State v. Wilson

736 S.E.2d 614, 225 N.C. App. 246, 2013 WL 149837, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 61
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 15, 2013
DocketNo. COA12-641
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 736 S.E.2d 614 (State v. Wilson) 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. Wilson, 736 S.E.2d 614, 225 N.C. App. 246, 2013 WL 149837, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 61 (N.C. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

McCullough, Judge.

The State appeals from an order of the trial court dismissing defendant’s charge of misdemeanor driving while impaired under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-954(a)(l) (2011) for constitutional violations involved in the taking of defendant’s blood for chemical analysis. Because the trial court erred in interpreting the dismissal statute at issue, and because the State has stipulated that the blood evidence would not be introduced at trial against defendant, we reverse the trial court’s order dismissing the charge and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Background

On 13 July 2010, defendant was charged with misdemeanor driving while impaired (“DWI”) and driving while license revoked (“DWLR”). Prior to being charged, defendant was' arrested by Corporal R. A. Necessary (“Corporal Necessary”) of the Winston-Salem Police Department, and Corporal Necessary detained defendant at the local hospital and compelled defendant’s blood be drawn for chemical analysis.

On 21 January 2011, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-38.6 (2011), defendant gave notice to the State of his intention to move the district court to dismiss the DWI charge pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat: § 15A-954(a)(4). In the alternative, defendant asked the district court to suppress as evidence the results of chemical analysis testing performed on defendant’s blood based on constitutional violations involved in Corporal Necessary’s compelled blood draw. On 12 August 2011, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-38.6, the district court [248]*248preliminarily indicated its intention to suppress the blood evidence. The State then sought to appeal the district court’s indication to suppress the blood evidence to superior court, but the State abandoned its appeal. Accordingly, the blood evidence was suppressed in district court. Defendant was found guilty of the misdemeanor DWI charge, and defendant pled guilty to the DWLR charge in district court.

On 30 September 2011, defendant appealed the DWI conviction to superior court for a trial de novo. Defendant again filed both a motion to dismiss the charge pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-954(a)(4) and a motion to suppress the blood evidence for constitutional violations. On 3 January 2012, the superior court held a hearing on defendant’s motions. At the hearing, the State informed the superior court that it had abandoned its appeal of the district court’s order suppressing the blood evidence and contended to both the court and defense counsel that it would not seek to introduce the blood evidence at trial because of its decision not to pursue the appeal from the district court’s suppression order. Accordingly, the State argued that defendant’s motion to dismiss the charge should be denied and that the evidence should remain suppressed.

Following the hearing, on 5 January 2012, the superior court orally announced its decision to allow defendant’s motion to dismiss on constitutional grounds. Thereafter, on 10 January 2012, the State entered written notice of appeal from the trial court’s dismissal order announced in open court on 5 January 2012. Subsequently, on 18 January 2012, the trial court entered its written order detailing findings of fact and conclusions of law and dismissing the DWI charge against defendant for constitutional violations. On 26 March 2012, the State again entered written notice of appeal from the trial court’s written order entered 18 January 2012.

II. Motion to Dismiss for Defective Notice of Anneal

Defendant has filed with this Court a motion to dismiss the State’s appeal, arguing the State’s notice of appeal was untimely, thereby depriving this Court of jurisdiction to hear the appeal. In the present case, the trial court orally announced its order granting defendant’s motion to dismiss the DWI charge in open court on 5 January 2012. On 10 January 2012, the State filed written notice of appeal from the trial court’s oral order granting defendant’s motion to dismiss. Thereafter, on 18 January 2012, the trial court entered a written order granting defendant’s motion to dismiss the DWI charge. The State then entered a second written notice of appeal from the trial [249]*249court’s order on 26 March 2012. Defendant argues that because the State’s first written notice of appeal was entered prior to the trial court’s issuance of its written order, the notice of appeal was defective. Defendant further contends that the State’s second written notice of appeal was entered more than fourteen days after the trial court’s entry of its written order of dismissal. Accordingly, defendant argues that the State failed to give timely notice of appeal pursuant to Rule 4 of our Rules of Appellate Procedure.

In support of his argument for dismissal of the State’s appeal, defendant relies on this Court’s opinion in State v. Oates, _N.C. App._, 715 S.E.2d 616 (2011), in which this Court concluded that a notice of appeal entered by the State seven days after the trial court orally granted the defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress in open court but prior to the trial court’s entry of a corresponding written order of suppression was untimely. However, on 5 October 2012, our Supreme Court vacated this Court’s decision in Oates, holding:

[U]nder Rule 4 of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure and N.C.G.S. § 15A-1448, the window for the filing of a written notice of appeal in a criminal case opens on the date of rendition of the judgment or order and closes fourteen days after entry of the judgment or order.

State v. Oates, _N.C._,_, 732 S.E.2d 571, 572 (2012). In the present case, the State’s first written notice of appeal was entered during this window. Accordingly, the State’s notice of appeal was timely, and defendant’s motion to dismiss must be denied.

III. Dismissal of Charge

In the present case, the trial court concluded Corporal Necessary’s actions in compelling defendant’s blood be drawn were unreasonable under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Sections 18 and 19 of the North Carolina Constitution. The trial court further reasoned that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-139.1(dl) (2011), which provided the officer the authority to compel defendant’s blood be drawn, was unconstitutional as applied to defendant under the facts and circumstances of this case. Accordingly, the trial court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-954(a)(l). The State contends on appeal that the trial court erred in dismissing the DWI charge against defendant as a remedy for the alleged constitutional violations. We agree.

[250]*250Our Supreme Court has recently instructed that “[a] trial court may grant a defendant’s motion to dismiss under N.C.G.S §§ 15A-954 or 15A-1227, or the State may enter ‘an oral dismissal in open court’ pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-931.” State v. Joe, _ N.C. _, _, 723 S.E.2d 339, 339-40 (2012). The only one of these three statutes applicable to the circumstances of the present case is N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-954, which provides in pertinent part:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
736 S.E.2d 614, 225 N.C. App. 246, 2013 WL 149837, 2013 N.C. App. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilson-ncctapp-2013.