State v. Moore

807 S.E.2d 550, 370 N.C. 338
Supreme Court of North Carolina·Decided December 8, 2017·No. 22A17·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinions

MARTIN, Chief Justice.

**338Defendant was convicted of committing four crimes over a two-month period. He received two suspended sentences and was placed on probation. His probation was revoked after he was charged with **339committing additional crimes. We now consider whether defendant received adequate notice of his probation revocation hearing pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-1345(e). We modify and affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals and uphold the revocation of defendant's probation.

In August 2012, defendant was arrested for and charged with breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering. Defendant was released on bond and then, in September 2012, was arrested for and charged with committing those same offenses again. Defendant pleaded guilty to the August crimes and entered an Alford plea for the September crimes. Defendant received a suspended sentence of eight to nineteen months and supervised probation for twenty-four months for the August crimes. He received a suspended sentence of six to seventeen months and supervised probation for twenty-four months for the September crimes. The punishments for these crimes were to run consecutively. The judgments in both instances listed many of the "regular conditions of probation" under N.C.G.S. § 15A-1343(b). The listed conditions included that "defendant shall ... [c]ommit no criminal offense in any jurisdiction," consistent with the language of N.C.G.S. § 15A-1343(b)(1).

Defendant's probation for the September crimes was modified and extended a number of times due to violations of probation conditions. On 3 June 2015, the State filed two probation violation reports relating to defendant's probation for the August and September 2012 crimes, respectively. The reports alleged violations of monetary conditions of probation. Each report also alleged an "Other Violation" that listed various pending criminal charges. Specifically, under "Other Violation" the reports each stated the same thing:

The defendant has the following pending charges in Orange County. 15CR 051315 No Operators License 6/8/15, 15CR 51309 Flee/Elude Arrest w/MV 6/8/15. 13CR 709525 No Operators License 6/15/15, 14CR 052225 Possess Drug Paraphernalia 6/16/15, 14CR 052224 Resisting Public Officer 6/16/15, 14CR706236 No Motorcycle Endorsement 6/29/15, 14CR 706235 Cover Reg Sticker/Plate 6/29/15, and 14CR 706234 Reg Card Address Change Violation.

(Original in all uppercase.)

In January 2016, after many months of continuances, the trial court held a hearing on these violation reports.1 Defendant's probation officer **340testified about the new offenses alleged in the reports, and two police officers testified about defendant's fleeing to elude arrest two different times. The trial court found that defendant had violated the condition of probation to commit no criminal offense, and specifically found that defendant had "committed the charges of" fleeing to elude arrest and of not having an operator's license. The trial court accordingly revoked *552defendant's probation and activated the suspended sentences for defendant's August and September 2012 crimes, to be served consecutively.

Defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, claiming that the probation violation reports did not give him adequate notice because they did not specifically state the condition of probation that he allegedly violated. In a divided opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgments. State v. Moore , --- N.C. App. ----, ----, 795 S.E.2d 598, 600 (2016). The Court of Appeals concluded that the notice was adequate-that there was "no ambiguity"-because the allegations in the violation reports could point only to the revocation-eligible violation of the condition to commit no new criminal offense. Id. at ----, 795 S.E.2d at 600. Defendant appealed to this Court based on the dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeals.

Before revoking a defendant's probation, a trial court must conduct a hearing to determine whether the defendant's probation should be revoked, unless the defendant waives the hearing. N.C.G.S. § 15A-1345(e) (2015). "The State must give the probationer notice of the hearing and its purpose, including a statement of the violations alleged." Id. Probation can be revoked only if a defendant (1) commits a criminal offense in any jurisdiction in violation of N.C.G.S. § 15A-1343(b)(1) ; (2) absconds from supervision in violation of N.C.G.S. § 15A-1343(b)(3a) ; or (3) has already served two periods of confinement for violating other conditions of probation according to N.C.G.S. § 15A-1344(d2). Id. § 15A-1344(a) (2015). Only the first of these statutorily-enumerated instances-the commission of a criminal offense-is at issue here.

Defendant argues that, because the probation violation reports did not specifically list the "commit no criminal offense" condition as the condition violated, the reports did not provide the notice that subsection 15A-1345(e) requires. We must address whether these reports complied with the statute's notice requirement. To do that, we need to examine what exactly that statutory provision means. This is a matter of first impression for this Court.

"In resolving issues of statutory construction, this Court must first ascertain legislative intent to assure that both the purpose and the intent **341of the legislation are carried out. In undertaking this task, we look first to the language of the statute itself." Poole v. Miller , 342 N.C. 349, 351, 464 S.E.2d 409, 410 (1995) (citation omitted). "[O]rdinarily words of a statute will be given their natural, approved, and recognized meaning." Victory Cab Co. v. City of Charlotte , 234 N.C. 572, 576, 68 S.E.2d 433, 436 (1951).

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State v. Moore, 807 S.E.2d 550, 370 N.C. 338 (N.C. 2017).

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