State v. Hensley

802 S.E.2d 744, 254 N.C. App. 173, 2017 WL 2644102, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS 455
Court of Appeals of North Carolina·Decided June 20, 2017·No. COA16-689·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinions

BRYANT, Judge.

*174Where the trial court did not violate Rule 106 or otherwise abuse its discretion by admitting into evidence a detective's handwritten notes after defendant opened the door to this evidence during cross-examination, we find no error.

The State's evidence tended to show that Danny Stanley purchased a .40-caliber Glock handgun from defendant Sammy Lee Hensley Sr. in "roughly October of [20]13." The transaction occurred in a trailer belonging to defendant's mother. Defendant personally handed the gun to Stanley, and Stanley paid defendant $300.00. During the exchange, defendant assured Stanley that "the gun was clean, wasn't stolen." Later, however, defendant told Stanley that he " 'stole [the gun] out of a car in Louisiana.' " Stanley contacted a friend in the Burke County Sheriff's Office and "asked him if he would run that gun to see if it was stolen." The friend advised him that the gun was stolen and referred the matter to Detective Melanie Robinson in the Criminal Investigations Division.

On 3 October 2014, Stanley met with Detective Robinson and surrendered the handgun purchased from defendant. Detective Robinson traced the gun's serial number through the National Criminal Information Center database and confirmed the gun had been reported stolen in Louisiana. Though "very reluctant" to reveal how he had obtained the weapon, Stanley eventually told Detective Robinson that he bought it from "Sammy Hensley, Sr."

Detective Robinson interviewed defendant at the Sheriff's Office on 17 October 2014 after he was arrested on unrelated charges. During the course of the interview, defendant acknowledged having " 'sold a gun to Sam [Stanley] or his father, Dan.' He didn't remember which one." Defendant reviewed and signed a written statement prepared by Detective Robinson on the afternoon of 17 October 2014, stating as follows:

Back towards the middle of 2013, ... Danny [Hall] came to me & he had a couple of guns-a Glock & a .38 [c]aliber pistol. Danny asked me to help him out & sell the gun cause he needed money for morphine for his pain. I called up Sam Stanley & he asked his Daddy. Then I sold the gun *175to them for Danny & I didn't keep any of the money. I don't remember what they paid for it. The reason I don't remember is it was so long ago. I also didn't take a cut because Danny was my friend & would give me morphine for my leg when I was out of my meds....

After obtaining defendant's statement, Detective Robinson contacted Stanley and *747asked if he would be willing to give a written statement now that defendant had admitted selling him the gun. Stanley met Detective Robinson at the Sheriff's Office on 23 October 2014 and signed a written statement describing the transaction.

At trial, the State presented two witnesses-Detective Robinson and Danny Stanley. Detective Robinson's direct examination was limited mainly to her investigation of the case, including discussions with Stanley, and the fact that she talked to defendant, but not the substance of her conversation with defendant. At that point, the State noted that it had completed its questioning of Detective Robinson "subject to being ... allowed to recall her after Mr. Stanley's testimony to corroborate his statement, if in fact it [did corroborate his statement], and also to introduce what the defendant told her...." Defense counsel noted no objection to the State proceeding in that manner.

Defense counsel then proceeded to conduct an extensive cross-examination of Detective Robinson, including questions about three pages of handwritten notes she had taken during her interview with defendant on 17 October 2014:

Q. The bottom of page 1, the last sentence, what's written in your notes?
A. (As read) "Denies all involvement with any guns."
Q. And this is [defendant's] statement to you, correct?
A. This is his statement prior to me questioning him about this case. I interviewed him on multiple cases that day.
Q. So but if he denies any involvement with guns, you didn't put that in his statement, though, that you wrote, right?
....
A. It-No, I did not. It did not have any bearing on this statement as I was writing it. He, he made-Whenever I made this note, everything's chronological. When I take *176my notes, I take them in chronological order. And as you review them, you will be able to follow and see what case we were discussing as I was writing it. And I had not yet began [sic] to question him in reference to this firearm when he made that comment.
Q. Well, let's talk about when you started questioning about this firearm....

Later, on redirect, the State asked Detective Robinson about her reference to defendant denying "all involvement with any guns" including the gun sold to Stanley:

Q. [Defense counsel] pointed you out to certain segments of both ... Stanley's statement and [defendant's] statement.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. At one point he asked you to look at handwritten notes that you took from ... defendant. And he wanted you to specifically read a segment where at the bottom of the page he said he denied all involvement with any guns. What was that specific question in ref-or answer in reference to?
A. When he made that statement to me, that was right after he informed me that he was a convicted felon.
Q. Was it in reference, though, to this gun, this Glock .40 caliber 20-Model 22 or another gun?
A. No, sir. It was not in reference to that. It was-It wasn't in reference to any gun. It was just something that came up in the conversation when he was basically telling me some of his criminal past.
... When I asked him if he had any guns, he says, "No, I don't mess with"-something along the lines of, "No, I don't mess with guns. I don't have any guns." He did make that statement.
And that's when I wrote, (as read) "Denies all involvement with any guns." But this was prior-We discussed two other cases before I questioned him about this firearm. And this was a statement made early on in the interview .

(Emphasis added).

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State v. Hensley, 802 S.E.2d 744, 254 N.C. App. 173, 2017 WL 2644102, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS 455 (N.C. Ct. App. 2017).

802 S.E.2d 744 (State v. Hensley) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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