The North Carolina Court of Appeals has vacated the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to felony death by motor vehicle, finding that the trial court erroneously used elements of the crime to support the aggravating factors used in ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors

State v. Keel (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-16-0788, 10 pp.) (Lucy Inman, J.) Appealed from Pitt County Superior Court (Arnold Jones II, J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: Upon defendant’s conviction of driving while impaired, the state sought two grossly aggravating factors: ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors dwi

State v. Pace (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-07-0243, 17 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) Appealed from Forsyth County Superior Court (A. Moses Massey, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even if the trial court erred when it allowed the victim’s mother to testify that, ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors

State v. Houser (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-07-0165, 23 pp.) (Lucy Inman, J.) Appealed from Union County Superior Court (Tanya Wallace, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though the trial court plainly erred when it failed to give an adapted version of ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors

A recent case presented a conundrum for Buncombe County prosecutors who wanted to use a sexual offender’s HIV-positive status as an aggravating factor to prolong the length of his sentence. North Carolina criminal law requires such sentence-enhancers to be set ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors sentencing

State v. Myers (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-07-1178, 13 pp.) (Linda McGee, Ch. J.) Appealed from Caswell County Superior Court (Donald Stephens, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Although it appears that the victim suffered several defensive wounds to her face and hands ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors Guilty Plea

Failure to hold a charge conference before jury instructions on sentencing can lead to a vacation of the sentence, according to a recent state Court of Appeals decision. In State v. Hill, Jerrod Hill was found guilty at trial of attempted ...

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors Jury Instructions sentencing

State v. Rico Even though the parties’ plea agreement included a sentence in the aggravated range, defendant’s original aggravated sentence was invalid as a matter of law because the trial judge imposed the sentence simply because it was called for by the plea agreement. The judge failed to make any findings as to aggravating factors and failed to exercise his discretion in determining whether an aggravated sentence was appropriate, as required by the Structured Sentencing Act. The judgment against defendant is vacated and remanded.

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors Criminal Practice Guilty Plea restitution Vacated

State v. Ross At the probable cause hearing, defendant was represented by counsel (who was one of his trial counsel), he had the same motive to cross-examine victim Besies as at trial, and his counsel did in fact cross-examine Besies; therefore, defendant had an adequate opportunity to cross-examine Besies. Since Besies was unavailable to testify at trial, the trial court did not violate defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him when the court admitted Besies’ testimony from the probable cause hearing into evidence.

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors Attempted Murder Confrontation clause Constitutional Criminal Practice Intent to Kill sentencing Serious Injury

State v. Banks In order to elevate operation of a motor vehicle to elude arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony, the jury must find two of the eight aggravating factors listed in G.S. § 20-141.5(b). The state presented evidence of three of those factors, and the trial court’s instructions did not require the jury to be unanimous with regard to which two factors were present. Nevertheless, the jury was unanimous in finding that defendant was guilty of felonious operation of a motor vehicle to elude arrest, and this satisfied the N.C. Constitution’s requirement of jury unanimity. We find no error in defendant’s conviction of felonious operation of a motor vehicle to elude arrest.

Tagged with: Aggravating Factors Criminal Practice reckless driving Speeding to Elude Arrest