Criminal Practice – Deer Spotlighting – Jury Instructions – Evidentiary Requirements

State v. Emigh (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-377-17, 8 pp.) (Philip Berger Jr., J.) Appealed from Gates County Superior Court (Alma Hinton, J.) N.C. App.

Holding: When the trial court instructed the jury that a “person takes a deer when he intends to hunt deer and engages in any operating constituting an attempt to do so by sweeping a spotlight over a field and firing a weapon across the field,” the court’s instruction was not the expression of an opinion; rather, it was an accurate restatement of the prima facie evidentiary requirements for the charged offense.

We find no error in defendant’s conviction of unlawfully taking deer with the assistance of artificial lighting.