State v. Henderson

CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedMay 7, 2025
Docket24-223
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Henderson (State v. Henderson) 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. Henderson, (N.C. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF NORTH CAROLINA

No. COA24-223

Filed 7 May 2025

Mecklenburg County, Nos. 21CRS233408-590, 21CRS233409-590, 22CRS1767-590

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

v.

DAVIDSON NEVILLE HENDERSON, Defendant.

Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 29 June 2023 by Judge Reggie E.

McKnight in Superior Court, Mecklenburg County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 24

September 2024.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson, by Special Deputy Attorney General M. Lynne Weaver, for the State.

Assistant Public Defender Julie Ramseur Lewis for defendant-appellant.

STROUD, Judge.

Defendant Davidson Neville Henderson appeals from a judgment entered upon

a jury’s verdict finding him guilty of carrying a concealed gun, possession of a firearm

by a felon, and having attained habitual felon status. On appeal, Defendant argues

that: (1) the trial court erred in failing to instruct defense counsel when an absolute

impasse occurred; (2) the trial court erred in failing to declare a mistrial ex mero motu;

and (3) he received ineffective assistance of counsel. After careful review, we conclude

there was no error in part and dismiss Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel STATE V. HENDERSON

Opinion of the Court

claim without prejudice to his right to assert the claim in a motion for appropriate

relief.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History

On 21 October 2021, Officer Kevin Jackson and Officer Robert Preston of the

Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Police Department were conducting surveillance at a

gas station that was known for drug-related activity. According to testimony offered

at trial by the officers, their vehicle was between the gas pumps and the store when

they saw Defendant walk in front of their vehicle, “wearing a ski mask” “just above

his head” but his “eyes, mouth, and nose” were visible. Defendant pulled the black

ski mask “down to where his eyes [we]re only exposed.” Officer Jackson believed that

“[i]n 79-degree weather, pulling a mask over your face once you see police . . . is an

attempt to conceal your identity.” Defendant “then does a 180 and walks back to [his]

vehicle.” The officers ran the license plate on the vehicle and determined that

Defendant had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Defendant exited the parking

lot of the gas station in his vehicle; the officers followed Defendant’s vehicle and

conducted a traffic stop within “less than a mile.”

Defendant also testified at trial. He testified that he was wearing the ski mask

that day for “COVID protection reasons because [Ms. Eden] was pregnant.”

Defendant said he had pulled his vehicle into the gas station, went inside, paid, and

after he was “finished pumping the gas and closed the pump and was walking back

to the driver’s side,” he saw the officers. Defendant testified that he “got in the car[,]

-2- STATE V. HENDERSON

[he] sat there for probably like, I don’t know, 30 seconds, 20, 30 seconds, and pulled

off, and then went back to like, up [Interstate] 77 way” before being pulled over.

The officers further testified at trial that after pulling Defendant over, Officer

Jackson asked for his driver’s license to confirm whether he was the individual with

an outstanding warrant. After he confirmed that Defendant was the individual with

the outstanding warrant, Officer Jackson asked Defendant to exit his vehicle and

informed him that he was being detained. After placing Defendant in handcuffs,

Officer Jackson frisked Defendant and felt what he “immediately knew to be a

revolver in [Defendant’s] right front pocket.” He announced “94”, a law enforcement

code to “let everybody know on scene that there is a firearm in play.” Officer Preston

then “reached into [Defendant’s] right front pocket and retrieved the revolver.” The

body-worn camera (“BWC”) video from Officer Preston’s camera clearly shows Officer

Preston removing the silver .38 caliber revolver from Defendant’s front pocket.

Defendant was then placed under arrest for carrying a concealed handgun.

Officer Jackson then returned to Defendant’s vehicle and asked the passenger,

Ms. Eden, to get out. He frisked her also to make sure “she didn’t have any weapons

on her.” He then checked “to see if there w[ere] any firearms in the vehicle.” He

found in the center console a green-leafy substance he believed to be marijuana and

a “long black tube sock” containing “more .38-caliber rounds,” which was “the same

caliber of ammunition for the revolver that had been recovered.”

Officer Preston testified that while he was in the police vehicle checking

-3- STATE V. HENDERSON

information on the computer, Defendant was in the back seat. While they were in

the vehicle, Defendant made a “spontaneous utterance.” He said, “I keep it for

protection.” This statement was not captured on his BWC audio. He testified this

should have been on the video, but with the “road noise, the radio noise” and “the

layer of plastic and metal between” the front and back seats, this statement was not

captured.

Officer Jackson transported Defendant to the police station after his arrest.

After Defendant waived his Miranda rights, Officer Jackson asked him about the

gun. Defendant

said that he knew that he wasn’t supposed to have a firearm because he is a convicted felon, but he kept it on him because of the rise in crime trends in Charlotte. He blamed the crime trends on some of the local rappers. So he said he would rather have it on him for protection.

On 1 November 2021, Defendant was indicted upon a true bill of indictment

for two counts of carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The matter came on for trial 26 June 2023.

At the start of the second day of trial, the State requested that the trial court

read into the record “at some point today before the State rests” the stipulation

Defendant had agreed to, that on 14 May 2018, he had been convicted in Mecklenburg

County of a felony “committed on June 10, 2016, in violation of the law of the state of

North Carolina” that “made it unlawful for . . . [D]efendant [ ] to possess a weapon.”

The State also informed the trial court that it would be presenting two videos from

-4- STATE V. HENDERSON

the BWCs during the testimony of Officer Preston. The State noted some concerns

regarding a portion of the audio on the video identified as State’s Exhibit No. 5:

[THE STATE]: [Defense counsel] and I discussed that when I introduce that exhibit, at about four minutes and 19 seconds into that video, I will be muting it because after that point in time, there is a substantial discussion between Officer Preston and the female passenger. [Defense counsel] advised me that he had concerns about the relevance of that, of those portions of the video, and so the State is agreeing not to play the audio of the rest of Officer Preston’s BWC.

The State also noted that:

I know that the [S]tate has elicited testimony regarding the reason for the stop and the search in this case was that . . . Defendant had an active warrant for his arrest. The [S]tate has been taking steps to make sure that it has not been elicited that the warrant for his arrest was for his parole violation, and up to this point, I don’t believe that that evidence has been elicited.

The State asked that since the basis for the stop of Defendant’s vehicle was the

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
State v. Braswell
324 S.E.2d 241 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1985)
State v. Dockery
336 S.E.2d 719 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1985)
State v. Jaaber
627 S.E.2d 312 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2006)
State v. Fair
557 S.E.2d 500 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2001)
State v. Buckner
527 S.E.2d 307 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2000)
State v. Floyd
794 S.E.2d 460 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2016)
State v. Curry
805 S.E.2d 552 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Henderson, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-henderson-ncctapp-2025.