Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
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State v. Marshall, 246 N.C. App. 149 (Mar. 1, 2016)
The evidence was sufficient to convict the defendant of both attempted sex offense and attempted rape. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to infer the intent to commit only one of these offenses. During a home invasion, the defendant and his brother isolated the victim from her husband. One of the perpetrators said, “Maybe we should,” to which the other responded, “Yeah.” The defendant’s accomplice then forced the victim to remove her clothes and perform fellatio on him at gunpoint. The defendant later groped the victim’s breast and buttocks and said, “Nice.” At this point, the victim’s husband, who had been confined elsewhere, fought back to protect his wife and was shot. This evidence is sufficient for a reasonable jury to infer that the defendant intended to engage in a continuous sexual assault involving both fellatio (like his accomplice) and ultimately rape, and that this assault was thwarted only because the victim’s husband sacrificed himself so that his wife could escape.