State v. Brown Where our Court of Appeals held, Evidence that defendant possessed pornography describing and depicting incest was admissible to prove motive and intent in defendant’s trial for the first-degree rape of his 10-year-old daughter and taking indecent liberties with a minor, we affirm.

Tagged with: Admissible Criminal Practice evidence motive

State v. Pastuer Where our Court of Appeals reversed defendant’s first-degree murder conviction, holding Even though the state proved defendant had a motive for killing his estranged wife, and even though the victim’s blood was found on one of defendant’s shoes, defendant and the victim had lived together until a few months before her murder, and the state failed to show that the victim’s blood could only have gotten on defendant’s shoe at the time of her murder, we let the Court of Appeals’ decision stand without precedential value.

Tagged with: appeals circumstantial evidence Criminal Practice motive murder

State v. Hayden The state's evidence of ill will between defendant and the victim was sufficient to prove that defendant had motive to kill the victim, but the state's only evidence of opportunity was that defendant made a statement 26 years after the murder that he was briefly in a spot two miles away from the murder scene, and the state's only evidence of means was that defendant bragged that he had an M-16 and did have M-16 ammunition, M-16 shell casings were found at the murder scene, and some type of high-powered rifle was used in the shooting. The state's evidence of means and opportunity were insufficient to take the case to the jury.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice Insufficient Evidence motive

State v. Brown. Evidence that defendant possessed pornography describing and depicting incest was admissible to prove motive and intent in defendant's trial for the first-degree rape of his 10-year-old daughter and taking indecent liberties with a minor. We find no error in defendant's convictions.

Tagged with: Admissible evidence motive

State v. Pasteur. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-07-0688, 18 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) Appealed from Franklin County Superior Court. (Henry W. Hight Jr., J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though the state proved defendant had a motive for killing his estranged ...

Tagged with: circumstantial evidence Criminal Practice dna motive murder