State v. Spence, 237 N.C. App. 367 (Nov. 18, 2014)

In this child sexual abuse case, the trial court did not err by referring to the victim as the “alleged victim” in its opening remarks to the jury and referring to her as “the victim” in its final jury instructions. The court distinguished State v. Walston, 229 N.C. App. 141 (2013), rev’d, 367 N.C. 721 (Dec. 19, 2014), on grounds that in this case the defendant failed to object at trial and thus the plain error standard applied. Moreover, given the evidence, the court could not conclude that the trial court’s word choice had a probable impact on the jury’s finding of guilt.