Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
About
This compendium includes significant criminal cases by the U.S. Supreme Court & N.C. appellate courts, Nov. 2008 – Present. Selected 4th Circuit cases also are included.
Jessica Smith prepared case summaries Nov. 2008-June 4, 2019; later summaries are prepared by other School staff.
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The court per curiam affirmed an unpublished decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, ___ N.C. App. ___, 813 S.E.2d 478 (2018) holding that the trial court erred by denying the defendant’s motion for appropriate relief (MAR) alleging ineffective assistance of appellate counsel with...
(per curiam). The court modified in part and affirmed the lower court’s decision in State v. Watts, ___ N.C. App. ___, 783 S.E.2d 266 (April 5, 2016). In this child sexual assault case, the Court of Appeals held,...
In this capital murder case, the trial court erred by admitting an excessive amount of 404(b) evidence pertaining to the murder of another victim, Saldana. The court began by concluding that the trial court properly admitted evidence of the Saldana murder under Rule 404(b) to show common plan or...
In this Ashe County case, defendant appealed his convictions for rape and sex offense with a child, arguing plain error in the admission of two text message conversations with a woman that were improper character evidence. The Court of Appeals agreed, reversing and remanding for a new trial....
In this Caldwell County case, the defendant was charged with first-degree sex offense with a child. The victim was the minor child of a family friend. While the child was watching television at the defendant’s house, the defendant brought the child to his computer, which had pornography playing...
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...
In a child sexual assault case in which the defendant was charged with assaulting his son, the trial court erred by admitting under Rule 404(b) evidence of the defendant's writings in a composition book about forcible, non-consensual anal sex with an adult female acquaintance. The defendant...
In a case involving a drug-related murder that occurred in 2007, the trial court committed reversible error by admitting evidence that the defendant was involved in a 1994 homicide in which he broke into an apartment, found his girlfriend in bed with the victim, and shot the victim. The facts of...
In a murder case, the trial court did not err by excluding defense evidence of the victims’ military disciplinary infractions. Both the defendant and the victim were in the military. After several military infractions, the victim was referred to the defendant for counseling. The victim later...
In a kidnapping, assault and indecent exposure case, the trial court erred by admitting testimony from a witness about a sexual encounter with the defendant to show identity, modus operandi, intent, plan, scheme, system, or design. The encounter occurred nine years earlier. The witness testified...
In a case in which the defendant was charged with committing a sexual offense and indecent liberties against a five-year-old female victim, the trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting evidence that the defendant had anal intercourse with a four-year-old male 18 years earlier. The...
The trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting, under rule 404(b), the defendant’s prior impaired driving convictions to show malice for purposes of a second-degree murder charge. Three of the defendant’s four prior impaired driving convictions occurred eighteen or nineteen years prior...
The trial court erred in admitting 404(b) evidence obtained as a result of an earlier arrest when the earlier charges were dismissed for insufficient evidence and the probative value of the evidence depended on the defendant’s having committed those offenses. The court distinguished cases where...
In a child sexual abuse case, 404(b) evidence that the defendant abused two witnesses 21 and 31 years ago was improperly admitted. In light the fact that the prior incidents were decades old, more was required in terms of similarity than that the victims were young girls in the defendant’s care...