Case Summaries -- N.C. Court of Appeals (December 7, 2021)

This post summarizes published criminal and juvenile delinquency decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on December 7, 2021. These summaries will be added to the School's Criminal Case Compendium. (1) Probable cause existed that defendant committed the offense of DWI, and exigent circumstances existed to justify warrantless blood draw; (2) Trial court did not abuse its discretion by not taking judicial notice of a weather report; (3) Analyst’s testimony and laboratory report were properly admitted as analyst testified to his independent opinion based on his analysis and review of data collected by other analysts and wrote the report based on that analysis; (4) Chain of custody report was admissible because State established adequate chain of custody; (5) Substantial evidence supported convictions for driving while impaired, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and felony serious injury by vehicle. State v. Bucklew, ___ N.C. App. ___, 2021-NCCOA-659 (Dec. 7, 2021) In this Martin County case, the defendant was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony serious injury by vehicle and driving while impaired for his driving of a vehicle after consuming prescription medications, crossing into oncoming traffic, hitting two other vehicles, and seriously injuring another driver. (1) The defendant, who was seriously injured in the crash and was taken to the hospital, had a “few coherent moments” in which he agreed to allow his blood to be withdrawn and analyzed for evidence of impairment. The defendant subsequently moved to suppress evidence of the blood [...]