State v. Wilson

573 S.E.2d 193, 154 N.C. App. 686, 2002 N.C. App. LEXIS 1512
Court of Appeals of North Carolina·Decided December 17, 2002·No. COA01-1485·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

*687 THOMAS, Judge.

Defendant, James Wilson, Jr., was convicted of seven charges of larceny from the person and pled guilty to being an habitual felon. He was sentenced to five consecutive terms of imprisonment, each running a minimum of 125 months with a maximum of 159 months. He now appeals.

By three assignments of error, defendant contends the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to suppress two photographs taken of his shoes while he was in custody at the Forsyth County Jail; (2) denying his motions to dismiss the larceny from the person charges for insufficiency of the evidence; and (3) failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of misdemeanor larceny. For the reasons herein, we find no error.

Defendant was initially charged with six counts of common law robbery and one count of larceny from the person. Prior to trial, the State elected to proceed on seven larceny from the person charges.

Defendant moved to suppress from evidence two photographs of his shoes. While defendant was in the Forsyth County Jail on an unrelated charge, a law enforcement officer investigating one of these charges took the photographs. Defendant, who had been appointed counsel in the unrelated matter, but not the instant cases because these charges had not yet been brought, requested that his attorney be present. The attorney was not contacted by law enforcement, however, and the photographs were taken.

Defendant argued to the trial court that his motion to suppress should be allowed because the photographs were taken (1) without a search warrant or court order, and (2) in violation of his right to counsel.

The trial court entered the following ruling:

The Court, after review of the statutory and case law, will deny the motion by the defense to suppress the use of the photographs taken on June the 4th based on case law. The Court would just further find that the motion is not supported by affidavit but in this Court’s mind it was clear that the motion should be denied. That the taking of the photographs was certainly authorized in this case and will allow the State to use the photographs taken on June 4th.

*688 The State also presented evidence as to each of the seven alleged instances of larceny which took place in January, February, and March 2000. The State’s evidence tends to show, on each occasion, defendant entered a store [Mailbox Pack and Ship, Big Lots (three occasions), K-Mart, Frauenhofer’s Ice Cream and Christie’s Hallmark], and posed as a customer. He approached the cashier about making a purchase or receiving change for a dollar. When the cashier opened the cash register, defendant forcefully reached into it and removed money, sometimes grabbing the hand of the cashier in the process. Defendant was positively identified as the perpetrator in each case by one or a combination of the following: identification in open court; identification in a photo lineup; identification in a store security video; identification of defendant’s vehicle leaving the scene; identification of the shoes worn by defendant during the commission of the crimes.

Defendant’s evidence, meanwhile, shows he was employed as an assistant manager for Goodwill Industries and was responsible for transporting other Goodwill employees. Goodwill’s records indicate defendant worked on-site both February 22 and March 8, days on which two of the alleged offenses occurred. Defendant’s evidence also tends to show the following: (1) fingerprints lifted from one of the crime scenes did not match defendant’s; (2) in February 2000, defendant had an eye infection; (3) the victimized cashier at K-Mart was later charged and pled guilty to larceny from K-Mart; and (4) numerous witnesses had trouble identifying defendant in initial photo lineups.

Defendant first contends the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress the photographs of his shoes because the officer did not obtain a nontestimonial identification order pursuant to Chapter 15A, Article 14 of the North Carolina General Statutes prior to taking the photographs. We disagree.

“A nontestimonial identification order ... is an investigative tool available in cases where there is not sufficient basis for making a lawful arrest.” State v. Welch, 316 N.C. 578, 584, 342 S.E.2d 789, 792 (1986). Our Supreme Court has held that “Article 14 of Chapter 15A applies only to suspects and accused persons before arrest, and persons formally charged and arrested, who have been released from custody pending trial. The statute does not apply to an in custody accused.” State v. Irick, 291 N.C. 480, 490, 231 S.E.2d 833, 840 (1977); accord Welch, 316 N.C. at 585, 342 S.E.2d at 793. This interpretation applies even to a defendant in custody on a charge or charges unre *689 lated to the offense being investigated by police. See State v. Puckett, 46 N.C. App. 719, 723, 266 S.E.2d 48, 51 (1980); State v. Thompson, 37 N.C. App. 651, 657, 247 S.E.2d 235, 239 (1978). Since defendant was in custody at the Forsyth County Jail when the photographs were taken, a nontestimonial identification order was not required. It does not matter that defendant was in custody on a charge unrelated to that being investigated by the officer. We conclude the learned and able trial judge did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress.

We further note that the officer’s failure to obtain a search warrant prior to photographing defendant’s shoes did not violate defendant’s constitutional rights. “ ‘It is well settled in North Carolina that clothing worn by a person while in custody under a valid arrest may be taken from him for examination.’ ” State v. Steen, 352 N.C. 227, 241, 536 S.E.2d 1, 10 (2000) (quoting State v. Dickens, 278 N.C. 537, 543, 180 S.E.2d 844, 848 (1971)), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1167, 148 L. Ed. 2d 997 (2001). Also, the United States Supreme Court has held that

once the accused is lawfully arrested and is in custody, the effects in his possession at the place of detention that were subject to search at the time and place of his arrest may lawfully be searched and seized without a warrant even though a substantial period of time has elapsed between the arrest and subsequent administrative processing, on the one hand, and the taking of the property for use as evidence, on the other.

United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. 800, 807, 39 L. Ed. 2d 771, 778 (1974), quoted in State v. Payne, 328 N.C. 377, 396, 402 S.E.2d 582, 593 (1991)).

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State v. Wilson, 573 S.E.2d 193, 154 N.C. App. 686, 2002 N.C. App. LEXIS 1512 (N.C. Ct. App. 2002).

573 S.E.2d 193 (State v. Wilson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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