Evidence Cases
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Evidence

North CarolinaCivil ProcedureCriminalEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

Lofton — Ambiguous dismissal did not eliminate assault conviction before sentencing

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The Court of Appeals read the form and surrounding record as showing an effective dismissal only of the habitual-felon matter, not the jury’s assault verdict. The trial court had expressly held sentencing open, so it retained authority to enter judgment on the assault conviction. Evidence that Lofton took a route requiring him to jump a fence and discarded clothing while officers pursued him supported the flight inst

North CarolinaAppellate ProcedureCriminalEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

Johnson — Court rejects evidentiary and trial-management challenges to statutory-rape conviction

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The Court of Appeals found no reversible error. The trial judge acted within the broad discretion used to manage voir dire and questioning, including limited leading questions to a minor testifying about sexual abuse. The panel found no plain error in the challenged evidence and no gross impropriety requiring intervention during argument. Because evidence admitted without reversible error could be discussed in closin

North CarolinaConstitutionalCriminalEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

Howze — Secondary DNA comparison did not require a new warrant after lawful seizure

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The Court of Appeals upheld denial of suppression. Evidence in plain view could be seized where officers were lawfully present and its evidentiary significance was immediately apparent in the violent-crime investigation then underway. Relying on North Carolina precedent involving later comparison of lawfully obtained genetic material, the panel also held that secondary DNA analysis imposed no new physical intrusion a

North CarolinaEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

State v. Fair — Guilty-Knowledge Instruction for Drug Trafficking Required Only When Defendant Contends Ignorance of Substance’s Identity

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals found no plain error in a heroin trafficking trial, holding that the additional guilty-knowledge jury instruction is triggered only when the defendant affirmatively contends he did not know the substance’s identity, and that evidence showing no drug terminology appeared in intercepted communications does not constitute such a contention absent any indication the defendant believed the substance to be something other than heroin.

North CarolinaEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

Biddle v. Biddle — Pretrial Stipulations Bind the Court in Equitable Distribution; Burden to Prove Investment Gains Were Passive Falls on the Spouse Claiming Separate Property

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated portions of an equitable distribution order, holding that a trial court is bound by the parties’ pretrial stipulation classifying the townhome as fully marital property and may not carve out a separate component, and that once the non-owning spouse shows marital-period gains in a premarital investment account (triggering a presumption of marital property), the burden shifts to the owning spouse to prove those gains were passive, not to the non-owner to prove they were active.

North CarolinaChild WelfareEvidenceJuvenile
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

In re: M.D., Jr. — DSS Cannot Prove Abuse Through Medical Records Alone Without Expert Testimony at Adjudication

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a Rule 41(b) dismissal of a DSS abuse and neglect petition at the close of DSS’s evidence, holding that nearly 1,500 pages of medical records admitted as business records cannot establish non-accidental injury causation without expert medical testimony, and that parental explanations introduced through DSS’s own witnesses that were consistent with accidental injury could not be rebutted by business records alone.

North CarolinaCriminalDouble JeopardyEvidence
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Uncategorized

State v. Broadway — AWDWIKISI and AISBI Merge Under Double Jeopardy; Prosecutor’s Breath-Hold Demonstration Not Grossly Improper

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The North Carolina Court of Appeals arrested judgment on an assault-inflicting-serious-bodily-injury conviction as merging with AWDWIKISI under the double jeopardy clause when no distinct interruption in the assault was established, while affirming that a prosecutor’s one-minute breath-holding demonstration during closing argument was not grossly improper and that a lesser-included offense instruction on assault inflicting serious injury was not required where the State’s evidence of deadly-weapon use was uncontradicted.

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