the trial court’s order denying his motion for appropriate relief.

[143]*143I: Motion to Dismiss

In Defendant’s first argument on appeal, he contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss one of the two malicious conduct by prisoner charges because “the Legislature did not intend multiple punishment[s] for more than one instance of emission of bodily fluids during the same continuous transaction.” We disagree.

“This Court reviews the trial court’s denial of a motion to dismiss de novo” State v. Smith, 186 N.C. App. 57, 62, 650 S.E.2d 29, 33 (2007). “ ‘Upon defendant’s motion for dismissal, the question for the Court is whether there is substantial evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged, or of a lesser offense included therein, and (2) of defendant’s being the perpetrator of such offense. If so, the motion is properly denied.’ ” State v. Fritsch, 351 N.C. 373, 378, 526 S.E.2d 451, 455, cert. denied, 531 U.S. 890 (2000) (quotation omitted). “Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” State v. Smith, 300 N.C. 71, 78-79, 265 S.E.2d 164, 169 (1980).

N.C. Gen. Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
741 S.E.2d 897, 227 N.C. App. 139, 2013 WL 1876655, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-heavner-ncctapp-2013.