Pursuant to former versions of recently amended statutes (G.S. §§ 15A-544.8(b) and -544.4(e)), the trial court lacked discretion to deny the surety’s motion to set aside a bond forfeiture when, as here, the court had failed to give the surety ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s car was stopped for a tag light infraction. The officers’ request to search the car and defendant were unrelated to the traffic stop. Nevertheless, the detective articulated multiple reasons for requesting defendant’s consent to search the car, leading to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even if the trial court erred by instructing the jury that, because a domestic violence protective order had been served on defendant, the jury could presume defendant’s knowledge of the terms of the DVPO, the instruction did not have a ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

When defendant came to a stop sign at which he could either turn left or right onto Highway 74, no cars were traveling on Highway 74 in either direction. Since no other vehicles – including the deputy sheriff following him ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defense counsel failed to acquire DSS records and counseling notes that revealed other sexual abuse of the foster child-victim. Even if this failure constituted deficient performance, defendant cannot show that counsel’s failure likely affected the outcome of his trial. Numerous ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s abuse of the victim herein, “Sally,” shared key similarities to his previous abuse of witnesses Ms. D and Mr. E: Each victim was prepubescent when abused; defendant met each victim after developing a relationship of trust with the victim’s ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even according to defendant’s version of events, his accomplice shot the victim multiple times in close proximity. The state’s evidence showed that defendant himself fired the shots that hit the victim in the face, hand and neck. Defendant’s contention that ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

During an interview with the minor victim, a sheriff’s deputy noted that the victim said defendant had previously raped her in Mexico; however, the other two interviewers (a school counselor and a school nurse) noted that the victim had accused ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

The pro se defendant sought to cross-examine the victim about their relationship prior to the victim’s claim that he was stalking her, but, each time, the trial court sustained the state’s objections before the victim had a chance to answer. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

A detective failed to show probable cause for an order to obtain defendant’s historical cellphone location data when he based his application on uncorroborated information from an anonymous source, who was not shown to be reliable. Moreover, there is no ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice