Case Summaries – Court of Appeals of North Carolina (April 19, 2022)

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the Court of Appeals of North Carolina released on April 19, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present. There was sufficient circumstantial evidence that the defendant was the driver of a moped. State v. Ingram, 2022-NCCOA-264, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Apr. 19, 2022). In this Rowan County case, the defendant appealed after being convicted of impaired driving after a jury trial. The conviction stemmed from a 2017 incident in which the defendant was found unresponsive on a fallen moped in the middle of the road.  Field sobriety tests and a toxicology test indicated that the defendant was impaired. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss and the defendant was convicted. On appeal, the defendant contended that the trial court erred by denying his motion to dismiss because there was insufficient evidence that he drove the moped. Though no witness testified to seeing the defendant driving the moped, the Court of Appeals concluded that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence that he did. He was found alone, wearing a helmet, lying on the double yellow line in the middle of the road and mounted on the seat of the fallen moped. The Court thus found no error. The trial court appropriately considered evidence regarding the interrogation of a juvenile without the need for further expert testimony. State v. Benitez, 2022-NCCOA-261, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Apr. 19, 2022). This [...]