STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
v. Chatham County
No. 00 CRS 50783
RONALD LEE STUART
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General
Belinda A. Smith, for the State.
Joal H. Broun for defendant-appellant.
WYNN, Judge.
Defendant Ronald Lee Stuart appeals from judgment of the trial
court entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of indecent
liberties with a minor. On appeal, Defendant argues the trial
court erred in excluding his medical records from the evidence.
For the reasons stated herein, we find no error by the trial court.
The State's evidence tended to show that on the morning of 10
April 2000, Defendant fondled his stepdaughter's breasts.
Defendant's stepdaughter was in fifth grade at the time. While
Defendant did not dispute his stepdaughter's allegations, he denied
any memory of the incident, claiming he had experienced a series of
blackouts in the days following his exposure to a pesticide and
herbicide solution in the course of his employment on 6 or 7 April2000. Defendant testified he visited the emergency room on 10 or
11 April 2000, the morning after he learned of his stepdaughter's
allegations, and remained in the hospital for a week. He expressed
remorse for the incident, but asserted he was not in control of
his actions.
Despite ascribing his behavior and memory loss to the
interaction of the pesticide-herbicide mixture with his blood
pressure medication, Defendant did not offer testimony from any
medical expert to support his theory. The State's expert witness,
medical toxicologist Dr. William Joel Megs, opined that exposure to
the chemicals in question would not have caused the symptoms
described by Defendant, either alone or in combination with his
blood pressure medication.
Upon the jury's guilty verdict, the trial court sentenced
Defendant to an active prison term of twenty-five to thirty months.
On 19 June 2002, this Court issued a writ of certiorari pursuant to
Rule 21(a)(1) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure,
for the purpose of reviewing the judgment.
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In his sole argument on appeal, Defendant challenges the trial
court's ruling excluding from evidence his hospital records from
April of 2000. In sustaining the State's objection to the records,
the trial court found that they weren't furnished pursuant to
reciprocal discovery, [and] . . . they weren't even furnished at
the time [Defendant] testified[.] Defendant argues the trial
court abused its discretion in refusing to admit this evidence,thereby denying him due process of law.
Defendant has failed to properly preserve his claims for our
review on appeal. Although he now casts the trial court's ruling
as a violation of his state and federal constitutional rights,
Defendant did not present his constitutional claims to the trial
judge and cannot raise them for the first time on appeal. State v.
Anderson, 350 N.C. 152, 175, 190, 513 S.E.2d 296, 310, 319 (1999);
State v. Call, 349 N.C. 382, 410, 508 S.E.2d 496, 519 (1998).
Moreover, Defendant failed to make an offer of proof at trial as to
the contents of his records and has not submitted the relevant
documents to this Court in the record on appeal. See N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 8C-1, Rule 103(a)(2) (2003); Morris v. Bailey, 86 N.C. App.
378, 383, 358 S.E.2d 120, 123 (1987). Accordingly, he cannot show
prejudice, as required by section 15A-1443(a) of the North Carolina
General Statutes. See State v. Lee, 335 N.C. 244, 274, 439 S.E.2d
547, 562, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 891, 130 L. Ed. 2d 162 (1994);
State v. King, 326 N.C. 662, 674, 392 S.E.2d 609, 617 (1990).
Having deprived this Court of the necessary record from which to
ascertain whether the alleged error was prejudicial, defendant has
precluded proper consideration of this assignment of error, and it
is deemed waived. State v. Simpson, 327 N.C. 178, 189, 393 S.E.2d
771, 778 (1990).
The record on appeal contains additional assignments of error
not addressed by Defendant in his brief to this Court. Pursuant to
Rule 28(b)(6) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure,
we deem them abandoned. No error.
Judges TYSON and GEER concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
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