Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (April 2, 2025)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on April 2, 2025. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Defense counsel’s leading question did not represent offer of proof to preserve excluded-testimony argument for appeal; State’s evidence showed defendant constructively possessed stolen camper. State v. Capps, COA24-653, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Apr. 2, 2025). In this McDowell County case, defendant appealed his conviction for felonious possession of stolen goods, arguing error in excluding certain cross-examination testimony as hearsay and denying his motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence. The Court of Appeals found no error. In November of 2021, a woman called police to report her pop-up camper was missing from her driveway. In December, officers who responded to a fire on defendant’s property discovered the stolen camper in a field near a makeshift campground. Although the camper had been spray-painted a different color and modified to serve as a residence, the officers identified it as the stolen camper by the model and serial number. After a series of interviews, officers came to believe that one or more of the men residing on defendant’s land obtained the camper on his behalf. Defendant came to trial in September 2023 and moved to dismiss the charges, arguing insufficient evidence that he knowingly possessed the stolen camper. The trial court denied the motion. When defense counsel was cross-examining one of the detectives, [...]