State v. Whiteside

FRYE, Justice.

Defendant was charged under a true bill of indictment with the murder of Gary Cooper and convicted of murder in the first degree in violation of N.C.G.S. § 14-17. The jury recommended life imprisonment, and from the judgment imposing a sentence of life imprisonment, defendant appeals to this Court. We find no prejudicial error.

The testimony presented to the jury in this case reveals a brutal sequence of events. The State’s evidence tended to show that on the evening of 29 October 1987, Gary Cooper and approximately thirty-five others were celebrating a wedding at a liquor house…