Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (July 5, 2022)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinion from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on July 5, 2022. This summary will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. (1) Trial court did not err in failing to require jury to be unanimous about which act constituted indecent liberties with a child; (2) Mistake of age is not a defense to indecent liberties with a child; thus, trial court did not err in failing to give such an instruction. State v. Langley, 2022-NCCOA-457, ___ N.C. App. ___ (July 5, 2022). In this Pitt County case, defendant appealed his conviction for taking indecent liberties with a child. Evidence at trial established that the 27-year-old defendant picked up the 15-year-old victim from her home in the evening, drove her to various locations, had her perform oral sex on him, digitally penetrated her, and touched her breasts. The victim did not remember all of the events that evening; after she awoke the next morning, the defendant dropped her off at the Department of Social Services. A subsequent sexual assault examination revealed the presence of the defendant’s DNA on a vaginal swab from the victim and the presence of sperm on the vaginal swab sample. The jury found defendant not guilty of kidnapping and statutory rape and statutory sex offense charges, but found the defendant guilty of taking indecent liberties with a child under N.C.G.S § 14-202.1. On appeal, the defendant argued that the [...]