State v. Carrington

327 S.E.2d 594, 74 N.C. App. 40, 1985 N.C. App. LEXIS 3349
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedApril 2, 1985
DocketNo. 8414SC427
StatusPublished

This text of 327 S.E.2d 594 (State v. Carrington) 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. Carrington, 327 S.E.2d 594, 74 N.C. App. 40, 1985 N.C. App. LEXIS 3349 (N.C. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

COZORT, Judge.

The jury convicted Walter Leon Carrington of driving while his driver’s license was permanently revoked and failing to give required information after an accident or collision involving property damage. The defendant’s assignments of error on appeal concern the admission of evidence, the denial of his motions to dismiss, jury instructions, and an alleged improper expression of opinion by the trial judge. Having reviewed the defendant’s contentions, we hold that the defendant’s trial was free of prejudicial error. The facts follow.

On 31 March 1983, at approximately 9:40 p.m., Thomas Leroy Williams, Jr., was at his home on Lancaster Street when he heard what sounded like a car hitting another car. Williams rushed to his front door and saw the defendant in a silver and burgundy Chevrolet making a U-turn at an intersection about twenty feet away. Williams followed the car down the street, but turned back toward his home when he lost sight of the automobile. Upon his return home, he then saw the silver and burgundy Chevrolet parked on Lancaster Street. Williams went into a house on Lancaster Street where people gather to socialize and found the defendant. Williams called Officer Ervin Roberts. At trial, Williams stated that his car had been damaged in the amount of $1,100.00. He also testified that he found a piece of plastic chrome lying by his left rear wheel and that Officer Roberts took it as evidence.

Officer Roberts of the Durham Public Safety testified that he responded to the call on 31 March 1983 concerning the hit and run collision on Lancaster Street. Officer Roberts met Williams at the scene and obtained from Williams the license number of the silver and burgundy car Williams had seen. He later determined that the car was registered to the defendant and his wife, Lois Car-rington. Officer Roberts also testified that Williams gave him a piece of plastic chrome and that when he applied the piece of chrome to the right front quarter of the silver and burgundy car where a piece of chrome was missing, “it fit like a puzzle.” Officer Roberts further stated that the defendant’s license had been permanently revoked in 1981 according to the certified copy of the defendant’s driving record admitted into evidence.

[43]*43The defendant admitted at trial that his license had been revoked but stated that he did not drive his car at any time. The defendant testified that on the evening of 31 March 1983 he rode with his wife to a friend’s house, then walked to the house where he was found on Lancaster Street and remained there until he was arrested by Officer Roberts.

On appeal, the defendant first contests the admission of Officer Roberts’ testimony regarding the results of what the defendant terms as a “test or experiment” conducted on the defendant’s car with the piece of plastic chrome. Officer Roberts testified that he took a piece of plastic chrome that Williams had found beside his car, attempted to match it to a damaged portion of the defendant’s car headlight rim, and found that the two edges “fit like a puzzle.” The defendant contends that this testimony was improperly admitted opinion evidence because Roberts had never been qualified as an expert in the field of physics or metallurgy.

We disagree that Roberts’ testimony constituted opinion evidence which required, in order to be admitted, that he be better qualified than the jury to draw inferences from the facts. State v. Siler, 66 N.C. App. 165, 311 S.E. 2d 23, modified on other grounds and affirmed, 310 N.C. 731, 314 S.E. 2d 547 (1984). In the first place, Roberts’ testimony was based on his personal knowledge and concerned circumstances he had actually observed. Thus, it was not improper for Officer Roberts to testify that the broken edge of the piece of chrome matched the broken edge of the rim of the defendant’s car headlight. Roberts’ further explanation that the chrome “fit like a puzzle” was merely a shorthand statement of the facts rather than an expression of an opinion. See State v. Miller, 302 N.C. 572, 276 S.E. 2d 417 (1981). The jury was still free to come to their own conclusion as to whether they believed the chrome came from the defendant’s car headlight and whether it was broken off during the collision with Williams’ car. We hold that Roberts’ testimony was properly admitted.

As his second assignment of error, the defendant asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motions to dismiss at the close of the State’s evidence and at the close of all the evidence.

In ruling on a motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence, the trial judge must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and determine whether the State has presented sub[44]*44stantial evidence of each element of the offense charged. Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conviction. State v. Brown, 310 N.C. 563, 566, 313 S.E. 2d 585, 587 (1984).

The defendant was charged with violations of G.S. 20466(b) and G.S. 20-28(b) on 31 March 1983. These statutes were later amended, effective 1 October 1983. G.S. 20466(b), as it read at the time the defendant was charged, in substance required that the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident or collision resulting in property damage alone immediately stop his vehicle at the scene of the collision and give his name, address, and other pertinent information to the owner of the damaged property. If the damaged property is a parked and unattended vehicle, the responsible driver under G.S. 20466(b) must furnish this information to the nearest available peace officer or leave a paper writing containing the required information in a conspicuous place on the damaged vehicle and later contact the owner as provided under G.S. 20-166.1(c).

To obtain a conviction under G.S. 20-28(b) at the time the defendant was charged and presently, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt: “(1) the operation of a motor vehicle by a person (2) on a public highway (3) while his operator’s license is suspended or revoked.” State v. Atwood, 290 N.C. 266, 271, 225 S.E. 2d 543, 545 (1976).

In the present case, the State offered the testimony of Thomas Leroy Williams, Jr., who stated that he saw the defendant, whom he had known since 1968, on the night in question driving a silver and burgundy Chevrolet away from the site of the collision with his car. The defendant did not stop his car to attempt to leave the required information with Williams or on the damaged car. Williams further testified that the defendant gave him $800.00 to pay for the damage to his car and to persuade him not to report the accident to the defendant’s insurance company.

The State also offered the testimony of Officer Roberts to show that the silver and burgundy Chevrolet was registered to the defendant and his wife and that part of the defendant’s damaged car was found near Williams’ car. Officer Roberts also testified that according to the defendant’s driving record his [45]*45license had been revoked. The defendant later admitted that his license had been permanently revoked.

We hold that the evidence presented by the State constituted substantial evidence from which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conviction of failing to give required information after an accident or collision involving property damage in violation of G.S. 20-166(b) and driving a motor vehicle on a public highway while his driver’s license was permanently revoked in violation of G.S. 20-28(b).

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Related

State v. Painter
134 S.E.2d 638 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1964)
State v. Miller
276 S.E.2d 417 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1981)
State v. Siler
314 S.E.2d 547 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1984)
State v. Atwood
225 S.E.2d 543 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1976)
State v. Brown
313 S.E.2d 585 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1984)
State v. Siler
311 S.E.2d 23 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1984)
State v. . Vick
195 S.E. 779 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1938)
State v. Davis
201 S.E.2d 198 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1973)
State v. Wallace
283 S.E.2d 404 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
327 S.E.2d 594, 74 N.C. App. 40, 1985 N.C. App. LEXIS 3349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-carrington-ncctapp-1985.