State v. Heatwole

EXUM, Chief Justice.

At the close of the State’s evidence defendant entered pleas of guilty to two counts of murder in the first degree and to one count each of first-degree kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, assault with a deadly weapon, and discharging a firearm into an occupied building. After a capital sentencing hearing the jury recommended death in the two murder cases. The sentencing court imposed terms totalling eighty years for the noncapital offenses. We find prejudicial error under McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U.S. 433, 108 L. Ed.…