Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
About
This compendium includes significant criminal cases by the U.S. Supreme Court & N.C. appellate courts, Nov. 2008 – Present. Selected 4th Circuit cases also are included.
Jessica Smith prepared case summaries Nov. 2008-June 4, 2019; later summaries are prepared by other School staff.
Instructions
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There was sufficient evidence of reckless driving where the defendant was intoxicated; all four tires of her vehicle went off the road; distinctive “yaw” marks on the road indicated that she lost control of the vehicle; the defendant’s vehicle overturned twice; and the vehicle traveled 131 feet from the point it went off the road before it flipped, and another 108 feet after it flipped.
The evidence was insufficient to adjudicate the thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent for reckless driving under G.S. 20-140(b). The evidence showed that the juvenile was driving a vehicle registered to his mother at the time of the wreck and that the vehicle that he was driving collided with a utility pole. However there was no evidence showing that the collision resulted from careless or reckless driving. The court concluded that the “mere fact that an unlicensed driver ran off the road and collided with a utility pole does not suffice to establish a violation of [G.S.] 20-140(b)."