Facts of the Crime:
On 4 January 1993, defendant was indicted by the Davie County Grand Jury for first-degree murder, felonious breaking and entering, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He was tried capitally in August 1994 and found guilty of all charges. The jury recommended a sentence of death for the murder conviction, and the trial court sentenced defendant accordingly. The trial court also sentenced defendant to imprisonment for the other crimes.
The State's evidence tended to show inter alia that on 10 August 1992, seventeen-year-old Evette Howell lived with her parents in Mocksville, along with her fifteen-year-old brother, Fonzie, and her eighteen-month-old son, Xavier. Evette's parents left for work shortly before 7:00 a.m. Shortly after 8:00 a.m., Evette was found dead in the middle of her bed. Her body was partially covered with a bedsheet, and a fired handgun lay next to her body. Her infant son was found alive and lying next to her in the bed. Evette had been killed by a small-caliber gunshot wound to the left side of her head.
In the next bedroom, Fonzie was found lying on the floor, bloody. One fired shell casing and two unfired bullets were lying next to him on the floor. Fonzie was taken to the emergency room at Baptist Hospital. He arrived in a coma and was placed on a ventilator and a feeding tube. He spent the next six weeks in the intensive care unit and another fifteen months undergoing intensive medical treatment.
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