Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (July 19, 2022)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on July 19, 2022. This summary will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. (1) Indictment for going armed to the terror of the public must allege an act on a public highway; (2) a private apartment complex parking lot does not represent a public highway for purposes of going armed to the terror of the public. State v. Lancaster, 2022-NCCOA-495, ___ N.C. App. ___ (July 19, 2022). In this Craven County case, defendant was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting a public officer, injury to personal property, and going armed to the terror of the public for defendant’s actions in an apartment complex parking lot. On appeal, the Court of Appeals determined that the trial court lacked jurisdiction for the charge of going armed to the terror of the public because the indictment did not allege the acts supporting the conviction occurred on a public highway. The court first established the four essential elements of going armed to the terror of the public, which are “(1) armed with unusual and dangerous weapons, (2) for the unlawful purpose of terrorizing the people of the named county, (3) by going about the public highways of the county, (4) in a manner to cause terror to the people.” Slip Op. at ¶ 7 (quoting State v. Staten, 32 N.C. App. 495, [...]