State v. Sanders

753 S.E.2d 713, 232 N.C. App. 262, 2014 WL 420356, 2014 N.C. App. LEXIS 123
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 4, 2014
DocketCOA13-750
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 753 S.E.2d 713 (State v. Sanders) 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. Sanders, 753 S.E.2d 713, 232 N.C. App. 262, 2014 WL 420356, 2014 N.C. App. LEXIS 123 (N.C. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

McGEE, Judge.

Rondell Luvell Sanders (“Defendant”) appeals from his re-sentencing for robbery with a dangerous weapon. In an earlier appeal to this Court, Defendant asserted error in the prior record level determination, which included points based on the substantial similarity of Tennessee [264]*264offenses to North Carolina offenses. This Court remanded for resen-tencing because it appeared the trial court compared the punishments, rather than comparing the elements of the offenses. State v. Sanders, _N.C. App._, 736 S.E.2d 238 (2013).

I. Standard of Review

The “question of whether a conviction under an out-of-state statute is substantially similar to an offense under North Carolina statutes is a question of law requiring de novo review on appeal.” State v. Fortney, 201 N.C. App. 662, 669, 687 S.E.2d 518, 524 (2010) (internal quotation marks omitted).

II. Pate of Prior Tennessee Offenses

Defendant argues the trial court erred by assigning points for Tennessee convictions because the State did not prove the Tennessee statutes were unchanged from the versions under which Defendant was convicted. We disagree.

In State v. Burgess,_N.C. App._, 715 S.E.2d 867 (2011), this Court remanded for resentencing when the State presented the 2008 versions of the out-of-state statutes and “presented no evidence that the statutes were unchanged from the 1993 and 1994 versions under which [the] defendant had been convicted.” Burgess,_N.C. App. at_, 715 S.E.2d at 870.

In the present case, the State presented copies of judgments to the trial court showing Defendant was convicted in Tennessee of theft on 10 March 2009 and domestic assault on 6 January 2009. Defendant contends the judgments do not show the date of the offenses. However, Defendant provides no support for his implied assertion that the date of each offense is necessary to determine which version of the Tennessee criminal statute applied.

It is true that, in North Carolina, the date of offense often determines which version of a criminal statute applies. See, e.g., “An Act to Provide That If a Defendant Has Four or More Prior Larceny Convictions, A Subsequent Larceny Offense is a Felony,” 2012 N.C. Sess. Laws ch. 154 § 2 (“This act becomes effective December 1, 2012, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.”); “An Act to Amend the Law Concerning Assaults on Governmental Officers and Employees and to Make It a Felony to Assault a Governmental Officer or Employee with a Deadly Weapon,” 1991 N.C. Sess. Laws ch. 525 § 3 (“This act becomes effective October 1, 1991, and applies to offenses committed on or after [265]*265that date. Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act[.]”).

However, because Defendant cites no Tennessee authority to show that statutory amendments in Tennessee operate in the same manner as the North Carolina amendments above, we must assume the State presented the correct versions of the Tennessee criminal statutes at issue. Defendant has thus not demonstrated error on this basis.

Hi. Substantial Similarity of Tennessee Offense of Theft to North Carolina Offense of Misdemeanor Larceny

Defendant also argues the trial court erred in finding the Tennessee offense of theft substantially similar to the North Carolina offense of misdemeanor larceny.

If the State proves by the preponderance of the evidence that an offense classified as a misdemeanor in the other jurisdiction is substantially similar to an offense classified as a Class A1 or Class 1 misdemeanor in North Carolina, the conviction is treated as a Class A1 or Class 1 misdemeanor for assigning prior record level points.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1340.14(e) (2011). “For each prior misdemeanor conviction as defined in this subsection, 1 point.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1340.14(b)(5).

“Determination of whether the out-of-state conviction is substantially similar to a North Carolina offense is a question of law involving comparison of the elements of the out-of-state offense to those of the .North Carolina offense.” Fortney, 201 N.C. App. at 671, 687 S.E.2d at 525 (emphasis added); see also State v. Sanders,_N.C. App._,_, 736 S.E.2d 238, 240 (2013) (“the trial court must compare ‘the elements of the out-of-state offense to those of the North Carolina offense”); State v. Wright, 210 N.C. App. 52, 71, 708 S.E.2d 112, 126 (2011).

Although the case law is clear that the determination as to substantial similarity involves comparison of the elements of the offenses, the determination as to what exactly constitutes substantial similarity remains unclear. While N.C.G.S. § 15A-1340.14(e) “provides that either the State or the defendant may prove that an offense for which the defendant was convicted in a foreign jurisdiction is substantially similar to a North Carolina offense, the statute does not give guidance as to how a trial court is to make such a determination.” State v. Phillips,_N.C. App._,_, 742 S.E.2d 338, 343 (2013) (citing State v. Hanton, 175 N.C. App. 250, 623 S.E.2d 600 (2006)).

[266]*266Defendant cites State v. Amanns, 2 S.W.3d 241 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1999) for the elements of “theft of property.” “In order to obtain a conviction for theft, the State must prove (1) the defendant knowingly obtained or exercised control over property; (2) the defendant did not have the owner’s effective consent; and (3) the defendant intended to deprive the owner of the property.” Amanns, 2 S.W.3d at 244-45.

The only difference between the elements of the offenses that Defendant points out is that the Tennessee offense requires no showing of permanent deprivation. Defendant asserts that, if a defendant simply “took a joyride on somebody’s horse, he would violate Tennessee’s theft statute.”

However, it appears that the court in Amanns was merely giving a shortened recitation of the elements. In a challenge to the sufficiency of evidence in an attempted theft case, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee considered whether the State showed the defendant “possessed the requisite intent to 'permanently deprive each of the owners of their automobiles.” State v. Roberts, 943 S.W.2d 403, 410 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1996) (emphasis added), overruled on other grounds by State v. Ralph, 6 S.W.3d 251 (Tenn. 1999). Thus, courts in Tennessee have held that Tennessee’s theft statute requires an intention to permanently deprive the owner of property.

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Related

State v. Sanders
766 S.E.2d 331 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
753 S.E.2d 713, 232 N.C. App. 262, 2014 WL 420356, 2014 N.C. App. LEXIS 123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sanders-ncctapp-2014.