State v. Maready

654 S.E.2d 769, 188 N.C. App. 169, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 96
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 15, 2008
DocketCOA07-171
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 654 S.E.2d 769 (State v. Maready) 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. Maready, 654 S.E.2d 769, 188 N.C. App. 169, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 96 (N.C. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

McGEE, Judge.

Kenneth Wayne Maready (Defendant) was convicted of second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony fleeing/eluding arrest with a motor vehicle, driving while impaired, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, driving while license revoked, misdemeanor larceny, and reckless driving to endanger. The jury also found that Defendant had attained the status of habitual felon and found, as an aggravating factor, that “[Defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person[.]” The trial court sentenced Defendant to a term of 270 months to 333 months for second-degree [171]*171murder, 150 months to 189 months for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, 150 months to 189 months for felony fleeing/eluding arrest with a motor vehicle, 24 months for driving while impaired, 150 days for each count of assault with a deadly weapon, 120 days for driving while license revoked, 120 days for misdemeanor larceny, and 60 days for reckless driving to endanger.

Prior to trial, Defendant filed a motion to suppress. Defendant sought to suppress “all testimony by any State’s witnesses as to the initial stop of'. . . Defendant’s vehicle based upon the lack of reasonable suspicion that. . . Defendant had committed a criminal offense.”

At trial, Deputy Morial Whitaker (Deputy Whitaker) testified that he and Deputy Norman Perry (Deputy Perry) (collectively, the deputies) were on patrol on 12 February 2005. The deputies passed a minivan that was driving slowly and had its flashers illuminated. The deputies also saw a silver Honda Civic (the Honda) driving behind the minivan. The minivan stopped and the Honda also stopped. When the two vehicles stopped, an apparently intoxicated pedestrian, whom the deputies had been watching, got into the passenger side of the Honda. The Honda then pulled around the minivan and continued driving. Deputy Whitaker testified that Deputy Perry drove the patrol vehicle alongside the minivan and that Deputy Whitaker talked with the female driver of the minivan. Defendant objected to this testimony, and the trial court held a hearing outside the presence of the jury on Defendant’s objection and motion to suppress.

Deputy Whitaker testified during the voir dire hearing that the female driver of the minivan pointed at the Honda and told the deputies that they might “want to stop [the Honda]. The driver is driving erratic[ally], driving a little crazy, running through stoplights and stop signs.” Deputy Whitaker testified that he and Deputy Perry then stopped the Honda for investigatory purposes. Deputy Whitaker testified in further detail about the circumstances leading to the stop of the Honda. After Deputy Whitaker completed his voir dire testimony, the trial court overruled Defendant’s objection. The trial court also entered a written order on 26 April 2006 denying Defendant’s motion to suppress.

Deputy Whitaker continued his testimony before the jury. He testified that after the female driver of the minivan told the deputies that they might want to stop the Honda, the deputies caught up with the Honda, pulled behind it, and activated the blue lights of their patrol vehicle. The driver of the Honda pulled to the right side of [172]*172the road and stopped. The driver and the passenger got out of the Honda and started walking towards the deputies. The deputies ordered both of them to get back in the Honda, and they complied. The driver of the Honda, whom Deputy Whitaker later identified as Defendant, again got out of the Honda and started walking towards the deputies. The deputies ordered Defendant to get back in the Honda, and Defendant complied.

Deputy Whitaker testified that he approached the Honda and smelled a strong odor of alcohol, and that Defendant was “very lethargic, fumbling with his wallet to get his ID out.” Deputy Whitaker asked Defendant if Defendant had been drinking, and Defendant replied “yes, I have been drinking.” Deputy Whitaker then asked Defendant to step out of the Honda, but Defendant refused. The deputies then attempted to extract Defendant from the Honda, but Defendant said he was “not going back to the penitentiary,” and put the Honda into gear and sped off.

Deputy Whitaker testified that he and Deputy Perry immediately ran back to their patrol vehicle and began following the Honda. Deputy Whitaker testified that as the deputies rounded a curve approximately .7 of a mile down the road, he “saw a lot of smoke and debris. [He] saw the Honda flipping continuously. [He] saw a red pickup truck also flipping at the same time.” Deputy Whitaker saw the passenger of the Honda, who had been ejected, lying “face down” in the road.

Deputy Whitaker testified that he saw a little girl in the passenger seat of the red pickup truck, and a female, who appeared to be deceased, lying on the side of the road. Deputy Perry testified that he saw a woman standing beside another vehicle that had been involved in the wreck, and that the woman was “okay.”

The State introduced, without objection, Exhibit 64, Defendant’s certified driving record from the Division of Motor Vehicles. Kenneth Cassidy (Mr. Cassidy), an assistant supervisor with the Division of Motor Vehicles License and Theft Bureau, testified that the driving record showed Defendant had six prior convictions for driving while impaired. The State also introduced, over Defendant’s objection, Exhibits 66 through 69, which were certified copies of court records of several of Defendant’s prior convictions. Mr. Cassidy further testified that four of the six convictions listed in Exhibit 64 also appeared in Exhibits 66 through 69. Defendant appeals.

[173]*173I.

Defendant argues the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress. Specifically, Defendant contends that a portion of finding of fact number eight was not supported by the evidence, and that the trial court erred by concluding that the deputies had reasonable suspicion to stop Defendant’s vehicle.

Our standard of review of an order granting or denying a motion to suppress is “strictly limited to determining whether the trial [court’s] underlying findings of fact are supported by competent evidence, in which event they are conclusively binding on appeal, and whether those factual findings in turn support the [trial court’s] ultimate conclusions of law.”

State v. Ortez, 178 N.C. App. 236, 243-44, 631 S.E.2d 188,194-95 (2006) (quoting State v. Cooke, 306 N.C. 132, 134, 291 S.E.2d 618, 619 (1982)), disc. review denied, 361 N.C. 434, 649 S.E.2d 642 (2007). “However, the trial court’s conclusions of law are fully reviewable on appeal. At a suppression hearing, conflicts in the evidence are to be resolved by the trial court. The trial court must make findings of fact resolving any material conflict in the evidence.” State v. McArn, 159 N.C. App. 209, 212, 582 S.E.2d 371, 374 (2003) (citations omitted).

In the present case, the trial court made the following findings of fact related to Defendant’s motion to suppress:

4.

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Related

Horton v. Monroe
85 Va. Cir. 408 (Richmond County Circuit Court, 2012)
State v. Maready
695 S.E.2d 771 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2010)
State v. Hudgins
672 S.E.2d 717 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2009)
State v. Maready
669 S.E.2d 564 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
654 S.E.2d 769, 188 N.C. App. 169, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-maready-ncctapp-2008.