State v. Osborne, ___ N.C. App. ___, 821 S.E.2d 268 (Oct. 2, 2018)

The evidence was sufficient to support the defendant’s convictions for misdemeanor child abuse. The charges asserted that the defendant used heroin in the presence of a child. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the State was required to prove, through chemical analysis, that a substance seized at the premises was in fact heroin. Here, the evidence showed that officers discovered the defendant unconscious from an apparent drug overdose; the defendant admitted to officers that she used heroin before becoming unconscious; and drug paraphernalia consistent with heroin use was found in the hotel room occupied by the defendant and her children. This evidence was sufficient to send the charges to the jury.