Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (Nov. 1, 2022)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on November 1, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. The summary of State v. Teague was prepared by Phil Dixon. Search of defendant’s home was directly related to probation supervision of defendant’s live-in girlfriend. State v. Lucas, 2022-NCCOA-714, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Nov. 1, 2022). In this Macon County case, defendant appealed after entering a guilty plea to trafficking in opiates/heroin and marijuana, arguing the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence obtained during a warrantless search of his residence. The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion. Beginning in September of 2017, defendant’s live-in girlfriend was on supervised probation, which included conditions that she submit to warrantless searches of her home and that she not use, possess or control any illegal drug or controlled substance. During her probation, probation officers repeatedly found defendant’s girlfriend with pills and evidence of drug use. In August of 2018, the girlfriend screened positive for cocaine, THC, and opiates. After the positive screening, probation officers decided to search her vehicle, finding additional pills, and subsequently decided to search her residence, which was defendant’s home. Officers smelled marijuana in the residence; after establishing the existence of marijuana in the home, the officers obtained a search warrant for the entire premises, finding drug paraphernalia, opiates, sealed bags of [...]