State v. Tucker, 227 N.C. App. 627 (Jun. 4, 2013)

(1) North Carolina had territorial jurisdiction to prosecute the defendant for embezzlement. The defendant was a long distance driver employed by a North Carolina moving company. The defendant was charged with having received funds from a customer out-of-state and having converted them to his own use instead of transmitting the funds to his employer. The court adopted a “duty to account” theory under which territorial jurisdiction for embezzlement may be exercised by the state in which the accused was under a duty to account for the property. In this case, the court found that the duty to account was to the victim in North Carolina. (2) Because the defendant’s argument about territorial jurisdiction was a legal and not a factual one, the trial court did not err by declining to submit the issue to the jury.