State v. Nobles

393 S.E.2d 328, 99 N.C. App. 473, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 521
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJuly 17, 1990
DocketNo. 8918SC1241
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 393 S.E.2d 328 (State v. Nobles) 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. Nobles, 393 S.E.2d 328, 99 N.C. App. 473, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 521 (N.C. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

HEDRICK, Chief Judge.

Defendant first contends the trial court erred by ruling that defendant was competent to proceed to trial. In support of her contention, defendant argues “the state’s evidence was both inadmissible and inadequate to support the judge’s determination of competency.” We disagree.

“In determining a defendant’s capacity to stand trial, the test is whether he has capacity to comprehend his position, to understand the nature of the proceedings against him, to conduct his defense in a rational manner and to cooperate with his counsel so that any available defense may be interposed.” State v. Bundridge, 294 N.C. 45, 49-50, 239 S.E.2d 811, 815 (1978). “The question of defendant’s capacity is within the trial judge’s discretion and his determination thereof, if supported by the evidence, is conclusive on appeal.” State v. Reid, 38 N.C. App. 547, 548-49, 248 S.E.2d 390, 391 (1978), disc. rev. denied, 296 N.C. 588, 254 S.E.2d 31 (1979). In a hearing to determine defendant’s capacity to stand trial, “the ordinary rules as to the competency of evidence applied in a trial before a jury are to some extent relaxed, for the reason that the judge with knowledge of the law is able to eliminate from the testimony he hears that which is immaterial and incompetent, and consider only that which tends properly to prove the facts to be found.” State v. Willard, 292 N.C. 567, 574, 234 S.E.2d [476]*476587, 591 (1977). “Absent affirmative evidence to the contrary, this Court presumes that the trial judge disregarded incompetent evidence in arriving at his decision.” Id.

In the present case, the trial judge conducted an extensive voir dire hearing to determine defendant’s competency to stand trial as required by G.S. 15A-1002(b)(3). At the hearing, the State presented the testimony of Dr. Steven Sanders, a general psychiatrist practicing in High Point, North Carolina, who had been appointed by the Court to examine defendant regarding her competency to stand trial. Dr. Sanders testified that in his opinion defendant was “able to understand the nature and the proceedings against her, ... to comprehend her own situation in reference to the proceedings against her, . . . and to assist in her defense in a reasonable and responsible manner.” The State also introduced into evidence the reports of defendant’s evaluation by Dr. Rollins at Dorothea Dix Hospital which were conducted in August and September of 1988 in which he concluded that defendant was competent to stand trial.

Defendant argues that Dr. Sanders’ testimony should have been excluded because “[h]e lacked the necessary expertise to render an opinion as to defendant’s competency, and that his opinion was based upon inadequate data.” With respect to the hospital reports, defendant argues that the evidence should have been excluded because it was hearsay and too remote. We have reviewed the exceptions upon which defendant bases these arguments and find no error in the trial judge’s rulings allowing the testimony of Dr. Sanders and the hospital reports to be admitted into evidence. Furthermore, the evidence presented by the State was clearly sufficient to support the trial judge’s finding that defendant was competent to proceed to trial. This assignment of error is overruled.

Next, defendant contends “[t]he trial court erred by disallowing certain questions posed by defense counsel during the voir dire examination of prospective jurors, thereby depriving defendant of her statutory and constitutional rights to make diligent inquiry into their fitness for service as jurors and to ensure selection of an impartial jury.” We disagree.

It is well established that “counsel’s exercise of the right to inquire into the fitness of jurors is subject to the trial judge’s close supervision” and “[t]he regulation of the manner and the extent of the inquiry rests largely in the trial judge’s discretion.” State v. Avery, 315 N.C. 1, 20, 337 S.E.2d 786, 797 (1985). “[T]he [477]*477court should not permit counsel to question prospective jurors as to the kind of verdict they would render, or how they would be inclined to vote, under a given state of facts.” State v. Vinson, 287 N.C. 326, 336, 215 S.E.2d 60, 68 (1975). On appeal, “[a] defendant seeking to establish . . . that the exercise of such discretion constitutes reversible error must show harmful prejudice as well as clear abuse of discretion.” State v. Young, 287 N.C. 377, 387, 214 S.E.2d 763, 771 (1975).

In the case sub judice, defendant maintains the trial judge erred in sustaining the State’s objections to six questions posed by her counsel to the prospective jurors. We have examined each question challenged by this assignment of error and find no conceivable prejudice to defendant in the trial judge’s rulings thereon.

In her third contention, defendant asserts “[t]he trial court erred in its charge to the jury by failing to instruct on scienter as an element of the offense . . . .” Defendant argues that the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury that “defendant must have abducted the child ‘knowingly’ and ‘knowing that the victim was not her child,’ ” as requested by defendant, resulted in the imposition of strict liability for the offense in violation of state and federal requirements of due process, and violated the court’s duty to declare and explain the law arising on the evidence. This contention is also without merit.

The trial judge is required to give a requested instruction only when it is a correct statement of the law and supported by the evidence. See State v. Corn, 307 N.C. 79, 296 S.E.2d 261 (1982). In the present case, defendant was charged with child abduction in violation of G.S. 14-41 which provides:

If anyone shall abduct or by any means induce any child under the age of fourteen years, who shall reside with its father, mother, uncle, aunt, brother or elder sister, or shall reside at a school, or be an orphan and reside with a guardian, to leave such person or school, he shall be punished as a Class G felon.

There is nothing in this section which requires that the abduction should be with a particular intent. To support a conviction for this offense, it is only necessary to allege and prove that the child was abducted, or by any means induced to leave its custodian. State v. Chisenhall, 106 N.C. 676, 11 S.E. 518 (1890).

[478]*478The record clearly indicates that the instructions given to the jury by the trial judge were supported by substantial evidence and were proper in all other respects. We hold the trial judge did not err in refusing to instruct the jury as duly requested by defendant because it was not a correct statement of the law. This assignment of error is overruled.

Finally, defendant contends that she is entitled to a new sentencing hearing because in sentencing her the trial court relied on three nonstatutory aggravating factors which were not supported by the evidence. For the reasons set forth below, we agree.

G.S. 15A-1340.4(b) provides in pertinent part:

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

Related

State v. Wray
747 S.E.2d 133 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
393 S.E.2d 328, 99 N.C. App. 473, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 521, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nobles-ncctapp-1990.