State v. Boyett

735 S.E.2d 371, 224 N.C. App. 102, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1370
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 4, 2012
DocketNo. COA12-222
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 735 S.E.2d 371 (State v. Boyett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Boyett, 735 S.E.2d 371, 224 N.C. App. 102, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1370 (N.C. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

THIGPEN, Judge.

Defendant appeals from judgments entered convicting him of six counts of second-degree rape, ten counts of second-degree sexual offense, and six counts of incest, challenging the trial court’s instructions to the jury, the trial court’s use of the word “victim” in the jury instructions, and the trial court’s order requiring that Defendant be subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender and lifetime enrollment in satellite-based monitoring.

The evidence of record tends to show the following: In February 2010, the stepfather of J.B.1 (the victim”) listened in on a telephone conversation between the victim and her grandfather, Billy Boyett (“Defendant”) — by means of a telephone extension in another room — during which time the stepfather overheard Defendant ask the victim when he could again have sexual interactions with her. The stepfather confronted the victim, and the victim confided in her mother and stepfather that Defendant had engaged in sexual intercourse with her numerous times. The victim said that, since her [104]*104eighteenth birthday,2 Defendant had approached her for sex. The victim explained that she had performed fellatio on Defendant, that Defendant had inserted his finger into her vagina, and that Defendant had attempted to have vaginal intercourse with her. The victim would say, “No,” attempting to avoid the sexual encounters by tightening her legs and turning her face away. Defendant, however, would push her legs apart, and, sometimes, it hurt the victim. The victim estimated that Defendant had approached her for sex approximately fifty times, that she had performed fellatio on Defendant five or more times, and that Defendant had digitally penetrated her vagina five or more times. Defendant’s last sexual contact with the victim was in January 2010.

A Sheriffs detective spoke with the victim and Defendant, at which time the victim told the detective about her sexual encounters with Defendant. Defendant also admitted to the detective that the victim had performed fellatio on him and that he had digitally penetrated her vagina.

Defendant was indicted on ten counts each of second-degree rape, second-degree sexual offense,3 and incest. Defendant was tried at the 3 October 2011 session of New Hanover County Superior Court, and the jury found Defendant guilty of six counts of second-degree rape, ten counts of second-degree sexual offense, and six counts of incest. The trial court entered judgments, consistent with the jury’s verdicts, sentencing Defendant consecutively to 73 to 97 months incarceration on the second-degree rape convictions, 73 to 97 months incarceration on the second-degree sexual offense convictions, and 13 to 16 months on the incest convictions. The trial court also ordered Defendant to register as a sex offender for his lifetime and to enroll in lifetime satellite-based monitoring.

[105]*105I. Jury Instructions

In Defendant’s first argument, he contends the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury on attempted second-degree rape and attempted incest. We agree.

Defendant did not properly preserve this issue for appeal by lodging an objection at trial, but requests that the Court review for plain error. “Plain error analysis applies to evidentiary matters and jury instructions.” State v. Garcell, 363 N.C. 10, 35, 678 S.E.2d 618, 634, cert. denied,_. U.S._, 175 L. Ed. 2d 362 (2009).

“A prerequisite to our engaging in a plain error analysis is the determination that the instruction complained of constitutes error at all[;] [t]hen, [b]efore deciding that an error by the trial court amounts to plain error, the appellate court must be convinced that absent the error the jury probably would have reached a different verdict.” State v. Torain, 316 N.C. 111, 116, 340 S.E.2d 465, 468, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 836, 93 L. Ed. 2d 77 (1986) (quoting State v. Walker, 316 N.C. 33, 39, 340 S.E.2d 80, 83 (1986) (internal quotation marks omitted)).

In determining whether there was error in a jury instruction, this Court has stated, “ [i]t is elementary that the trial court, in its instructions to the jury, is required to declare and explain the law arising on the evidence.” State v. Anderson, 40 N.C. App. 318, 321, 253 S.E.2d 48, 50 (1979) (citing N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1232). With regard to jury instructions on attempts and lesser included offenses, “[a] trial court is only required to instruct the jury on a lesser included offense when there is evidence presented from which the jury could find that such offense was committed.” State v. Stinson, 127 N.C. App. 252, 258, 489 S.E.2d 182, 186 (1997) (citation omitted). “The determining factor is the presence of evidence to support a conviction of the lesser included offense.” State v. Boykin, 310 N.C. 118, 121, 310 S.E.2d 315, 317 (1984) (citations omitted). An attempted first-degree rape instruction is “warranted when the evidence pertaining to the crucial element of penetration conflicts or when, from the evidence presented, the jury may draw conflicting inferences.” State v. Johnson, 317 N.C. 417, 436, 347 S.E.2d 7, 18 (1986) (citations omitted), superseded by statute on other grounds by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 8C-1, Rule 404(b), as recognized in State v. Moore, 335 N.C. 567, 440 S.E.2d 797 (1994).

Regarding plain error, our Courts have stated the following:

[T]he plain error rule ... is always to be applied cautiously and only in the exceptional case where, after [106]*106reviewing the entire record, it can be said the claimed error is a fundamental error, something so basic, so prejudicial, so lacking in its elements that justice cannot have been done, or where [the error] is grave error which amounts to a denial of a fundamental right of the accused, or the error has resulted in a miscarriage of justice or in the denial to appellant of a fair trial or where the error is such as to seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings or where it can be fairly said the instructional mistake had a probable impact on the jury’s finding that the defendant was guilty.

State v. Odom, 307 N.C. 655, 660, 300 S.E.2d 375, 378 (1983) (citations and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis and alteration in original). Defendant bears the burden of showing that an error arose to the level of plain error. State v. Bishop, 346 N.C. 365, 385, 488 S.E.2d 769, 779 (1997).

Second-degree rape is defined by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.3 (2011), which states, in pertinent part, that “[a] person is guilty of rape in the second-degree if the person engages in vaginal intercourse with another person[.]” Id. Likewise, incest is defined by N.C. Gen. Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
735 S.E.2d 371, 224 N.C. App. 102, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 1370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-boyett-ncctapp-2012.