Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
State v. Cowan, 207 N.C. App. 192 (Sept. 21, 2010)
Assuming without deciding that an elements-based approach should be used when determining eligibility for SBM under G.S. 14-208.40(a)(2), the trial court did not err by requiring the defendant, who had pleaded guilty to solicitation of indecent liberties, to enroll in SBM on the grounds that the offense involved the physical, mental, or sexual abuse of a minor. Interpreting the word “involve,” the court concluded that eligibility for SBM under G.S. 14-208.40(a)(2) includes both completed acts and acts that create a substantial risk that such abuse will occur. The court determined that an attempt to take an indecent liberty has “within or as part of itself” the physical, mental, or sexual abuse of a minor. It concluded that although solicitation of an indecent liberty need not involve the commission of the completed crime, an effort to “counsel, entice, or induce” another to commit that crime also creates a substantial risk that the “physical, mental, or sexual abuse of a minor” will occur, so that such a solicitation has the sexual abuse of a minor “as a “necessary accompaniment.”