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[T] State v. Hair12/16/2003
An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute controlling legal authority. Citation is disfavored, but may be permitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 30(e)(3) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Defendant Leonard Wayne Hair appeals from judgments entered upon jury verdicts finding him guilty of two counts of first degree felony murder and one count each of first degree burglary, first degree robbery with a dangerous weapon, first degree arson, and first degree rape. For the reasons stated herein, we conclude that defendant's trial was free of prejudicial error.
On 5 January 1998, true bills of indictment were returned charging defendant with the murders of 57-year-old Forest SamuelBraswell (Mr. Braswell) and 78-year-old Elizabeth Baxley (Ms. Baxley), as well as with robbery with a dangerous weapon, first degree burglary, first degree arson, and first degree rape, arising from events which transpired at Mr. Braswell's home in the early morning hours of 4 June 1997. Defendant was tried at the 22 January 2002 criminal session of Robeson County Superior Court, convicted on all counts, and received consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without parole. Defendant filed notice of appeal on 15 February 2002.
At trial, the State's evidence tended to show that while working as an investigator with the Lumberton Police Department, Dan Russ (Officer Russ) was dispatched to Mr. Braswell's Lumberton home around mid-day on 4 June 1997. Ms. Baxley also lived in the home and assisted with cooking and cleaning. Officer Russ entered through the back door and "noticed there had been some type of fire" in the home. The walls were blackened, and "there was a lot of heat inside." The partially charred bodies of Mr. Braswell and Ms. Baxley lay, bound and gagged, on the floor in the den. Ms. Baxley was unclothed from the waist down. Officer Russ observed that some of the rooms in the house had been ransacked, with drawers pulled out of a dresser in one bedroom and their contents emptied onto the floor. A window beside the back door had been broken. Special Agent Neil Murphy (Agent Murphy), an arson investigator with the State Bureau of Investigation, examined the scene and concluded that, based on the burn patterns he observed,"an ignitable liquid of some type had been poured on the floor and across the bodies in [the den], and ignited causing the fire."
Dr. Thomas Clark (Dr. Clark), a forensic pathologist employed by the State of North Carolina, performed an autopsy on Mr. Braswell. Dr. Clark testified that he observed three blunt-force injuries to Mr. Braswell's head, which in his opinion were inflicted with "a hammer or object very much like a hammer with a rounded, heavy surface." Dr. Clark testified that, in his opinion, Mr. Braswell died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by smoke inhalation, although he "could and would have" died from his head injuries absent the fire.
Dr. John Butts (Dr. Butts), Chief Medical Examiner for the State of North Carolina, performed an autopsy on Ms. Baxley. Dr. Butts testified that Ms. Baxley suffered a fractured skull, broken jaw, and other head injuries "consistent with her having been struck with a blunt object" and "characteristic of the kind of fracture that one sees if an individual is struck with . . . a hammer," and that in his opinion these injuries caused her death.
After noting bruising and tearing around and inside Ms. Baxley's vagina and finding sperm therein, Dr. Butts collected a sexual assault evidence kit. Special Agent Mark Boodee (Agent Boodee) of the SBI's DNA Unit tested the sperm collected from Ms. Baxley's vagina, compared it with a DN
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