State v. Killian, ___ N.C. App. ___, 792 S.E.2d 883 (Nov. 15, 2016)

In this DWI case, the trial court erred by denying the defendant’s motion to exclude an officer’s Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (“HGN”) testimony and allowing the officer to testify about the results of the HGN test without qualifying him as an expert under Rule 702. Citing State v. Godwin, ___ N.C. App. ___, 786 S.E.2d 34, 37 (2016), review allowed, ___ N.C. ___, 795 S.E.2d 209 (Sept. 22, 2016), the court held that it was error to allow the officer to testify without being qualified as an expert. The court went on to conclude that the error did not have a probable impact on the jury’s verdict under the plain error standard.