Criminal Practice — Injury to Real Property – Owner’s Name – Indictment Amendment – Misspelled Name

State v. Spivey (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-07-0344, 9 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) Appealed from New Hanover County Superior Court (Phyllis Gorham, J.) N.C. App.

Holding: An indictment alleged that defendant injured real property belonging to “Katy’s Great Eats,” but the indictment did not allege that Katy’s Great Eats was an entity capable of owning property. Therefore, the indictment is invalid on its face.

We arrest judgment on the charge of injury to real property and remand for resentencing. We find no error in defendant’s convictions of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony hit and run, reckless driving to endanger, and six counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

An indictment identified a victim as “Christina Gibbs” when the victim – who testified at trial and was cross-examined by defendant – was actually named Christian Gibbs. The trial court did not violate G.S. § 15A-923(e) when it allowed the state’s motion to amend the indictment to correct the spelling of Gibbs’ first name.