State v. Lawrence

612 S.E.2d 678, 170 N.C. App. 200, 2005 N.C. App. LEXIS 1016
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedMay 17, 2005
DocketCOA03-1038
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 612 S.E.2d 678 (State v. Lawrence) 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. Lawrence, 612 S.E.2d 678, 170 N.C. App. 200, 2005 N.C. App. LEXIS 1016 (N.C. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

ELMORE, Judge.

Defendant appeals from judgments entered upon jury verdicts finding him guilty of six counts of first-degree sexual offense, five counts of statutory rape, and three counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. After careful consideration, and for the reasons stated herein, we vacate the six judgments entered on convictions of first-degree sexual offense, reverse the remainder of the judgments entered against defendant, and remand for a new trial on the statutory rape and indecent liberties charges.

I. Evidentiary Background

Since application of the evidence presented by the State is crucial to our analysis of the issues presented, our discussion of the evidence presented against defendant is detailed. The State’s evidence presented at trial tended to show that over a period of approximately eighteen months in 1999 and 2000, defendant engaged in a variety of sexual acts with the victim, L.D. (Lucy)1, beginning while Lucy was eleven years old. Defendant was living with, and later married to, Lucy’s sister Sharlena during the period in which these acts occurred. Lucy resided with defendant and Sharlena after Lucy’s mother died in August 2000, but spent many days and nights there prior to her mother’s death.

A. Indecent Liberties

Lucy testified that defendant’s inappropriate conduct began in the summer of 1999, prior to the death of her mother, when she and defendant played a game in which defendant exposed himself to her and she lifted up her shirt for defendant. Lucy testified that later that summer, while spending the night with defendant and Sharlena in their home, she was lying on the sofa in the living room when defendant told her to lay down, got on top of her, pulled down his shorts, moved her nightgown and underwear to the side, and “tried to stick his private part into [her].” Lucy testified that no penetration occurred on this occasion because “[she] kept scooting up the couch [202]*202so he wouldn’t.” Lucy testified that she did not tell anyone about either of these incidents.

Lucy also testified that on one occasion during the summer of 1999, she and her younger sister D.D. (Debbie), then eight years old, were about to go swimming when defendant called them into his bedroom. Defendant, who was sitting on the bed with a towel wrapped around his waist, kissed Lucy and Debbie while masturbating. Defendant then laid down on the bed, removed the towel, and told Lucy to sit on top of him. She complied, and they simulated having sex, although defendant did not move Lucy’s bathing suit out of the way. Debbie testified at trial and corroborated Lucy’s testimony regarding this incident, as well as testifying that she once witnessed defendant put his hand up Lucy’s shirt while they were watching a pornographic movie.

B. Rane

Lucy further testified that she and defendant had sexual intercourse a total of thirty-two times. The first incident of possible penetration happened in the living room during an evening in December 1999 when Lucy was staying with defendant and Sharlena because her mother was in the hospital. Sharlena was not at home that evening and at the time defendant was twenty-four years old while Lucy had just turned twelve. Lucy said that while her younger brother and sister were in another room,

[defendant] told me to lay down. And I was at the edge of the couch and he told me to lay down and he tried it again. And as he was trying he stuck it — he almost did, and it was hurting so I was scooting on the couch and then I ran out of the room.

Following this incident in the living room, and later the same evening, defendant came into Lucy’s room that she shared with Debbie and Sharlena’s three-year-old son C.D. (Caleb). All three children were now asleep, but defendant awakened Lucy and told her to lay down on the couch in Caleb’s room.

Lucy: [A]nd he did it.
State: And what do you mean when you say “he did it”?
Lucy: He had sex with me.
State: Did any of his body ever enter any of your body?
[203]*203Lucy: Yes, sir.
State: Please tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury when you say he had sex with you, what do you mean? What did he do?
Lucy: He stuck his private part into mine.
State: Into your private part?
Lucy: Yes.
State: And that was the first time y’all actually had sex; is that right?
Lucy: Yes, sir.

Lucy testified that the next time she remembered that she had sex with defendant it took place in the living room, and that about half the time the two engaged in sex, “about fifteen times,” it occurred in the living room, when Sharlena was “usually in her room asleep or gone to work.”

State: Tell — please tell the jury anything you remember about having sex with [defendant] in the living room. Do you remember where in the living room it was?
Lucy: Most of the time it was on the couch and then sometimes on the floor.
State: Most of the time on the couch?
Lucy: (Nodded affirmatively.)
State: Do you remember any of the times that were on the couch specifically?
Lucy: Just one time I can remember.
State: That you remember specifically?
Lucy: Yes, sir.
State: Okay. Why do you remember that time?
Lucy: (Shrugged shoulders.) I don’t know.
[204]*204State: You just do?
Lucy: Yes sir.
State: Were there any other times that you all had sex on the couch in the living room?
Lucy: Not that I can remember.
State: Do you remember having sex in the living room any other times at all?
Lucy: Yes, sir.

Lucy also testified that immediately following a sex act involving a screwdriver, she and defendant had intercourse. Further, she testified of one specific incident of sex with defendant on the floor of the room she shared with Caleb. This incident was distinctive in part due to the fact that Sharlena nearly saw them in the act.

C. Sexual Offense

Lucy testified to four separate occasions in which defendant penetrated her vagina with a broom, a cucumber, a hairbrush, and a screwdriver, respectively. Each of these incidents occurred on different days, each while Lucy was twelve. She said defendant inserted the broom because “[h]e said he wanted to see how far it would go[;]” that he inserted the hairbrush “ [t] o make him hard[;]” and that defendant “told [her] to play with [her] self” with the screwdriver. Lucy testified that almost every time they had sex, fellatio was also involved, and that on one occasion defendant partially inserted his penis into her anus.

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State v. Lawrence
612 S.E.2d 678 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
612 S.E.2d 678, 170 N.C. App. 200, 2005 N.C. App. LEXIS 1016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lawrence-ncctapp-2005.