An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute 

controlling legal authority. Citation is disfavored, but may be permitted in accordance 

with the provisions of Rule 30(e)(3) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure.

NO. COA13-1204

NORTH CAROLINA COURT OF APPEALS

Filed: 3 June 2014

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

v. Guilford County

No. 12 CRS 74220

CURTIS MARIO BENTON

Appeal by Defendant from judgment entered 15 May 2013 by 

Judge David L. Hall in Guilford County Superior Court. Heard in 

the Court of Appeals 19 February 2014.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Associate Attorney General 

J. Rick Brown, for the State.

Mark L. Hayes for Defendant.

DILLON, Judge.

While reserving the right to appeal the denial of his 

motion to suppress, see N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-979(b) (2011),

Defendant pled guilty on 6 May 2013 to possession with intent to 

sell or deliver marijuana and to possession of marijuana on the 

premises of a local confinement facility. In a judgment signed 

6 May 2013 and filed 15 May 2013, the trial court consolidated 

Defendant’s offenses for judgment, suspended a prison sentence 
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of seven to eighteen months, and placed him on thirty-six months 

of supervised probation.

We note that Defendant has filed a petition for writ of 

certiorari with this Court, acknowledging a possible 

jurisdictional defect in his notice of appeal. The State has 

not moved to dismiss Defendant’s appeal, nor does it oppose 

review by writ of certiorari pursuant to N.C.R. App. P. 

21(a)(1). We elect to grant Defendant’s petition for writ of 

certiorari and review the merits of his appeal.

* * * *

This case is a companion of State v. Jackson, No. COA13-743

(May 20, 2014). Defendant and Tijoun Jackson, the Jackson

defendant, were stopped by Officer T.D. Brown of the Greensboro 

Police Department on the evening of 9 April 2012 in front of a 

convenient store as they were parting company. Incident to 

Officer Brown’s investigatory stop, he determined that Mr. 

Jackson had a gun. Another police officer, who arrived on the 

scene shortly after Officer Brown made the initial stop, found 

marijuana during a search of Defendant.

On 4 January 2013, Defendant filed a motion to suppress the 

marijuana found on his person, arguing, in part, that Officer 

Brown’s investigatory stop violated his constitutional rights. 
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On 25 April 2013, the trial court denied Defendant’s motion. On 

6 May 2013, Defendant entered an Alford plea and was sentenced 

to seven to eighteen months of active imprisonment, with the 

execution of the sentence suspended and Defendant placed on 

supervised probation for thirty-six months. Defendant appeals.

* * * *

On appeal, Defendant argues, inter alia, that the trial 

court erred in denying his motion to suppress because Officer 

Brown did not have reasonable suspicion that he was involved in 

criminal activity when he made his investigatory stop of 

Defendant and Mr. Jackson. See State v. Watkins, 337 N.C. 437, 

441, 446 S.E.2d 67, 70 (1994). Similarly, Mr. Jackson filed a 

motion to suppress in his case based on this same issue, a 

motion which was also denied by the trial court and which formed

the basis of his appeal to this Court in Jackson.

In the present case, we are bound by our decision in 

Jackson, where this Court, by a 2-1 vote, held that Officer 

Brown’s investigatory stop was invalid. In re Civil Penalty, 

324 N.C. 373, 384, 379 S.E.2d 30, 37 (1989). Though Defendant 

and Mr. Jackson were ultimately searched by different officers, 

they were both initially stopped by the same officer, at the 

same time, under the same circumstances. Therefore, consistent 
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with our mandate in Jackson, we reverse the trial court’s order 

denying Defendant’s motion to dismiss and vacate Defendant’s 

conviction entered following his Alford plea.

REVERSED in part; VACATED in part.

Judges BRYANT and STEPHENS concur.

Report per Rule 30(e).