State v. Perkins

638 S.E.2d 591, 181 N.C. App. 209, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 80
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 2, 2007
DocketCOA06-320
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 638 S.E.2d 591 (State v. Perkins) 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. Perkins, 638 S.E.2d 591, 181 N.C. App. 209, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 80 (N.C. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

GEER, Judge.

Defendant Janie Latonya Perkins appeals from her convictions of obtaining property by false pretenses, felony larceny, and felony breaking or entering. On appeal, defendant argues primarily that the trial court erred in rejecting the jury’s initial verdict of misdemeanor breaking or entering, felony larceny, and obtaining property by false pretenses and ordering the jury to redeliberate. Because the initial verdicts of misdemeanor breaking or entering and felony larceny were not necessarily legally inconsistent, we reverse and remand for entry of judgment on the jury’s original verdicts. We find defendant’s remaining arguments unpersuasive and, therefore, hold that defendant otherwise received a trial free of prejudicial error.

Facts and Procedural History

The State presented evidence at trial that tended to show the following facts. At around 8:30 a.m. on the morning of 18 August 2004, Michael Grace, an attorney with the law firm of Grace, Holton, Tisdale, and Clifton, encountered defendant inside the entryway of the firm’s Winston-Salem office. Mr. Grace was familiar with defendant from a time when he worked at a different office. While at that office, Mr. Grace had instructed defendant to stay away from his office. On the morning of 18 August 2004, Mr. Grace reminded defendant that he did not want her in his office. When, however, defendant mentioned that she was at the firm to see a secretary, Mr. Grace assumed defendant was being represented by another member of the firm and directed defendant to one of the firm’s office managers, Marilyn Moore.

Later that morning at about 10:30 a.m., Ms. Moore noticed a black male wearing a sports jersey coming down a hallway from the rear of the firm’s office. As Ms. Moore stepped into the hallway, she saw *213 defendant in the hallway, beyond the public reception area, as well. Ms. Moore asked defendant if she needed assistance, and defendant responded by indicating that she was with the man in the jersey. The man told Ms. Moore that he wanted to see attorney Mireille Clough, but Ms. Moore informed him that Ms. Clough was presently out of the office. Shortly thereafter, both defendant and her male acquaintance left the premises. No testimony presented at trial placed defendant at the firm after this point.

After having an early lunch on 18 August 2004, Ms. Clough returned to the firm’s office. Since she was scheduled to appear in court at 1:00 p.m., she dropped off a bag of personal belongings inside her office and then departed for court. Inside the bag was a day planner that contained several of Ms. Clough’s credit cards.

Around 1:30 p.m., Don Tisdale, another attorney with the firm, was returning to the office from lunch when he spotted a black male in a sports jersey coming out of Ms. Clough’s office. When Ms. Clough returned to the office after court, at approximately 3:30 p.m., she discovered the day planner missing. She contacted her credit card companies and learned her cards had been used to make multiple purchases that afternoon at a Food Lion store on Waughtown Street.

Ms. Clough then contacted the police. She met with police officers at the Food Lion and reviewed the store’s surveillance videotape. The videotape showed a woman, identified at trial as defendant, and a black male in a jersey at the checkout counter making purchases. Four separate transactions, in amounts ranging from $79.15 to $178.57, were accomplished in less than fifteen minutes using Ms. Clough’s cards. Store receipts revealed that defendant had signed Ms. Clough’s name to complete the purchases.

As two police officers, Detectives Gregory Dorn and Michael Poe, were driving to interview a witness in connection with the purchases at Food Lion, one of them noticed defendant coming out of a house at 1424 Waughtown Street. They stopped and approached defendant, explaining to her that they had seen her on a videotape using a credit card to make purchases at the Food Lion. Defendant at first denied having been at the Food Lion, but then admitted being there, telling the officers that she had used a credit card belonging to her aunt. Defendant then changed her story again, telling the police that “a guy named Steve” let her use the card at Food Lion.

After defendant was placed under arrest, she led police to a nearby wooded area where the day planner and customer receipts *214 from Food Lion were recovered. At 1424 Waughtown Street, a man named Steven Brooks was also found and arrested. The police identified Brooks from the videotape as the same man who accompanied defendant at Food Lion. Ms. Clough’s credit cards were later found in a flower pot at the house on Waughtown Street.

Defendant was subsequently indicted on charges of obtaining property by false pretenses, felony breaking or entering, felony larceny, and having obtained the status of habitual felon. At trial, the judge instructed the jury as to both misdemeanor and felony breaking or entering and larceny. The jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of misdemeanor breaking or entering, felony larceny, and obtaining property by false pretenses. After reviewing these verdicts, the judge sent the jury out and told the parties that the verdicts as to misdemeanor breaking or entering and felony larceny were “legally inconsistent.”

The judge then summoned the jurors back to the courtroom, explained to them “that the verdicts are not legally consistent,” and directed the jury to resume deliberations. After deliberating for a second time, the jury returned a new verdict sheet finding defendant guilty of felony breaking or entering and, again, of felony larceny. Defendant was subsequently found guilty of being a habitual felon. The trial court imposed two consecutive sentences of 110 to 141 months imprisonment. Defendant gave timely notice of appeal.

Discussion

I. Indictment for Obtaining Property by False Pretenses

Defendant argues that her indictment on the charge of obtaining property by false pretenses was fatally defective, depriving the trial court of jurisdiction. “[W]here an indictment is alleged to be invalid on its face, thereby depriving the trial court of its jurisdiction, a challenge to that indictment may be made at any time, even if it was not contested in the trial court.” State v. Wallace, 351 N.C. 481, 503, 528 S.E.2d 326, 341, cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1018, 148 L. Ed. 2d 498, 121 S. Ct. 581 (2000).

A bill of indictment must contain:

[a] plain and concise factual statement in each count which, without allegations of an evidentiary nature, asserts facts supporting every element of a criminal offense and the defendant’s commission thereof with sufficient precision clearly to apprise the *215 defendant or defendants of the conduct which is the subject of the accusation.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-924(a)(5) (2005).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
638 S.E.2d 591, 181 N.C. App. 209, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-perkins-ncctapp-2007.