State v. Brown, 217 N.C. App. 566 (Dec. 20, 2011)

The defendant gave sufficient notice of his intent to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress so as to preserve his right to appeal. The State had argued that defense counsel’s language was not specific enough to put the trial court and prosecution on notice of his intention to appeal the adverse ruling. Immediately following an attempt to make a renewed motion to suppress at the end of the State’s evidence, defense counsel stated “that [the defendant] would like to preserve any appellate issues that may stem from the motions in this trial.” The court noted that the defendant had only made five motions during trial, two of which were motions to suppress, and that following defense counsel’s request, the trial court reentered substantially similar facts as he did when initially denying the pretrial motion to suppress. Clearly, the court concluded, the trial court understood which motion the defendant intended to appeal and decided to make its findings of fact as clear as possible for the record.