State v. Buchanan, COA23-517, ___ N.C. App. ___ (Feb. 6, 2024)

In this Mitchell County case, defendant appealed his conviction for felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, arguing (1) error in denying his motion to dismiss, (2) plain error in failing to instruct the jury on the defense of accident, and (3) error in denying his requested jury instructions on lesser-included offenses. The Court of Appeals found no error or plain error.  

In October of 2019, defendant brought his daughter to the emergency room with a head injury. During an interview with DSS at the hospital, defendant said the injury occurred when he tripped carrying his daughter and her head hit the bar on a Pack’n Play. Expert testimony disputed defendant’s version of the events, as the child “had significantly more and significantly more severe injuries than would be expected from a short fall, from falling from the father’s arms into a Pack ’N Play, or even onto the floor.” Slip Op. at 6. The child suffered permanent brain damage and loss of mobility on the left side of her body. 

The Court of Appeals considered (1), defendant’s argument that the State presented insufficient evidence of his intent to inflict the child’s injuries. The court pointed out that intent is normally proven by circumstantial evidence. Here, the medical reports reflected significant injuries to the child’s brain, and expert testimony found those injuries “were consistent with physical abuse.” Id. at 10. These represented substantial evidence that defendant “intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury to [the child,]” justifying the denial of defendant’s motion. Id.

Moving to (2), the court noted that defendant did not object to the jury instructions, meaning the review was for plain error. Assuming arguendo that it was error that the jury was not instructed on the defense of accident, the court could not find prejudice, as the elements of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury required the jury to find defendant intentionally injured the child. The court explained that the jury heard testimony from defendant that the events were an accident, and from the State’s expert that the injuries were indicative of child abuse. After hearing the two competing explanations, “[t]he jury thus found beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant’s testimony was not credible by finding him guilty of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.” Id. at 14. Providing an instruction on the defense of accident would not have impacted the outcome. 

Finally, in (3), the court explained that instruction on lesser-included offenses is not required “’when the State’s evidence is positive as to each and every element of the crime charged and there is no conflicting evidence relating to any element of the charged crime.’” Id. at 15, quoting State v. Millsaps, 356 N.C. 556, 562 (2002). Here, the distinguishing element between the charge and lesser offenses was “the level of harm inflicted upon the child.” Id. The court concluded that “[h]ere, there was no evidence presented at trial from which the jury could have rationally found that Defendant committed the lesser offense[s] . . . because the State’s evidence is positive as to the element of serious bodily injury and there is no conflicting evidence.” Id. at 16.