State v. Elkins, 210 N.C. App. 110 (Mar. 1, 2011)

Although Rule 704 allows admission of lay opinion evidence on ultimate issues, the lay opinion offered was inadmissible under Rule 701 because it was not helpful to the jury. In this case, a detective was asked: After you received this information from the hospital, what were your next steps? Were you building a case at this point? He answered: “I felt like I was building a solid case. [The defendant] was, indeed, the offender in this case.” However, the error did not constitute plain error.