Montanino — Common knowledge proved SUV exceeded felony-larceny threshold
The Supreme Court upheld the conviction. It agreed that the instructions and verdict form, read together, did not probably change the verdict under North Carolina’s exacting plain-error standard. On value, the Court rejected a rigid direct-evidence rule: jurors may use common knowledge when property is so ubiquitous that an average juror can determine with high certainty that its value clears the statutory threshold. Evidence that the six-year-ol