Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (April 2, 2024)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on April 2, 2024. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Affidavits supporting search warrants were not conclusory; sentencing for first-degree kidnapping and underlying sexual offenses represented double jeopardy. State v. Hernandez, COA23-832, ___ N.C. App. ___ (April 2, 2024). In this Dare County case, defendant appealed his convictions for statutory rape, statutory sex offense, indecent liberties, and kidnapping, arguing (1) plain error in denying his motion to suppress evidence, (2) ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to object to the introduction of that evidence, and (3) double jeopardy for entering judgment on first-degree kidnapping and the underlying sexual offense charges. The Court of Appeals found no merit in (1)-(2), but vacated and remanded for resentencing regarding (3). In July of 2020, a law enforcement officer obtained a search warrant for defendant’s address after a thirteen-year-old girl reported that defendant took her from her parents’ home and raped her. After searching defendant’s home and seizing several digital storage devices, the officer obtained a second warrant in August of 2020 to access the contents of the devices. When reviewing the contents of the devices, the officer found videos of defendant engaging in sexual acts with two other minor girls. Defendant was subsequently indicted for offenses involving all three minor girls. Before trial, defendant moved to suppress the digital evidence, arguing seizure [...]