State v. Swann

676 S.E.2d 654, 197 N.C. App. 221, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 796
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedMay 19, 2009
DocketCOA08-1195
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 676 S.E.2d 654 (State v. Swann) 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. Swann, 676 S.E.2d 654, 197 N.C. App. 221, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 796 (N.C. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

STEELMAN, Judge.

The trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress DNA evidence is affirmed on three separate bases. First, the record before us does not contain an order for the expunction of DNA evidence collected in a prior criminal proceeding as asserted by defendant. Second, the statutory prerequisites to expunction are not present in the instant case as defendant’s previous criminal charges were neither dismissed by the trial court, nor did an appellate court reverse and dismiss a previous conviction. Third, the plain language of the expunction statutes clearly indicate that they are to be applied *222 prospectively and would not prohibit law enforcement from utilizing DNA records obtained in other criminal matters prior to the entry of the order of expunction.

Where there was no stipulation and no testimony supporting the amount of restitution, the award must be vacated and the matter remanded for a new hearing.

I. Factual and Procedural History

In 2006, defendant was charged with felonious possession of burglary tools, felonious breaking and entering, and second degree trespass. Incident to his arrest, officers obtained a buccal swab containing a sample of defendant’s DNA. Defendant’s DNA profile was logged into the State Bureau of Investigation’s DNA database. Subsequently, these charges were dismissed by the District Attorney because the officer failed to bring the paperwork for the case to the District Attorney’s Office.

Defendant’s DNA profile matched DNA evidence in other cases, leading to defendant’s being indicted on 16 January 2007 for two counts of first degree rape, two counts of first degree sexual offense, two counts of felonious breaking and entering, two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of first degree kidnapping, assault on a child under the age of 12, and second degree kidnapping. On 2 November 2007, defendant filed a motion to suppress the DNA evidence obtained from the earlier breaking and entering charges based upon the lack of defendant’s consent and constitutional violations. On the same date, defendant filed a petition to expunge the earlier charges and to expunge all DNA evidence obtained incident to the earlier charges pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-146.

The motion to suppress was heard before Judge Cayer on 11 February 2008. At that hearing, defendant offered the petition for expunction into the evidence. Judge Cayer denied the motion to suppress. On 7 April 2008, defendant pled guilty to all charges before Judge Caudill. Defendant’s plea agreement specifically reserved the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. The trial court imposed four active sentences of 288-355 months imprisonment and two active sentences of 77-102 months imprisonment, with all sentences to run consecutively. In one judgment, the trial court recommended restitution in the amount of $510.00 as a condition of post-release supervision, if applicable, or from work release earnings. Defendant appeals.

*223 II. Motion to Supress

In his first argument, defendant contends the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence of his DNÁ records obtained in the earlier charges. We disagree.

Defendant argues:

Judge Moore ordered the DNA evidence destroyed on November 8, 2007. (R. p. 21.) The statute directs that the DNA evidence must be destroyed upon the judge’s order. N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 15A-146(b2) and 15A-266.10(b). When Judge Cayer denied the Motion to Suppress without regard to the expunction order, he effectively disregarded or overruled the prior court decision in violation of law. [Appellant’s brief p.8]

This argument is completely without merit for three separate and independent reasons.

First, defendant misrepresents the actions of Judge Moore on 8 November 2007. Upon the filing of defendant’s petition on form AOC-CR-264 (Rev. 2/06), Judge Moore, on 8 November 2007, entered a request to the State Bureau of Investigation for any Criminal History Record Information for the petitioner (defendant). Judge Moore further requested that the Records Officer of the Administrative Office of the Courts provide the court with information as to whether petitioner had previously been granted an expunction or dismissal and discharge in North Carolina. This is the only judicial action reflected in the record of this case with respect to defendant’s petition for expunction. The record is totally devoid of any ruling by any judge on defendant’s petition for expunction. It is the responsibility of defendant to include in the record on appeal all documents necessary for this Court to consider his assignments of error. State v. Trull, 153 N.C. App. 630, 634, 571 S.E.2d 592, 596 (2002), disc. review denied, 356 N.C. 691, 578 S.E.2d 597 (2003). Based upon the record befóte us, there is no order of expunction as to the DNA evidence collected in the earlier case.

Second, there are two provisions in Article 5 of Chapter 15A dealing with the expunction of DNA records; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-146(bl)-(b2) and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-148 (2007). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-146(bl) provides that a person can apply for an order expunging DNA records “when the person’s case has been dismissed by the trial court and the person’s DNA record or profile has been included in the State DNA Database ....” Defendant’s earlier charges *224 were not dismissed by the trial court, but rather were voluntarily dismissed by the District Attorney. Thus, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-146(bl) and (b2) are not applicable to defendant. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-148(a) provides for the expunction of DNA records “following the issuance of a final order by an appellate court reversing and dismissing a conviction of an offense for which a DNA analysis was done . . . or upon receipt of a pardon of innocence with respect to any such offense . . . .” Neither of these prerequisites are present in defendant’s case.

Third, defendant is attempting to have the court retroactively expunge his DNA records after they had been used by law enforcement to identify him as the perpetrator of a number of crimes. We do not believe that this is contemplated by the expunction statute. “The purpose of the statute is to clear the public record of entries so that a person who is entitled to expunction may omit reference to the charges to potential employers and others, and so that a records check for prior arrests and convictions will not disclose the expunged entries.” State v. Jacobs, 128 N.C. App. 559, 569, 495 S.E.2d 757, 764, disc. rev. denied, 348 N.C. 506, 510 S.E.2d 665 (1998). “ ‘Expungement’ means to erase all evidence of the event as if it never occurred.” 21A Am. Jur. 2d Criminal Law § 1219 (2008) (citing State v. C.P.H., 707 N.W.2d 699, 705 (Minn. Ct. App. 2006)).

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-146 has two sections discussing the effect of an expunction, (a) and (al), which contain the identical provision:

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Bluebook (online)
676 S.E.2d 654, 197 N.C. App. 221, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 796, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-swann-ncctapp-2009.