North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

The elements of trafficking a controlled substance by transportation are that the defendant (1) knowingly (2) transported the controlled substance and that (3) the amount transported was greater than the statutory threshold amount. In this case, the trial court’s initial ...

Although the evidence that defendant murdered Shannon Rippy was circumstantial, it was substantial, including defendant’s admitted desire for a romantic relationship with Shannon and her rejection of him, defendant’s admission that he was the last person to see Shannon alive; ...

Regardless of the trial court’s admission of prior inconsistent statements by a prosecution witness – defendant’s girlfriend – the state presented substantial evidence of defendant’s possession of firearms via the testimony of the arresting officers. We find no plain or ...

A state trooper could have defendant’s blood drawn before the trooper served defendant with a DWI citation. The trooper had probable cause to believe defendant had driven while impaired, and the evidence showed that defendant already knew he would be ...

Despite ongoing therapy, appellant demonstrated no comprehension of his actions (he was indicted for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and other felonies before being found insane and involuntarily ...

Despite an affidavit asserting jurors made racially-tinged statements, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that interviewing jurors would not likely reveal evidence that racial animus was a motivating factor in the vote to convict defendant of ...

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals joined eight other circuits in holding that, where a sentence includes both custodial and a supervised release portions, a challenge to the sentence is not moot even though a defendant has completed the ...

Claims by a defendant convicted of conspiracy in a luxury car scheme that a judge’s jury instruction constructively amended the indictment against him in violation of the Fifth Amendment, was rejected, as the instruction did not alter the element of ...

At the office where a DMV inspector worked, he had the authority to arrest defendant after she caused a disturbance and refused to leave the premises. We find no error in defendant’s convictions of resisting a law enforcement officer and ...

In response to a domestic violence call, police officers kept defendant outside his house while his girlfriend was questioned inside the house. During this questioning, the girlfriend not only confirmed a 911 caller’s report of domestic violence, but she also ...