{ "id": 2542088, "name": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. DREAMER LEE COTTLE ALSTON", "name_abbreviation": "State v. Alston", "decision_date": "1991-01-10", "docket_number": "No. 397A90", "first_page": "77", "last_page": "81", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "328 N.C. 77" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C.", "id": 9292, "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "386 U.S. 738", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "U.S.", "case_ids": [ 6182629 ], "weight": 4, "year": 1967, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "744" }, { "page": "498" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/386/0738-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 507, "char_count": 7839, "ocr_confidence": 0.78, "pagerank": { "raw": 4.03580807328026e-08, "percentile": 0.08197060909728714 }, "sha256": "583e649dd642d09c3788aa85b0a7048d63f0fd3f1d4351e31b235c0f8759601b", "simhash": "1:cc25b29034900d73", "word_count": 1340 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T22:58:40.693084+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. DREAMER LEE COTTLE ALSTON" ], "opinions": [ { "text": "PER CURIAM.\nDefendant, Dreamer Lee Cottle Alston, was indicted by the New Hanover County grand jury on 28 August 1989 for the murder of Pernell Dewayne Joe. The case was tried noncapitally at the 2 January 1990 Criminal Session of Superior Court, \u00d1ew Hanover County.\nThe evidence tended to show that Pernell Dewayne Joe died shortly before midnight on 16 August 1989 as a result of a single gunshot wound to the upper chest. Earlier that evening, around 7:00 or 8:00, Joe got into an argument and fist fight with his brother, James William Joe, at the Dove Meadows apartment complex in Wilmington, where Pernell Joe resided with his girlfriend, Dana Aldelette. A group of people tried to break up the fight. Present in the crowd were Aldelette and several of James Joe\u2019s friends, including defendant, her husband Mike Alston, and a number of their companions. The fight lasted about ten minutes, and then Pernell went back to his apartment, and his brother James left for a short while.\nSubsequently, around 9:00 p.m., defendant and her husband and friends were getting into defendant\u2019s car, and Pernell Joe was outside talking with his girlfriend. Mike Alston said something to Joe about the earlier fight to the effect, \u201c[T]hat\u2019s why you got your a- kicked,\u201d and Joe became angry and responded. Alston got out of the car, and the two men began fighting on the road in front of the apartment of Amanda Bryan and Dawn James. A large crowd gathered to watch, and the fight continued for fifteen to thirty minutes until police officers arrived to break it up. During the fight, James Joe heard Mike Alston say, \u201cI am going to kill you Pernell.\u201d Several witnesses saw defendant run toward Pernell Joe with a forty-ounce beer bottle in her hand, but someone at the scene stopped her from entering the fight by pushing her off or punching her.\nWhen the fight ended, defendant and three of the girls who were with her got into defendant\u2019s white Nissan Sentra to leave. As she walked to the car, defendant said, \u201cI\u2019ve got something for ya\u2019ll. I\u2019ve got something for ya\u2019ll.\u201d Defendant drove to her house and went inside briefly, then drove back to Dove Meadows and picked up her husband and Angela Gibson. Afterwards, they all went to the home of Catherine Smith at Garden Lakes Estates, approximately four miles from Dove Meadows. On the way there in the car, defendant was saying things like, \u201c[Y]ou don\u2019t f\u2014 with anybody I love because I will f\u2014 you up too . . .\u201d and \u201cI will put a cap in his a-- and the only thing that is going to save him are the cops.\u201d\nThe group arrived at Garden Lakes Estates around 10:00 p.m. and visited for thirty to forty minutes with Catherine Smith on her front porch. Defendant told some of those present that they had just come from a fight at Dove Meadows between her husband and Pernell Joe, that Pernell\u2019s \u201chome boys jumped on him [her husband],\u201d that she was not going to have anybody \u201crunning over her man,\u201d and that she was \u201cgoing back there and . . . f\u2014 this mother f \u2014 er up.\u201d Defendant also patted her hip and stated, \u201cI\u2019ve got five rounds and I am going to unload every one of them in his . . . a--.\u201d\nMeanwhile, Pernell Joe also was still at Dove Meadows with several friends, who were trying to c\u00e1lm him down. Then Joe and his friends began playing \u201cbaseball,\u201d with Joe using a boat paddle as a bat. Willie \u201cSpanky\u201d Smith, one of Joe\u2019s friends, had picked up a large stick like a closet rod. A while later, defendant returned, driving the white Nissan, with Mike Alston seated next to her and Angela Gibson on the far side of the front passenger seat. Three companions were in the back seat. The evidence was conflicting as to whether Joe was initially inside the apartment or outside the apartment when defendant drove past.\nEight eyewitnesses, including three of the women in defendant\u2019s car, two of Joe\u2019s friends, Joe\u2019s girlfriend, and two bystanders offered somewhat varied accounts of the events that followed. The witnesses generally agreed that, as defendant drove slowly past Joe\u2019s apartment, Joe ran alongside or behind the car, carrying the boat paddle over his shoulder. Smith also followed on the other side, carrying the closet rod. Defendant made a U-turn at the intersection at the end of the street. At that point, Joe was on the driver\u2019s side of the car, and Smith was on the other side. A brief conversation occurred between Joe and the occupants of the car, then defendant\u2019s hand extended from the window, several (from two to five) shots were fired, and Joe ran back down the street and fell near his apartment.\nAccording to two witnesses, when Joe approached the car, defendant said, \u201cMother f \u2014 er, you got to die,\u201d and fired.\nAs defendant and her companions left Dove Meadows, defendant stated that everyone had been laughing about the fight and that she had given them something to laugh about. Defendant also stated that she had only shot Joe once in the shoulder. She told the passengers in the car \u201c[s]he had been in jail before and she don\u2019t care if she goes back again.\u201d They also stopped a car occupied by one of Mike Alston\u2019s friends, and defendant told him she had just, shot somebody.\nOfficers who responded to the scene found Pernell Joe lying on the ground near his apartment at 218 Virginia Avenue. The boat paddle was lying in the street approximately 171 feet away from the body, and a trail of blood led from that point to where Joe was found. Defendant, her husband, and others were arrested later that night.\nAt the conclusion of the evidence, defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss was denied, and possible verdicts were submitted to the jury of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and not guilty. The jury found defendant guilty of first-degree murder, as charged. From judgment entered 4 January 1990, imposing a sentence of life imprisonment, defendant appealed.\nUpon defendant\u2019s application of indigency, the Appellate Defender was assigned to represent defendant on her appeal to this Court. After thorough review of the record and the relevant law and further consultation with fellow counsel, defense counsel stated that she was unable to identify any issue with sufficient merit to support a meaningful argument for relief on appeal. In accordance with Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 18 L. Ed. 2d 493 (1967), defense counsel submitted a brief in which she discussed four possible assignments of error \u201cthat might arguably support the appeal,\u201d id. at 744, 18 L. Ed. 2d at 498, and requested this Court to conduct a full examination of the record. Defense counsel submitted a copy of her brief to defendant, with copies of the transcript and record and a letter notifying defendant of her right to submit a brief to this Court on her own behalf in accordance with Anders. Defendant subsequently filed a pro se brief. We conclude that defense counsel has fully complied with Anders.\nUpon our thorough review of the transcript, record, briefs of counsel, and defendant\u2019s pro se brief, this Court finds no error warranting reversal of defendant\u2019s conviction or modification of her sentence. In defendant\u2019s trial and sentencing, we find\nNo error.", "type": "majority", "author": "PER CURIAM." } ], "attorneys": [ "Lacy H. Thornburg, Attorney General, by Thomas J. Ziko, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.", "Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender, by Constance H. Everhart, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.", "Dreamer Lee Cottle Alston, pro se." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. DREAMER LEE COTTLE ALSTON\nNo. 397A90\n(Filed 10 January 1991)\nAPPEAL as of right pursuant to N.C.G.S. \u00a7 7A-27(a) from judgment imposing a sentence of life imprisonment entered by Strickland, J., at the 2 January 1990 Criminal Session of Superior Court, NEW Hanover County. Calendared for argument in the Supreme Court 10 December 1990; determined on the briefs without oral argument pursuant to \u00d1.C.R. App. P. 30(d).\nLacy H. Thornburg, Attorney General, by Thomas J. Ziko, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.\nMalcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender, by Constance H. Everhart, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.\nDreamer Lee Cottle Alston, pro se." }, "file_name": "0077-01", "first_page_order": 111, "last_page_order": 115 }