Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
State v. Taylor, 368 N.C. 300 (Sept. 25, 2015)
The court reversed the opinion below, State v. Taylor, 238 N.C. App. 159 (Dec. 16, 2014), for the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion. Over a dissent, the court of appeals had held that the trial court committed plain error by permitting a Detective to testify that she moved forward with her investigation of obtaining property by false pretenses and breaking or entering offenses because she believed that the victim, Ms. Medina, “seemed to be telling me the truth.” The court of appeals held that the challenged testimony constituted an impermissible vouching for Ms. Medina’s credibility in a case in which the only contested issue was the relative credibility of Ms. Medina and the defendant. The dissenting judge did not believe that admission of the testimony in question met the threshold needed for plain error.