Two More Absconding Revocations Overturned

It seems to be getting harder, not easier, to say what it means to abscond from probation. The regular, statutory absconding condition says that supervised probationers must “[n]ot abscond by willfully avoiding supervision or by willfully making the defendant's whereabouts unknown to the supervising probation officer.” G.S. 15A-1343(b)(3a). Absconding violations are important, of course, because they are among the limited categories of violations for which a person may be revoked. G.S. 15A-1344(a). You can read everything I’ve ever written about absconding on this blog here. Those posts include case summaries of cases like State v. Johnson, __ N.C. App. __, 783 S.E.2d 21 (2016) (not absconding to miss one appointment), State v. Williams, __ N.C. App. __, 776 S.E.2d 741 (2015) (not absconding to miss appointments and travel out of state when probationer’s whereabouts were not actually unknown to the officer), and State v. Trent, __ N.C. App. __, 803 S.E.2d 224 (2017), temp. stay allowed, __ N.C. __, 802 S.E.2d 725 (2017) (defendant absconded by being absent for over two weeks with his whereabouts unknown). Two recent cases give us some additional data points on what it means for a probationer to abscond. Or, not to abscond, as it turns out. The first is State v. Krider. In Krider, the defendant was on supervised probation for a felony drug offense. His probation officer tried to visit him at home, but he wasn’t there. A woman at the house told the officer that the defendant didn’t live there. Seven days later [...]