State v. St. Onge

1

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. DANIEL OWEN ST. ONGE

No. COA23-1047

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

August 6, 2024

An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute controlling legal authority.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.

Heard in the Court of Appeals 12 June 2024.

Appeal by Defendant from judgment entered 22 February 2023 by Judge Donald Ray Cureton in Mecklenburg County Superior Court, No 20 CRS 215389, 20 CRS 215390

Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Special Deputy Attorney General Michael T. Henry, for the State.

Goodman Carr, PLLC, by W. Rob Heroy, for the Defendant.

WOOD Judge.

On 22 February 2023, a jury convicted Daniel St. Onge ("Defendant") of two counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Defendant appeals, arguing the trial court erred in instructing the jury that the Castle Doctrine would not apply if Defendant used excessive force to defend his home; denying Defendant's motion to dismiss the charges based on the immunity available under the Castle Doctrine; and declining to provide the jury with a flight instruction. For the reasons stated herein, we hold Defendant received a fair trial, free from error.

I. Factual and Procedural History

On the night of 2 May 2020, Rodney Walker Ellenburg ("Walker"), and three friends, Trey, Levi, and Cayden, all teenaged juveniles, attended a party in Mint Hill. Walker was approximately twenty-three years old. Trey had "lost count" of how much beer he had consumed and was feeling "[p]retty bad off." Walker had a "few" drinks but was not "heavily under the influence." Cayden did not drink any alcohol. After the party, the group decided to steal street signs and "speed around town" in a vehicle. The group rode in Walker's vehicle, a Ford Mustang.

Walker had previously been in a relationship with one of Defendant's daughters, Anna, who had ended her relationship with Walker in September 2018. Walker was "upset" with Anna and wanted to go to her home. At approximately 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. the following morning, the group drove to Anna's home in Charlotte, where she lived with her parents and her two sisters. Trey and Walker threw bottles toward the home, and Trey bent and pulled the mailbox door. They did not see or hear any signs of anyone exiting Walker's home. They got back into Walker's Mustang and drove to Levi's home at approximately 3:00 a.m. Anna awoke to a "ruckus" at approximately 1:45 or 2:00 a.m.^[1] She looked out the window and saw somebody behind her vehicle. She used her key fob to activate the lights on her vehicle, and the person who was tampering with the vehicles jumped into the Mustang, which sped away. Anna went into her parents' bedroom to wake them up. Defendant had his wife call 911 then went outside to investigate what had happened. Anna also went outside and "as soon as [she] opened the door," she observed "beer bottles all over the ground." Defendant drove through the neighborhood to determine whether any suspicious persons were still in the area. When he returned home, he observed "a litany, 15 or more" of beer bottles smashed against the doorbell, front door, portico, windows, and cars. The yard was littered with shattered beer bottles that had been thrown against the house.

After midnight, Charlotte Police Officer Kevin Crespi ("Officer Crespi") responded to a service call reporting a suspicious person "around" Defendant's property messing with vehicles. When he arrived at Defendant's home, Defendant discussed the damage that he had observed on his property. They contacted CPI Home Security to retrieve doorbell camera footage, but the footage only depicted "cracklings" because Walker and Trey had "busted" the camera. Because Officer Crespi did not observe "evidence of any crimes" nor any suspicious person still in the vicinity of Defendant's home, he informed Defendant that officers "would circulate the area." Anna recalls Officer Crespi stating that what happened was "petty theft" and that whoever did it "should not come back."

Later that morning, Walker persuaded the group to return to Defendant's home. According to Cayden, Walker wanted to tamper with Anna's license plate.^[2]Her vehicle was parked on the street in front of Defendant's home. They left Levi's home and arrived at Defendant's home at approximately 4:00 a.m.

At approximately 4:45 a.m., Anna awoke once again, this time to the noise of a car engine revving. She looked out her window and saw someone walking toward the family's vehicles with a sledgehammer. She ran out of her bedroom to tell her parents that the perpetrators had returned. Defendant told her to call the police. While Anna was on the phone with the 911 operator, she heard gunshots and feared Defendant had been shot.

According to Defendant, he awoke shortly before 5:00 a.m. to his daughter running into his room, crying, telling him that the perpetrators were back and had a sledgehammer. Defendant immediately grabbed a pistol and went downstairs to investigate. When Defendant stepped outside, he saw two individuals. One was in Defendant's driveway walking toward his house, and the other was in the yard.

Defendant yelled, "Hey stop," and at the same time heard something "whiz" past his head and "pop." It was the noise of a glass bottle thrown past him and shattering behind him, although at the time Defendant thought it "sounded like a gunshot." Defendant fired his pistol in the direction from which he believed the projectile came. The two individuals disappeared in different directions.

Defendant walked to the end of his driveway "to figure out what was happening next." He then heard a Mustang start, rev its engine, and "burn rubber or spin the tires" and advance directly toward him with the high beams on. Defendant thought the vehicle was going to hit him and "obviously kill" him. Defendant stepped back and fired two shots toward the vehicle. The car swerved and a door "flew open." Out of the corner of Defendant's eye, he saw someone emerge from a cluster of trees and run directly toward him. Defendant later learned this individual was Trey.

Defendant observed Trey holding a sledgehammer, and he believed Trey was going to kill him. Defendant fired four shots, and Trey continued running into the street. Defendant saw one individual get into the Mustang first and then saw Trey initially fumble as he attempted to enter the Mustang. The vehicle's occupants pulled him inside, and the Mustang "sped off" out of the neighborhood.

According to Cayden, all four members of the group returned to Defendant's home a second time that night. Trey and Cayden got out of the Mustang, and Cayden lost sight of Trey. One of them had a sledgehammer, which they intended to use on the mailbox. Trey began tampering with a vehicle's license plate. Cayden heard Defendant exit the home and yell, "Hey," at which point Cayden ran away down the street toward the Mustang. Cayden did not know where Trey was, but believed he had a delayed reaction to Defendant's gunshots and was running somewhere behind him. Cayden was the first to reach the Mustang and jumped into the passenger seat. Defendant continued firing his pistol after Cayden shut the door. A bullet shattered the passenger door window, and Cayden ducked down behind the door to take cover. He testified he could still hear gunshots "before, during, and after" the time he entered the car. Trey managed to jump into the back seat where Levi was sitting. Levi pointed out to Trey that he had been shot. They discovered he had been hit on a forearm and a leg.

According to Trey, he only traveled to Defendant's home once, on the second occasion when Defendant fired gunshots.^[3] Trey testified he and Cayden tampered with a license plate for "a minute or two" before Defendant exited his home and fired nine to ten shots at them. He and Cayden then ran toward the Mustang. Trey testified he was shot while attempting to get into the Mustang. He did not notice that he had been shot in the arm and leg until after he entered the vehicle. According to Trey, he did not remember having a sledgehammer.

Walker chose to change vehicles to avoid driving one with bullet holes in it before driving to a hospital. Cayden later realized that Walker drove by two closer hospitals in order to do so. At the hospital, Trey learned the gunshot to his arm fractured or split a bone. Hospital personnel conducted surgery to remove a bullet. Trey required four to six months to recover and could not do anything such as work or school.

At approximately 5:00 a.m., Officer Crespi received a call regarding shots fired at Defendant's home. Officer Crespi received a report of a white Mustang with a group of people on or near Defendant's property. For the second time that night, Officer Crespi responded to Defendant's home. On his way there, he observed a white Mustang traveling at a high rate of speed. He turned his vehicle around and attempted to catch up to the Mustang to conduct a traffic stop, but he lost sight of it and continued to drive to Defendant's home. When he arrived, Defendant handed over his firearm and concealed weapon carry permit. Defendant was "relaxed" while speaking with responding officers. Defendant explained to responding officers that this was the second time that night that people came to vandalize his property and that he "was in fear for his life" and fired his pistol.

Officers discovered spent shell casings scattered in the street, a sledgehammer at an intersection approximately 119 feet from Defendant's mailbox, and a bent and damaged license plate. During the investigation, one of the officers gave Defendant a...