Blood Games (66 page)

“I didn’t want to be a toy of the justice system,” he said. “I just didn’t want to play the game anymore, that’s what it boiled down to.”

On the charge of assault against Bonnie, Judge Watts gave Bart twenty years, on the larceny charge six years more, on the burglary an additional fifteen years.

“Stand up, Mr. Upchurch,” the judge ordered, and Bart complied.

“Beaufort County File No. 89-CRS-3348, entitled State of North Carolina vs. James Bartlett Upchurch III, present is James B. Upchurch III, having been convicted of murder in the first degree by unanimous verdict of the jury duly returned at the January 24, 1990, session of the Superior Court of Pasquotank County, North Carolina, and the jury having this day unanimously recommended the punishment of death, it is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that James Bartlett Upchurch III be and he is hereby sentenced to death by the administration of lethal gas, unless otherwise elected, pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 15-187.

“And it is further ordered that the sheriff of Beaufort County, North Carolina, in whose custody the defendant is now, is to forthwith deliver the said prisoner James Bartlett Upchurch III to the warden of the state’s penitentiary at Raleigh, North Carolina, where the said warden on the sixth day of April, the year of our Lord, 1990, shall cause the said prisoner James Bartlett Upchurch III to be put to death as by law provided, and may God have mercy on your soul. He’s in your custody, Mr. Sheriff. You gentlemen want to give notice of appeal?”

“Yes, sir,” said Frank Johnston.

When the court had recessed, sheriff’s deputies moved to surround Bart and escorted him back to the holding cell. His father remained to talk with the attorneys.

“I thought you did a good job,” he told them.

Sermons looked defeated and distraught when a reporter approached and asked for a comment. “You ought to ask Mitchell Norton how it feels to kill one and let one live,” Sermons told him.

Jim was allowed into the holding cell where Bart had been taken. “Well, you certainly got the press’s attention,” he told his son. “I could see them all scurrying out the door.”

Bart smiled.

“Did you mean it?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know if I did or not.”

“You might get hungry.”

“Yeah,” Bart agreed with another little smile. “I probably will.”

“I was proud of how you handled yourself out there,” Jim said.

Both were surprised that despite the outcome, they felt a sense of relief. At least it was over now. The torture of waiting for the jury’s decision, the intense anxiety and tension were past. They were able to chat with ease.

Bart said that he was not surprised. He had expected the decision. Jim told his son not to worry, the chances of him being put to death were slim; this was just the beginning of a long process. He should maintain hope.

“And you’ll be in Raleigh. At least I’ll be closer to you. I can see you more often.”

Jim left for the jail to pick up Bart’s belongings while the lawyers remained to talk to Bart about the appeals process. As he walked to his car, Jim saw Bonnie and her Washington lawyer, James Vosburgh, standing in the parking lot. Both came over and told him they were sorry about the outcome. For a few moments, they chatted about how the case had similarities to some of the Dungeons and Dragons scenarios. They all wished one another well, and Jim got into his car to drive to the jail, then begin the long ride back to Caswell County, alone with his thoughts.

52

Chris’s sentencing hearing resumed when court opened Thursday morning with a large group of Chris’s family and friends present The first witness was his sister, Angela, now a student at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, where she was fulfilling her love for horseback riding.

Angela agreed that the family story as told in the courtroom was as she saw it.

“For a long time after this tragic event, I believe you and your mother believed that Chris had nothing to do with it,” Bill Osteen said to her.

“Yes, sir.”

“And there did come a time when Chris sat down and talked to you about it, is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Since that time, you obviously have had time to think about your relationship with Chris. And you know he’s going to prison. Just tell the court what you expect your relationship to be with your brother from this day forward.”

“I expect to stay as close as we ever were, keep in contact with letters or however. And I expect to be there to pick him up when he gets out.”

Angela said that she thought that Chris could contribute to society and she would help him in every way possible.

“As a result of what has happened,” Osteen said, “do you have any fear of Chris?”

“No fear at all.”

After the questioning of her daughter, Bonnie walked to the stand one final time. Osteen began by asking if her view of Chris’s early background differed from that presented by the psychiatrist the day before.

“No. Dr. Royal basically had the overall picture pretty well covered. I struggled very hard to maintain the home that we were living in when my husband and I separated so that the children wouldn’t have to be uprooted and moved out. And we suffered in other ways by not having, I guess, balanced meals on a lot of occasions. I just tried to maintain Chris’s and Angela’s environment as well as I could under the circumstances and continue with my job so that we could move forward at some point in our lives.

“My sisters kept the children on many occasions. My mother and father kept Chris and Angela a lot. At the time I was traveling some for the company. And on many occasions I would be out of town for as much as a week at a time. And during that period they helped a great deal with the children.”

Osteen brought her next to the events on the morning of July 25.

“Was it your opinion that no one in your family had anything to do with the tragedy of that night?”

“Absolutely.”

After the murder, Bonnie said, she had been greatly concerned about Chris and Angela. “Both of them were in somewhat of a panic as to how are we going to live. Do we need to quit school and go out and get a job? Things of that nature.”

To quell that concern, Bonnie said, she began working on a new estate plan. She also set up two fifty-thousand dollar certificates of deposit, one jointly in her name and Chris’s, the other in her name and Angela’s, “so that if anything happened to me, they could have fifty percent of that CD without having to wait for it to go through an estate or anything of that nature. And at any point they could simply walk into the bank and withdraw that.”

Did either take advantage of that? Osteen asked.

“No.”

“Mrs. Von Stein, sometime after Chris was released from custody on bond, you became aware of the fact that things may not be exactly as you thought they were, is that an accurate statement?”

“Yes.”

“But for a period of time, you did not know from anybody what the exact facts were in this case, did you?”

“I did not.”

Soon after his release on bond, Bonnie said, Chris had gone to Greensboro to see Osteen and she got a call that evening telling her that Chris had been hospitalized in Chapel Hill. When she went to see Chris at the hospital he had seemed less tense. Dr. Royal told her that Chris wanted to talk to her but that that couldn’t be allowed. Osteen had asked her not to discuss anything about the murder with Chris after that, and they had avoided the subject until Chris confessed in December.

“Did you notice any change in Chris after he was able to tell you what the facts of the case were?”

“Oh, yes. Complete relief. He just had a totally different attitude, like he didn’t have anything to hide anymore.”

Bonnie said that to her knowledge Chris had not used any drugs since he was released from jail and had drunk only an occasional beer in her presence.

“Mrs. Von Stein, you have heard what Chris had to say about this matter, and of course you were a victim of the matter. You are a mother and a victim. Would you, please, relate to the court what your feeling is about Chris presently, as he is getting ready to serve his time for what he’s done.”

“Chris indicated to me in every way and every action and everything that he says that he is looking forward to serving his time to pay for the things that he really can’t explain to me, the things that he did. It’s totally foreign to everything that he was brought up to believe in. It’s totally foreign to his personality. Chris has always been the kind of person—he’s a lot like me in that respect—that instead of stepping on a cricket in the house, he’ll pick it up and carry it outside and turn it loose. And he’s always been like that. And that’s one of the reasons that I was absolutely sure that Chris had no involvement in this when the investigation started going in that direction.”

“Mrs. Von Stein, do you remember meeting at my office where Chris was present, you were present, Mr. Vosburgh and the other Bill Osteen and I were present to discuss how we evaluated the chances in this case, if there was to be a trial, or what Chris should do.”

“Yes.”

“And after the attorneys had discussed the pros and cons of the case, do you recall what Chris said he wanted to do in the matter?”

“Yes. He said that he wanted you to move forward with trying to arrange a plea bargain agreement.”

“And did he say that he felt that he was ready and should be punished for that matter?”

“Yes.”

“Mrs. Von Stein, during the time that Chris is going to be serving time, what plans do you have about Chris?”

“I plan to do everything that I can working within the system to see if he can get whatever psychiatric and drug rehabilitation help that he might need. And I am going to stand by and be there for my son. I will love him as I’ve always loved him. I don’t agree with and I don’t approve of the things that happened but it can’t be undone. And I know in my heart that without the drug situation it never could have happened.”

“What’s your feeling about Chris’s future?”

“Well, if he’s out in my lifetime, I will do everything that I can to help him get on his feet and start a new life for himself. He has my support. I will also make arrangements that if he’s not out during my lifetime those things will still be possible for him when he does come out of the prison system.”

“Thank you. That’s all the questions I have.”

About Bonnie’s absolute certainty that Chris hadn’t been involved before his confession, Mitchell Norton asked if that had been based on Chris denying involvement.

“Yes.”

“So you trusted your son?”

“Yes”

“Placed a lot of confidence in what he said and what he did?”

“Yes. And I couldn’t be shown otherwise.”

“And you also said that Lieth was proud of Chris?”

“Yes.”

“So Lieth himself trusted and placed a lot of confidence in Chris?”

“Yes.”

“I take it that you were not at all aware of his drug use during the summer of 1988?”

“No, not at that time. In early July, Lieth and I began to suspect that there could be some drugs involved in Chris’s life.”

“But you never saw any direct evidence of that?”

“Never.”

“Even on Friday, the 22nd of July, when Chris came home from State, and also on Saturday, was there any indication at all that he was on drugs?”

“I didn’t pick up anything. I don’t know what a person on drugs acts like. Chris was always in a hurry, you know, to do whatever he was going to do. He was always in a rush.”

“So you didn’t notice anything unusual or different at all about him when he was home that weekend?”

“I did not.”

“Of course, you know now that at that time he was planning your death and the death of your husband?”

“Yes”

Judge Watts had some questions of his own. Was it before Chris confessed to her on December 27 that she was present for the discussion between Chris and his lawyers about Chris’s options? That was earlier, Bonnie said.

“I could not help Chris make a decision in any way because I didn’t know what he was dealing with or what the circumstances were. And it’s something that I had to pass on and leave entirely up to him.”

Still, it was clear that Bonnie had to have realized soon after Chris’s arrest that he had some involvement in the murder.

The judge also was concerned about another matter, the trust that had been set up by Lieth for Angela and Chris. He questioned Bonnie closely about it, recalling it being six hundred thousand dollars.

“It was at that time,” Bonnie said. “It’s grown considerably since then.”

It was still at the same bank, she said, and it was irrevocable. Bonnie could draw from it as she saw fit, but it would pass to Chris and Angela only upon her death. The judge’s purpose behind the questions was quickly made clear.

“It’s a general principle of law of North Carolina that one can’t gain in the form of a testamentary matter as a result of a death that one takes part in.” He wondered if the bank had been notified. And Bonnie said that the bank was aware of Chris’s involvement.