STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. RODNEY J. McCASLIN
No. COA98-465
(Filed 16 February 1999)
1. Motor Vehicles--driving while impaired--instructions--two
instances--single offense--unanimous verdict
The trial court did not err in a prosecution for driving
while impaired by refusing to instruct jurors that they could
consider only the first incident of defendant's driving, even
though defendant argued that a less than unanimous verdict
resulted, where defendant left the scene of an accident, returned
in a car driven by another person while a highway patrol trooper
was completing the accident report, left the scene when the
trooper told defendant that he needed to see the truck, and
returned a few minutes later driving his truck.
2. Criminal Law--entrapment--driving while impaired
The trial court properly refused to instruct the jury on the
defense of entrapment in an impaired driving prosecution where
defendant left the scene of an accident, returned in a car driven
by another person as the highway patrol trooper was writing the
accident report, the trooper asked to see defendant's truck, and
defendant left and returned driving the truck. There was no
evidence that the trooper suspected defendant of being
intoxicated prior to requesting to see the truck, there was no
evidence that the trooper instructed defendant rather than the
female accompanying him to drive the truck back to the scene, the
Trooper testified that he did not begin to suspect that defendant
was intoxicated until defendant was seated in the patrol car
after returning the truck to the scene, and the other participant
in the accident testified that he had observed nothing about
defendant which would have led him to believe defendant was
intoxicated. Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 6 January 1998 by
Judge L. Todd Burke in Alexander County Superior Court. Heard in
the Court of Appeals 11 January 1999.
Attorney General Michael F. Easley, by Special Deputy
Attorney General Isaac T. Avery, III, for the State.
Wesley E. Starnes for defendant-appellant.
MARTIN, Judge.
Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for driving
while impaired (DWI) in violation of G.S. § 20-138.1 resulting
from events which took place on the evening of 20 February 1997.
At approximately 7:45 p.m. on that date, Christopher Tunstill,
accompanied by his wife, was driving his vehicle when defendant,
driving a black Ford pick-up truck, approached them from the
opposite direction. As the vehicles passed, an exercise bike
fell off the back of defendant's truck and struck the Tunstills'
vehicle. Both drivers stopped their vehicles to inspect the
damage, and Mr. Tunstill used his cellular phone to report the
incident to the Highway Patrol. Defendant left the scene,
telling Mr. Tunstill that he was going home and would return
shortly.
In response to Mr. Tunstill's call, Trooper D. D. McDevitt
of the North Carolina Highway Patrol arrived and spoke with Mr.Tunstill. While Trooper McDevitt and Mr. Tunstill were
completing an accident report, defendant returned to the scene in
a red car driven by a female. Trooper McDevitt questioned
defendant as to the whereabouts of the truck involved in the
accident, and defendant responded that the truck was at his home.
Trooper McDevitt told defendant that he needed to see the truck,
since information for the accident report was needed from the
vehicle. Defendant left the scene in the red car driven by the
female and returned a few minutes later driving his truck.
Trooper McDevitt testified at trial that after defendant
returned in the truck, both drivers were seated in the patrol car
while the officer completed some paper work. Trooper McDevitt
began to detect the odor of alcohol coming from defendant.
Trooper McDevitt then observed defendant more closely and saw
that his eyes were bloodshot and that he had a strong odor of
alcohol on his breath. He asked defendant to take an alco-sensor
test, but defendant refused. Trooper McDevitt then arrested
defendant for DWI. Defendant offered no evidence.
______________________
[1]By his second and fourth assignments of error, defendant
argues the trial court committed reversible error by (1) refusing
to instruct the jurors that they could consider only the first
incident of defendant's driving in determining whether he did sowhile subject to an impairing substance, and (2) having declined
to give such an instruction, by refusing to set aside the verdict
on grounds it could have been less than unanimous. The trial
court denied defendant's request that the jurors be restricted to
a consideration of defendant's driving at the time of the
accident and instructed the jury as follows:
Now I charge that for you to find the
defendant guilty . . . the State must prove
three things beyond a reasonable doubt.
First, that the Defendant was driving a
vehicle. Second, that he was driving this
vehicle upon a highway or street or public
vehicular area within the State . . . . The
third element . . . is that at the time the
Defendant was driving the vehicle, he was
under the influence of an impaired substance.
Defendant contends that permitting the jury to consider
defendant's driving both at the time of the accident, as well as
when he returned to the scene in his truck, in determining the
existence of the foregoing elements, resulted in the possibility
that defendant was convicted upon a less than unanimous vote in
violation of his constitutional right to a unanimous verdict. We
reject his argument.
The North Carolina Constitution provides that [n]o person
shall be convicted of any crime but by the unanimous verdict of a
jury in open court. N.C. Const. Art. I, § 24. Our Supreme
Court addressed the issue of disjunctive instructions andnonunanimous verdicts in
State v. Hartness, 326 N.C. 561, 391
S.E.2d 177 (1990). In
Hartness, the defendant,
who was convicted
of various counts of sexual abuse, argued that the disjunctive
phrasing of the jury instructions allowed the jury to consider
both the defendant's touching of his stepson, as well as the
stepson's touching of defendant, in determining defendant's guilt
under the statute, thereby resulting in the possibility of a
nonunanimous verdict.
Id. at 563, 391 S.E.2d at 178. The court
determined, however, that no such risk existed, because the
statute proscribing indecent liberties does not list, as elements
of the offense, discrete criminal activities in the disjunctive.
Id. at 564, 391 S.E.2d at 179. The court went on to state:
[e]ven if we assume that some jurors found
that one type of sexual conduct occurred and
others found that another transpired, the
fact remains that the jury as a whole would
unanimously find that there occurred sexual
conduct within the ambit of [the statute].
Id. at 565, 391 S.E.2d at 179.
Thus, under
Hartness, we must look to the language of G.S. §
20-138.1 to determine whether it proscribes a single offense, or
discrete criminal activities in the disjunctive. Our Supreme
Court addressed this very issue in
State v. Oliver, 343 N.C. 202,
215, 470 S.E.2d 16, 24 (1996), wherein the court stated, [a]s is
indicated by the plain language of the statute, N.C.G.S. § 20-138.1 proscribes the single offense of driving while impaired
which may be proven in one of two ways. The court, citing the
reasoning applied in
Hartness, stated that even taking as true
the defendant's argument that the jury may have returned a guilty
verdict without all twelve jurors agreeing as to the time and
extent of the defendant's drunkenness, the fact remains that
jurors unanimously found defendant guilty of the single offense
of impaired driving.
Id. at 215, 470 S.E.2d at 24.
This Court has also found
Hartness to be controlling in
situations which involve alternative methods of establishing a
single offense.
See State v. Johnston, 123 N.C. App. 292, 297,
473 S.E.2d 25, 29,
disc. review denied, 344 N.C. 737, 478 S.E.2d
10 (1996) (where defendant's conviction for disseminating
obscenity was predicated on the sale of two magazines and the
jury could have disagreed as to which one was obscene, the trial
court's refusal to instruct the jury that there must be
unanimous agreement that at least one of the two magazines . . .
was obscene, did not violate defendant's right to a unanimous
verdict). In light of the foregoing precedent, we overrule
defendant's second and fourth assignments of error.
[2]By his third assignment of error, defendant argues the
trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the issue of
entrapment. Entrapment is the inducement of a person to commita criminal offense not contemplated by that person, for the mere
purpose of instituting criminal action against him.
State v.
Davis, 126 N.C. App. 415, 417, 485 S.E.2d 329, 331 (1997)
(citations omitted). In order to establish the defense a
defendant must show that (1) law enforcement officers or their
agents engaged in acts of persuasion, trickery or fraud to induce
the defendant to commit a crime, and (2) the criminal design
originated in the minds of those officials rather than with the
defendant.
Id. at 418, 485 S.E.2d at 331. A defendant must
present 'credible evidence tending to support [his] contention
that he was a victim of entrapment . . .' to be entitled to a
jury instruction on the defense of entrapment.
State v. Goldman,
97 N.C. App. 589, 592-93, 389 S.E.2d 281, 283,
disc. review
denied, 327 N.C. 434, 395 S.E.2d 691 (1990) (quoting
State v.
Burnette, 242 N.C. 164, 173, 87 S.E.2d 191, 197 (1955)).
See
also, State v. Martin, 77 N.C. App. 61, 334 S.E.2d 459 (1985),
cert. denied, 317 N.C. 711, 347 S.E.2d 47 (1986).
In the present case, defendant contends the evidence of
Trooper McDevitt's request to see defendant's truck so that he
could complete the accident report was sufficient credible
evidence to support the conclusion that defendant was a victim of
entrapment. Defendant argues this evidence showed Trooper
McDevitt had the time necessary to observe that defendant wasintoxicated prior to his requesting to see defendant's truck,
and, therefore, a jury could infer that Trooper McDevitt intended
to trick defendant into driving the truck back to the scene while
he was under the influence of an impairing substance. We
disagree.
There was no evidence that Trooper McDevitt suspected
defendant of being intoxicated prior to requesting to see the
truck, nor was there evidence that Trooper McDevitt instructed
defendant, rather than the female accompanying him, to drive the
truck back to the scene. Moreover, Trooper McDevitt testified
that he did not begin to suspect that defendant was intoxicated
until defendant was seated in his patrol car after returning the
truck to the scene, and Mr. Tunstill testified that he had
observed nothing about defendant which would have led him to
believe defendant was intoxicated.
In
State v. Bailey, 93 N.C. App. 721, 379 S.E.2d 266
(1989), the defendant approached an officer for help in locating
his truck. The officer observed that the defendant was visibly
intoxicated, and pointed the defendant in the general direction
of his vehicle. The officer then stood and watched as the
defendant got into his truck and began to drive, at which point
the officer followed the defendant and arrested him.
Id. The
court, in holding that the defendant was not entitled to anentrapment instruction, stated, [t]here was no showing of any
persuasion or fraud on the part of the officer, nor was there a
showing that the criminal design originated with [the officer].
Id. at 724, 379 S.E.2d at 268. Likewise, in the present case,
defendant has failed to present any credible evidence that
Trooper McDevitt's motive in requesting to see defendant's truck
was anything more than a legitimate need to see the vehicle
involved in the accident in order to complete his investigation.
We hold, therefore, that the trial court properly refused to
instruct the jury on the defense of entrapment.
See State v.
Rosario, 93 N.C. App. 627, 379 S.E.2d 434,
disc. review denied,
325 N.C. 275, 384 S.E.2d 527 (1989) (in the absence of evidence
tending to establish all elements of entrapment, the defense has
not been sufficiently raised to submit the issue to the jury).
Defendant's remaining assignment of error has been
abandoned.
No error.
Chief Judge EAGLES and Judge McGEE concur.
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