State v. Whitaker

689 S.E.2d 395, 201 N.C. App. 190, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 2198
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 8, 2009
DocketCOA08-1406
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 689 S.E.2d 395 (State v. Whitaker) 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. Whitaker, 689 S.E.2d 395, 201 N.C. App. 190, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 2198 (N.C. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

[191]*191STROUD, Judge.

Defendant was convicted by a jury of eleven counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Defendant appeals on various constitutional grounds, primarily arguing that the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S.-, 171 L.E. 2d 637 (2008), requires this Court to hold that North Carolina’s law prohibiting possession of firearms by convicted felons violates defendant’s individual right to keep and bear firearms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 30 of the North Carolina Constitution. As we conclude that Heller has no effect upon the level of scrutiny which this Court has traditionally applied to regulations of the possession of firearms, we reject defendant’s claim that Heller requires us to hold that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 is unconstitutional under either the Second Amendment or Article I, Section 30. We further reject defendant’s contentions that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 is unconstitutional on any other grounds. However, because defendant should have been charged with only one violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1, instead of eleven, we reverse the convictions for which defendant received arrested judgments. We find no error as to defendant’s single conviction upon which he was sentenced and imprisoned.

I. Background

The State’s evidence tended to show that on or about 27 June '2005, Detective Sergeant George K. Dennis, a detective with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, saw some guns at defendant’s residence. Detective Sergeant Dennis told defendant he could not have guns in his residence and informed defendant that

[t]here had been a change of State law on December 1st of 2004. Up until that point convicted felons could keep long rifles and— and shotguns inside their residence. This was several months afterwards and we were just going — giving him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he didn’t know about it and gave him a warning to remove the weapons from his — from his residence.

On 11 April 2006, Officer Connie Burns, a probation and parole officer in Moore County, discussed with defendant “that he was not to have firearms in [his] residence.”

On 27 April 2006, Detective Sergeant Dennis, Officer Bums, Detective Sergeant John Andrew Conway, and one other detective sergeant searched defendant’s residence. The law enforcement offi[192]*192cials found “eleven rifles and shotguns in the gun cabinet in the defendant’s bedroom.” Detective Sergeant Conway told defendant “to come to the sheriff’s office on May 8th at a scheduled time to have himself served with the warrants.” On May 8th, defendant turned himself in at the sheriff’s office.

On or about 9 April 2007, defendant was indicted for eleven counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. The indictments were based upon defendant’s 22 April 1988 conviction for possessing cocaine. However, defendant has also had prior felony convictions for indecent liberties with a minor on 24 August 1989 and poss'essing cocaine on 27 June 2005. On 21 November 2007, defendant filed a motion to dismiss his indictments based on various constitutional grounds; defendant also filed motions to dismiss and consolidate indictments requesting that “all the . . . indictments but one [be dismissed], .and that the State be permitted to amend the remaining indictment to include the additional weapons.” Defendant’s motions to dismiss and consolidate were denied.

On or about 10 June 2008, a jury found defendant guilty on all eleven counts. The trial court determined that defendant had a prior record level of five and sentenced him to 18 to 22 months imprisonment on one count, but arrested judgment on the other ten counts. Defendant appeals, claiming N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 is unconstitutional both on its face and as applied to him.

' II. Standard of Review

“The standard of review for questions concerning constitutional rights is de novo. Furthermore, when considering the constitutionality of a statute or act there is a presumption in favor of constitutionality, and all doubts must be resolved in favor of the act.” Row v. Row 185 N.C. App. 450, 454-55, 650 S.E.2d 1, 4 (2007) (citations, quotation marks, and ellipses omitted), disc. review denied, 362 N.C. 238, 659 S.E.2d 741, cert. denied,-U.S.-, 172 L. Ed. 2d 39 (2008).

III. Right to Bear Arms

Defendant first claims that his individual right to keep and bear arms under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and under Article I, Section 30 of the North Carolina Constitution is a fundamental right that has been violated because N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 prohibits him from keeping firearms in his home. Defendant challenges N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 both facially and as applied.

[193]*193A. Facial Challenge to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1

Defendant’s primary argument is that we must reexamine the holding of Britt v. State, 185 N.C. App. 610, 649 S.E.2d 402 (2007) upholding the constitutionality of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1 in light of District of Columbia v. Heller, which held “that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense.” 554 U.S.-, -, 171 L.E. 2d 637, 683 (2008). Defendant contends that pursuant to Heller, any restriction of his “fundamental” right to keep and bear arms must now withstand strict scrutiny.

1. Standard of Review for a Facial Challenge to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.1

A heavy burden is imposed upon a party who attempts to make a facial challenge to a statute’s constitutionality:

A facial challenge to a legislative act is, of course, the most difficult challenge to mount successfully. ... An individua] challenging the facial constitutionality of a legislative act must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the act would be valid. The fact that a statute might operate unconstitutionally under some conceivable set of circumstances is insufficient to render it wholly invalid.

State v. Thompson, 349 N.C. 483, 491, 508 S.E.2d 277, 281-82 (1998) (citations, quotation marks, and brackets omitted).

Our Supreme Court has stated that “[w]e seldom uphold facial challenges because it is the role of the legislature, rather than this Court, to balance disparate interests and find a workable compromise among them. This Court will only measure the balance struck in the statute against the minimum standards required by the constitution.” Beaufort County Bd. of Educ. v. Beaufort County Bd. of Comm’rs,-N.C.-,-, S.E.2d-, (Aug. 28, 2009) (No. 106PA08) (citations omitted).

2. Britt v. State

However, though defendant contends we should reexamine Britt v. State, 185 N.C. App. 610, 649 S.E.2d 402 (2007), the North .Carolina Supreme Court has recently reversed that opinion, though not unequivocally in defendant’s favor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
689 S.E.2d 395, 201 N.C. App. 190, 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 2198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-whitaker-ncctapp-2009.