State v. Crockett, 238 N.C. App. 96 (Dec. 16, 2014)

aff'd on other grounds, 368 N.C. 717 (Mar. 18, 2016)

In a failure to register (change of address) case, the court rejected the defendant’s argument that the trial court violated his right to a unanimous verdict because it was not possible to determine the theory upon which the jury convicted. The trial court instructed the jury, in part, that the State must prove “that the defendant willfully changed his address and failed to provide written notice of his new address in person at the sheriff’s office not later than three days after the change of address to the sheriff’s office in the county with which he had last registered.” The defendant argued that, based on this instruction, it was impossible to determine whether the jury based his conviction on his failure to register upon leaving the county jail, failure to register upon changing his address, registering at an invalid address, or not actually living at the address he had registered. The court concluded: “because any of these alternative acts satisfies the . . . jury instruction — that Defendant changed his address and failed to notify the sheriff within the requisite time period — the requirement of jury unanimity was satisfied.”

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