State v. Randolph

735 S.E.2d 845, 224 N.C. App. 521, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1444
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 18, 2012
DocketNo. COA12-688
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 735 S.E.2d 845 (State v. Randolph) 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. Randolph, 735 S.E.2d 845, 224 N.C. App. 521, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1444 (N.C. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

HUNTER, JR., Robert N., Judge.

[523]*523Henry Tyrone Randolph (“Defendant”) appeals from judgment entered after a jury convicted him of second-degree sexual offense. Defendant contends he is entitled to a new trial because the trial court erred in: (1) admitting evidence concerning a writing the State inaccurately characterized as Defendant’s “statement”; (2) failing to provide the jury with a limiting instruction concerning the proper use of the substantive portions of this “statement” the State used to cross-examine Defendant; (3) denying Defendant’s motion to dismiss the charge against him in light of the State’s failure to put on sufficient evidence of a requisite “sexual act”; (4) instructing the jury on a theory of “sexual act” not supported by the evidence; (5) admitting certain past “bad acts” evidence; and (6) admitting improper opinion evidence. We find no prejudicial error.

I. Factual and Procedural History

On 1 November 2010, the Wayne County Grand Jury indicted Defendant for one count of first-degree forcible sexual offense, one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor, and one count of lewd and lascivious act with a minor. Defendant pled not guilty to all three counts, and the charges came on for trial at the 10 October 2011 Special Criminal Session of Wayne County Superior Court.

The State’s evidence tended to show the following. In the mid-1990s, Defendant met Robin Sheffield (“Sheffield”) and Dionne Vann (“Vann”). Both women were Defendant’s contemporaries and recent mothers. Sheffield’s daughter was named Tanya and Vann’s daughter was named Barbara.1 Defendant formed friendships with both women and their children. Defendant’s friendship with Sheffield included a long off-and-on sexual relationship.

For a decade or more, Defendant, Sheffield, Vann, and their two daughters were close friends. Defendant often baby sat Barbara and Tanya when they were very young. He spent time and money on the girls, and counseled them as a surrogate father as they grew older. Both girls occasionally spent the night at Defendant’s home. With Sheffield’s consent, Tanya spent almost every weekend at Defendant’s house. Sheffield testified Defendant had a paternal -relationship with Tanya, and that she thought he was the type of person that “every parent would want in their child’s life.” Barbara testified Defendant was a friend of her mother, and that she viewed him as a father figure. At least one of the girls referred to Defendant as “Uncle Ty.”

[524]*524In 2010 Barbara, then age 16, accused Defendant of sexually abusing her. She testified that on 4 September 2010 she played basketball with Defendant, went to Defendant’s house, and laid down on Defendant’s bed. Barbara testified that Defendant then laid down next to her, touched her above her clothes around her vaginal area, pulled her underwear down, “put two fingers inside of [her]” against her will, got next to her, and “started licking all over [her] and stuff.” After the incident, Barbara sent Defendant a text message on 17 September 2010 from her job which read: “Sorry to tell you I have to tell my mom what happened because ever since that night I’ve been irritated and I got a discharge. I got to go to the doctor, [sic]” Defendant responded by texting “Do What?” and “Call me?”. When Barbara did not respond, Defendant went to Barbara’s workplace, asked Barbara about her text, and then left. Barbara then called Vann from work, was taken to the Goldsboro police station, and gave a statement to police in which she accused Defendant of having touched her inappropriately.

Sheffield testified that after she learned of Barbara’s allegations, she asked her daughter Tanya if Defendant had ever touched her inappropriately. Tanya initially said that Defendant had not touched her. She later recanted and told Sheffield that she had been touched by Defendant on two separate occasions, the first on 8 May 2010 when he touched her on her breast and vaginal area while she was sleeping on a couch in Defendant’s house, and a second time on 10 September 2010 when she woke up naked with vaginal bleeding after falling asleep at Defendant’s house.

Goldsboro police arrested Defendant on 18 September 2010 and incarcerated Defendant in the county jail later that day. At some point, Defendant requested to speak with Investigator Doug Bethea. Defendant remained in jail during the next two days until the morning of 20 September 2010. That morning, Investigator Bethea went to the jail, retrieved Defendant, and brought him to the police station for interrogation. There, Investigator Bethea showed Defendant a written waiver of rights form. Defendant wrote on the rights form that he did not understand he had been charged with criminal offenses, and that an attorney had “not yet” been appointed to represent him. Defendant did sign a pre-printed Miranda waiver.

Following this exchange, Investigator Bethea started questioning Defendant in the interrogation room at 8:57 a.m. After several minutes of interrogation, Investigator Bethea began writing on a piece of [525]*525paper and then asked Defendant to sign the written instrument. However, Defendant said he was afraid Investigator Bethea had “change[d] things” and “turned what he said inside out,” and refused to sign. At 9:21 a.m., Defendant said he was tired of answering questions and “clearly indicated to [Investigator Bethea] . . . he . . . didn’t want to answer any more questions.” However, Investigator Bethea “kept asking [Defendant] questions” and “kept telling [Defendant] ‘[i]f you got something that you need to tell me, you need to tell me.’ ” Defendant responded to Investigator Bethea’s further interrogation by repeatedly examining his arrest warrants, nervously worrying about prison time, and orally responding to Investigator Bethea’s questions. Investigator Bethea hand wrote more notes as the interrogation progressed. At about 11:00 a.m., Investigator Bethea once again asked Defendant to sign the writing he had produced. Defendant refused to “sign” the writing, but did initial various places on the writing “just for [Investigator Bethea’s] satisfaction.”

Before trial, Defendant filed a motion seeking to suppress any and all evidence of post-arrest comments he allegedly made to Investigator Bethea on the morning of 20 September 2010, including the writing prepared by Investigator Bethea. Defendant renewed his motion at the start of trial, but the court deferred ruling at that time. The motion was heard near the end of the State’s case-in-chief, in anticipation of the State calling Investigator Bethea to testify.

At that hearing, Defendant argued the evidence was inadmissible because it was obtained in violation of his Miranda rights. He further argued that there was no evidence of any “statement” he made, signed, or adopted. During the motion to suppress hearing, the trial court observed that Investigator Bethea “[n]ever represented that he was trying to capture [Defendant’s comments] word for word,” that the written instrument unlikely “capture [d] everything that was said in the course of’ the interrogation, and that the court was “having trouble with [the State’s argument] that the statement is somehow a verbatim transcript.”'The trial court found that Defendant “did not sign any statement that ultimately was written out. Whatever statements were written out were not ... in his handwriting.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
735 S.E.2d 845, 224 N.C. App. 521, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-randolph-ncctapp-2012.