Case ID: nc-app_65/html/0425-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HEDRICK, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. JOSEPH GRAY ALFORD
    No. 8316SC378
    (Filed 6 December 1983)
    Criminal Law § 169.5— admission of testimony as harmless error
    In a robbery, kidnapping and rape prosecution in which the victim testified that she had bitten defendant on what she thought was a finger of his right hand, defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by an officer’s testimony that at the time defendant was arrested his left thumb appeared to have been severed and by photographs illustrating such testimony.
    Appeal by defendant from Herring, Judge. Judgments entered 28 September 1982 in Superior Court, ROBESON County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 29 November 1983.
    Defendant was charged in proper bills of indictment with armed robbery, kidnapping and rape.
    Defendant was convicted of kidnapping and attempted second degree rape, and from judgments imposing consecutive prison sentences of twenty years for kidnapping and five years for attempted rape, he appealed.
    
      Attorney General Rufus L. Edmisten, by Assistant Attorney General Steven F. Bryant, for the State.
    
    
      Angus B. Thompson, Jr., for the defendant, appellant.
    
   HEDRICK, Judge.

The sole question presented for review is whether the trial court erred by admitting into evidence pictures of defendant’s hands and testimony explaining those pictures. The victim testified that she had bitten the defendant on what she thought was a finger of his right hand. A deputy sheriff testified that when defendant was taken into custody, his left thumb appeared to have been severed. The deputy was then allowed to explain his testimony by using three photographs of defendant’s hands taken at the time of arrest. The photographs were admitted into evidence for the purpose of illustrating the deputy sheriffs testimony.

To obtain a new trial, defendant must show that he was prejudiced by some error of the court, and that a different result would likely have occurred if the court had not erred. State v. Jones, 278 N.C. 259, 179 S.E. 2d 433 (1971); State v. Patton, 45 N.C. App. 676, 263 S.E. 2d 796 (1980); State v. Sanders, 276 N.C. 598, 174 S.E. 2d 487 (1970), reversed on other grounds, 403 U.S. 948, 29 L.Ed. 2d 860, 91 S.Ct. 2290 (1971). Assuming arguendo that it was error for the court to admit the testimony regarding defendant’s left hand and illustrative pictures, defendant has failed to show how he was prejudiced by its admission. We are, therefore, compelled to find,

No error.

Judges Braswell and Eagles concur.