At defendant’s attempted-murder trial, the state moved to close the courtroom during two witnesses’ testimony, and the trial court granted the motion without using the four-part test set out in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984). The trial court’s ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

On remand from a prior appeal, defendant’s sentence for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and attempted identity theft was revisited, and defendant appeals again, this time arguing the trial court erred in failing to hear from her or to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s probation expired 700 days prior to the probation revocation hearing, and the trial court made no finding of good cause to revoke defendant’s probation after expiration of his probationary term. When the trial court fails to make a finding ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

A review of the legislative history of G.S. § 14-178 and case law concerning incest shows that our General Assembly did not intend to criminalize sexual relations between a niece and uncle who are related only by marriage. We vacate ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

When officers arrived at defendant’s house for a routine probation visit, defendant acted suspiciously. He attempted to conceal a number of items on a nightstand that he identified as being on “his side of the bed.” When asked about anything ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

At defendant’s sentencing hearing, the trial court erred by relying on the prosecutor’s description of defendant’s jailhouse phone call in which he urged a third party to offer the complaining witness money not to come to court. However, defendant has ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In past cases, our Supreme Court has allowed cross-examination of a prosecution witness about the witness’s past mental health issues under N.C. R. Evid. 611(b); however, the Supreme Court has not eliminated a trial court’s discretion to conduct the balancing ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Where defendant stole two cellphones from the same place at the same time and kept both of them until he was divested of both, under G.S. § 14-71.1 and State v. White, 322 N.C. 770, 370 S.E.2d 390 (1988), defendant ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even though defendant argues that a dash cam video shows no evidence of him breathing heavily when a state trooper asked him about his arrest history, the trooper testified that “you can look at the shirt, and elevated breathing, it’s ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

After entering an Alford plea to multiple breaking and entering and theft charges, defendant was sentenced to prison. Thereafter, defendant filed at least 42 pro se motions requesting (1) production of a “stenographic transcript” and taped audio recording of his ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice