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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In this Brunswick County case, defendant appealed his conviction for habitual impaired driving. The Court of Appeals found no error after examining the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress and motion to dismiss, and the jury instruction provided regarding defendant’s flight...
In this Carteret County case, the defendant appealed from his conviction for habitual impaired driving and habitual felon status. The defendant was treated at the hospital following his arrest and the State obtained his medical records pursuant to a court order. Those records, which were...
In this Rowan County case, the defendant appealed after being convicted of impaired driving after a jury trial. The conviction stemmed from a 2017 incident in which the defendant was found unresponsive on a fallen moped in the middle of the road. Field sobriety tests and a toxicology test...
In this Martin County case, the defendant was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony serious injury by vehicle and driving while impaired for his driving of a vehicle after consuming prescription medications, crossing into oncoming traffic, hitting two other...
In this Graham County case, the defendant was convicted of felony death by vehicle and driving while impaired after she drove off the road and killed her passenger. Though first responders did not initially think the defendant had ingested any impairing substance, the Highway Patrol...
The defendant was stopped by a state trooper who saw her driving erratically. The defendant smelled of alcohol, had slurred and mumbled speech, and stumbled and staggered when she got out of her car. She registered a positive result on a portable breath test and was arrested for driving...
In this case arising from a fatal automobile collision involving convictions for second-degree murder, DWI, felony death by motor vehicle, and failure to maintain lane control, the trial court erred by denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss the DWI and felony death by motor vehicle charges...
The defendant was found guilty by a Cleveland County jury of impaired driving and resisting a public officer and was found responsible for possession of open container. He appealed, challenging the denial of his motion to dismiss, the denial of his mid-trial motion to suppress, an evidentiary...
In this felony death by vehicle case involving the presence of narcotics in an unknown quantity in the defendant’s blood, the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant was impaired. The State’s expert testified that Oxycodone and Tramadol were present in the defendant’s blood;...
The trial court erred by denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss in this impaired driving case. Responding to a report of a motor vehicle accident, officers found a Jeep Cherokee on the side of the road. The vehicle’s right side panel was damaged and the officer saw approximately 100 feet of...
The trial court did not err by denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss a DWI charge, which alleged that the defendant was under the influence of alprazolam. The evidence was sufficient where it showed: the defendant drove her vehicle in the public drive-through area of a restaurant where she...
For habitual impaired driving, the three prior impaired driving convictions need not be from different court dates. On appeal, the defendant alleged that the indictment for habitual impaired driving was facially invalid because two of the underlying impaired driving convictions were from the...
In this impaired driving case the court rejected the defendant’s argument that the trial court erred by denying his motion to dismiss at the close of the State’s evidence. The defendant had argued that there was no independent evidence, other than his admission, to establish that he was...
The trial court did not err by denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss a DWI charge. Here, after the officer stopped the defendant’s vehicle, he noticed a moderate amount of alcohol coming from the defendant’s breath, the defendant had red and glassy eyes, the defendant admitting to consuming...
(1) In this impaired driving case, there was insufficient evidence that a cut through on a vacant lot was a public vehicular area within the meaning of G.S. 20-4.01(32). The State argued that the cut through was a public vehicular area because it was an area “used by the public for vehicular...
In this felony death by vehicle case, even without evidence of the defendant’s blood-alcohol, the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant was impaired. When an officer interviewed the defendant at the hospital, she admitted drinking “at least a 12-pack.” The defendant admitted at...
In an impaired driving case, there was sufficient evidence apart from the defendant’s extrajudicial confession that he was driving the vehicle. Specifically, when an officer arrived at the scene, the defendant was the only person in the vehicle and he was sitting in the driver's seat.
(1) There was sufficient evidence that the defendant was operating the vehicle in question. At trial a witness testified about her observations of the car, which continued from her first sighting of it until the car stopped in the median and the police arrived. She did not observe the driver or...
The evidence was sufficient to sustain the defendant’s conviction for impaired driving when there was evidence of two .08 readings. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that since the blood alcohol reading was the lowest for which he could be convicted under the statute, the margin of...
The evidence was sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. Evidence of faulty driving, along with evidence of consumption of alcohol and cocaine, is sufficient to show a violation of G.S. 20-138.1. Witnesses observed the defendant’s behavior as he was driving, not sometime after. Multiple...
In a case in which there was no admissible evidence as to the defendant’s blood alcohol level, the court found that the evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant drove while impaired, even though it showed that she had been drinking before driving. The accident at issue occurred when...
A defendant may be convicted for both second-degree murder (for which the evidence of malice was the fact that the defendant drove while impaired and had prior convictions for impaired driving) and impaired driving.
A defendant may not be sentenced for both felony death by vehicle and impaired driving arising out of the same incident. However, a defendant may be sentenced for both involuntary manslaughter and impaired driving.