Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (March 21, 2023)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinion from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on March 21, 2023. This summary will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Prior breaking and entering incident was sufficiently similar, held probative value for defendant’s intent, and was not too remote in time for admission under Rule 404(b); video surveillance tape was properly authenticated by investigating officer’s testimony. State v. Jones, COA22-151, ___ N.C. App. ___ (March 21, 2023). In this New Hanover County case, defendant appealed his convictions for possession of burglary tools and attempted breaking and entering, arguing error in admitting evidence of a 2018 breaking and entering incident. The Court of Appeals found no error. In November of 2020, defendant entered the backyard of a Wilmington home and attempted to open the door of a storage shed. The homeowner’s security camera alerted the homeowner, who then called 911. Defendant was later found by police in a neighbor’s yard with bolt cutters and a box cutter with a screwdriver head. During the trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of a 2018 incident where defendant pleaded guilty to breaking and entering a residential shed using a small knife. Despite defendant’s objections, the trial court admitted evidence of defendant’s guilty plea to the 2018 incident, as well as testimony from the investigating officer and surveillance video from the 2018 incident. On appeal, defendant first argued error by the trial court in admitting [...]