North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Defendant was arrested after law enforcement recovered stolen items from a pawn shop; the shop’s owner identified defendant as the individual who sold the items. At trial, the investigating officer also testified that police recovered from the pawn shop items belonging to the owner of the auto garage where the victim’s items were stolen. Because defendant failed to object to the officer’s testimony, he waived his challenge to the testimony on appeal.
We affirm defendant’s conviction and judgment of sentence.
Defendant met the victim at an auto garage owned by a mutual acquaintance, Huey Long. With Long’s permission, the victim stored his car and several personal items at the garage. One day, the victim returned to the garage and found the door had been broken open and that several of his items were missing. The victim contacted law enforcement and accused defendant of the theft. Officers recovered the items from a nearby pawn shop; the pawn shop owner identified defendant as the person who sold the items. Police also recovered items belonging to Long from the pawn shop.
We rule that defendant failed to preserve for appeal the issue of the investigating officer’s testimony that police also recovered Long’s property from the pawn shop. We note that defendant failed to object to the testimony until after the investigating officer had been asked and had answer two questions revealing police had recovered Long’s property from the pawn shop. We further noted that once there was an objection defense counsel failed to specify that the objection was to the entire line of questioning. Finally, we note that defendant has also failed to argue on appeal that admission of the questioning constituted plain error.
Affirmed.
State v. Briggs (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-186-18, 7 pp.) (Dietz, J.) Appealed from Bladen County Superior Court (Tanya T. Wallace, J.) Winifred H. Dillon for appellant. Carole Biggers for appellee. N.C. App. Unpub.
