Title: State v. Lindsay

State: north-carolina

Issuer: North Carolina Supreme Court

Document:

179 S.E.2d 364 (1971)
278 N.C. 293
STATE of North Carolina
v.
David G. LINDSAY.
No. 26.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
March 10, 1971.
Robert Morgan, Atty. Gen., William Lewis Sauls, Staff Atty., Raleigh, for the State.
James H. Atkins, Gastonia, for defendant appellant.
HIGGINS, Justice.
The defendant by Assignment of Error No. 3 contends the trial court committed *365 error by denying his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty interposed at the close of the State's case. The evidence was direct, complete and made out a strong case of armed robbery as defined by G.S. § 14-87. State v. Miller, 268 N.C. 532, 151 S.E.2d 47; State v. Carter, 265 N.C. 626, 144 S.E.2d 826; State v. Stephens, 262 N. C. 45, 136 S.E.2d 209. The defendant's motion to dismiss was properly denied.
The defendant, by his Assignment of Error No. 4, challenges as error the court's failure to grant his motion for a mistrial because of the solicitor's comment to the jury that the defendant had failed to testify and had failed to offer evidence in his defense. When the attention of the trial judge was called to the solicitor's remarks, the trial judge charged the jury as follows:
The solicitor's reference to the defendant's failure to testify was a transgression of proper trial procedure and was error. However, as this court said in State v. Lewis, 256 N.C. 430, 124 S.E.2d 115, and repeated, amplified and emphasized in State v. Stephens, supra, any harmful effect was removed by the court's prompt and explicit instructions to the jury to disregard the reference. The error was rendered harmless by the court's prompt and vigorous action. We have no cause in this instance to believe the jury failed to heed the court's instructions.
No error.