Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
State v. Thompson, ___ N.C. App. ___, 827 S.E.2d 556 (May. 21, 2019)
In this assault and possession of a firearm by a felon case, although the trial court erred by allowing the State to present evidence that the defendant had a history of narcotics activity, the error did not rise to the level of plain error. The trial court allowed a detective to testify that he knew the defendant from when the detective was working “vice/narcotics, and it was a narcotic-related case.” Here, the detective’s overall testimony was relevant to establish his familiarity with the defendant’s appearance, providing the basis for his identification of the defendant in the surveillance video. However, it was error to allow him to testify that he encountered the defendant in connection with a narcotics case. The court went on to find that the error did not rise to the level of plain error.