State v. Powell

364 S.E.2d 332, 321 N.C. 364, 1988 N.C. LEXIS 17
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 3, 1988
Docket375A86
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 364 S.E.2d 332 (State v. Powell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court 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. Powell, 364 S.E.2d 332, 321 N.C. 364, 1988 N.C. LEXIS 17 (N.C. 1988).

Opinions

WEBB, Justice.

The defendant has brought forward three assignments of error pursuant to Rule 28(b)(5), Rules of Appellate Procedure and supported them by reason and authority. We shall consider these three assignments of error.

The defendant’s first assignment of error deals with the identification testimony of the prosecuting witness. The defendant objected to this testimony and a voir dire hearing out of the presence of the jury was held. The prosecuting witness testified that on 17 August 1982 she was staying at a cottage in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. She arose early that morning and went to the beach at approximately 5:10 a.m. to watch the sun rise. She sat on the beach for five to ten minutes at which time she saw a man approaching. The man came to her and asked if she had a cigarette. She told him she did not. After some conversation he drew a knife and forced her to a dune, at which time he raped her and performed cunnilingus on her. She escaped from him some time later and returned to the cottage in which she was staying with her fiance and her fiance’s parents. She testified she was with her assailant for approximately forty minutes, during which time there was sufficient light that she had no trouble identifying him.

The prosecuting witness reported the incident to the Dare County Sheriffs Department and she was interviewed that day by several deputy sheriffs and by W. A. Hoggard, III, a special agent with the State Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Hoggard exhibited to her a photographic lineup which did not contain the defendant’s picture. She was not able to identify her assailant in the lineup although she said one photograph appeared to be similar to the defendant. Later that day Mr. Hoggard carried the prosecuting witness to a commercial artist who drew a picture of the assailant from the prosecuting witness’ description. The prosecuting witness testified the picture was similar to her assailant but did not “really resemble him.”

[367]*367At approximately 2:00 a.m. the next morning Mr. Hoggard called the prosecuting witness and asked her to come to a bar and look at a man. The prosecuting witness was driven to the bar by her fiance where the defendant was standing in the parking lot under a light. The prosecuting witness stayed in the automobile and observed the defendant from a distance of approximately twenty feet. She testified “I remember pulling up in the parking lot and I began to shake uncontrollably when I started observing him, and he was wearing those same green pants and he had on the same muscletype t-shirt, but I didn’t get to look at his face.” Mr. Hoggard testified that he went to the prosecuting witness who was seated in the automobile. He said “[She] stated the individual she had seen me talking to had the same basic build and size as her assailant on the beach, but, due to the distance and the lighting, she was not able to get a close-up view of his facial features and could not make a positive identification.”

On 21 August 1982 Mr. Hoggard showed another photographic lineup to the prosecuting witness. It contained a year old picture of the defendant. The prosecuting witness selected the defendant’s picture and said it “appeared to be him, but the hair — appeared to be her attacker, but the hair and moustache were quite a bit different from the person she observed on the beach on August 17, 1982.” Mr. Hoggard had a photograph made of the defendant that day and placed it in the second photographic lineup he had shown the prosecuting witness. The prosecuting witness told Mr. Hoggard that this picture looked like her attacker, but she could not be positive and she would like to see the individual in person.

As a result of the prosecuting witness’ request, Mr. Hoggard called the defendant who agreed to meet Mr. Hoggard and the prosecuting witness to determine whether he was the assailant. They met in the parking lot of a supermarket. It was daylight. The defendant was wearing a three piece suit and a necktie. The prosecuting witness told Mr. Hoggard the defendant looked very similar to her assailant but she still could not make a positive identification. This occurred on 22 August 1982 and the prosecuting witness left that day for her home in Virginia.

The prosecuting witness talked to Mr. Hoggard several times by telephone and wrote him letters in September 1982 and March [368]*3681983. In late May 1985 she called Mr. Hoggard and told him she could identify her assailant. She met Mr. Hoggard in the district attorney’s office in Elizabeth City at which time she was shown the two photographic lineups she had been shown in the summer of 1982. She identified the photograph of the defendant as a picture of the man who assaulted her in 1982. The prosecuting witness testified that she could identify the defendant as the man who had assaulted her because she had several nightmares and the face of her assailant kept appearing in them. This was the face of the defendant.

The court made findings of fact consistent with this evidence and held:

From the foregoing findings of fact, the Court concludes as a matter of law: After having considered the opportunity of the witness to view the person at the scene, the degree of attention which the witness described in her viewing of him, as well as her description of him physically and of his clothing and jewelry, after having considered the accuracy of the witness’ description as she gave it to Agent Hoggard, the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness that the in-court confrontation yesterday in which she stated that she was absolutely certain of the defendant as being her attacker and after having considered the length of time between the crime and the confrontation, the Court has come to the conclusion that all of the circumstances do not reveal pretrial procedure so unecessarily [sic] suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistake in identification as to offend fundamental standards of decency, fairness and justice. The Court has further concluded as a matter of law that the in-court identification of the defendant is of independent origin and untainted by illegal pretrial identification procedures.

The court denied the motion to suppress the prosecuting witness’ in-court identification of the defendant.

Identification evidence must be suppressed on due process grounds where the facts show that the pretrial identification procedure was so suggestive as to create a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. State v. Wilson, 313 N.C. 516, 330 S.E. 2d 450 (1985). The first inquiry when a motion is made to suppress identification testimony is whether the pretrial [369]*369identification procedure is impermissibly suggestive. If it is determined that the pretrial identification procedure is impermissibly suggestive the court must then determine whether the suggestive procedure gives rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Factors to be considered in making this determination are (1) the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, (2) the witness’ degree of attention, (3) the accuracy of the witness’ prior description of the criminal, (4) the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation, and (5) the time between the crime and confrontation. State v. Hannah, 312 N.C. 286, 322 S.E. 2d 148 (1984) and State v. Headen, 295 N.C. 437, 245 S.E. 2d 706 (1978).

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State v. Powell
364 S.E.2d 332 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
364 S.E.2d 332, 321 N.C. 364, 1988 N.C. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-powell-nc-1988.