Criminal Practice – Satellite-Based Monitoring – Aggravated Offender – Search & Seizure – Narrow Intrusion

Defendant was convicted of second-degree rape, which qualified him as an aggravated offender. Because defendant is an “aggravated offender” under G.S. § 14-208.6(1a), his expectation of privacy was diminished. When a defendant is an aggravated offender, the search effected by satellite-based monitoring presents a narrow, tailored intrusion into defendant’s expectation of privacy in his person, home, vehicle, and location. Under the totality of the circumstances, and in light of State v. Hilton, 378 N.C. 692, 862 S.E.2d 806 (2021), and State v. Studwick, 379 N.C. 94, 864 S.E.2d 231 (2021), the trial court’s imposition of satellite-based monitoring was reasonable under the circumstances.

We find no error in the trial court’s imposition of lifetime satellite-based monitoring. We remand for the trial court to consider the General Assembly’s recent amendments to the satellite-based monitoring statute.

State v. Harris (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-142-23, 10 pp.) (Jeffery Carpenter, J.) (Toby Hampson, J., concurring in result only without separate opinion) Appealed from Granville County Superior Court (Quentin Sumner, J.) On remand from the N.C. Supreme Court. Sonya Calloway-Durham for the state; Michele Goldman for defendant. North Carolina Court of Appeals (unpublished)