Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Oct. 3, 2023)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on October 3, 2023. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Defendant knowingly and intentionally waived his right to counsel and forfeited his right to counsel through misconduct, justifying denial of his motion to continue to obtain new counsel; testimony regarding an encounter with a prostitute one day after the crime in question was relevant and admissible. State v. Moore, COA22-714, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Oct. 3, 2023). In this Onslow County case, defendant appealed his conviction for first-degree murder, arguing error in (1) denial of his right to counsel, (2) denial of his motion to continue, and (3) allowing a witness to testify about unrelated allegations against him. The Court of Appeals found no error. After Thanksgiving in 2017, defendant borrowed his girlfriend’s car and drove from Florida to North Carolina, telling her that he was visiting family. After arriving in North Carolina, defendant contacted a prostitute and eventually killed her and buried her body in a remote area at the end of a dirt road. During the same December 2017 time period, defendant met with a different prostitute, who would later testify about how defendant took her to the same area, raped her, and stole all the money from her purse. When defendant indicted for murder in 2018, he was represented by his sister, a Georgia attorney who [...]