State v. Forte and the Competency of Elderly Witnesses

This week, the court of appeals decided State v. Forte, a case in which the defendant was convicted of exploitation of an elder adult in violation of G.S. 14-112.2 and its predecessor. The case provides a helpful interpretation of some of the key terms in the statute, and it is worth reading for that alone. This post, however, focuses on a different aspect of the case – the court’s ruling that the victim in the case was competent to testify. Generally, the state’s evidence suggested that the defendant worked for an elderly man first as a handyman, then as a sort of driver and personal assistant. In the latter capacity, the defendant began “helping” the victim with bill paying and financial matters, and eventually began writing checks to himself on the victim’s account. The victim was at least 93 years old at the time of the first charged conduct, and was at least 99 years old at the time of trial. As his daughter acknowledged, his faculties were declining. The defendant argued that the decline was such that the victim was not competent to testify. Under Rule 601, every person is presumed competent, but may be declared incompetent if he or she is “(1) incapable of expressing himself concerning the matter as to be understood . . . or (2) incapable of understanding the duty of a witness to tell the truth.” Id. At least on appeal, the defendant’s argument was based on the first prong of the Rule. Many of [...]