Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (March 19, 2025)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on March 19, 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. State’s questions regarding defendant’s failure to give a statement did not represent plain error; closing argument reference to defendant’s self-defense claim as “smoke and mirrors” was not grossly improper. State v. Earley, COA24-386, ___ N.C. App. ___ (March 19, 2025). In this Union County case, defendant appealed her convictions for attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, arguing error in (1) allowing the State to repeatedly question defendant about her failure to make a statement to law enforcement, and (2) allowing the State to reference her silence during closing argument. The Court of Appeals majority found no plain error. The charges against defendant arose from her shooting her husband in the bathroom of their home in January 2022. Defendant fled the home but later turned herself in, declining to give a statement but telling officers she had no injuries. At trial, a prosecutor asked one of the law enforcement officers if defendant was given a chance to make a statement, and defense counsel objected. The objection was overruled, and the officer confirmed he did give defendant a chance to make a statement. Later questioning covered the officer’s attempts to speak to defendant on the phone about her version of events, [...]