State v. Orellana, ___ N.C. App. ___, 817 S.E.2d 480 (Jun. 19, 2018)

In this indecent liberties with a child case, although the trial court erred by failing to conduct the jury to the courtroom as required by G.S. 15A-1233 in response to its request to review certain evidence, the error was not prejudicial and the defendant failed to show an error of constitutional magnitude. The statute requires that if the jury, after retiring for deliberations, requests to review evidence, the jurors must be conducted to the courtroom. Here, the jury sent two notes to the trial court, one requesting police reports, and another requesting transcripts of certain trial testimony. On both occasions, the bailiff brought the notes into the courtroom to the judge and delivered the judge’s written responses to the jury. The judge’s notes informed the jury that they could not review the police reports because they were not in evidence and that the trial court had decided, in its discretion, not to delay deliberations to have a transcript produced of the testimony in question. This was error because the trial court failed to comply with the statute. However this did not constitute a violation of the defendant’s right to a unanimous verdict under the state constitution, where the trial court did not interact with or provide instructions to less than a full jury panel. Additionally a new trial is not warranted as there is no showing that the error prejudiced the defendant.