Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Nov. 2, 2021)

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals published on November 2, 2021. As always, these summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present. (1) The trial court did not err by concluding that evidence of prior alleged forcible sexual assaults was relevant to a present rape allegedly committed against a physically helpless victim. (2) The trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that testimony about the prior alleged offense was more probative than prejudicial. State v. Rodriguez, ___ N.C. App. ___, 2021-NCCOA-594 (Nov. 2, 2021). In this Wake County case, the defendant was charged with incest and second-degree forcible rape for an offense committed against his niece. The defendant pled guilty to incest, but had a jury trial on the rape charge. At trial, the State offered testimony from a witness, Brittany Mack, who alleged that she had previously been forcibly raped by the defendant numerous times, including five days prior to the acts giving rise to the defendant’s current charge. The defendant filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude that testimony under Rule 404(b). The trial court heard arguments on that motion but reserved ruling on it until after the victim in the present case testified at trial. After the present victim testified that the defendant had intercourse with her while she was blacked out after drinking alcohol, the trial court ruled that the 404(b) evidence of the [...]