Opinion ID: 1324457
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Comment By Trial Judge

Text: The defendant assigns as error the comment of the trial judge in response to the defendants' objection to a statement by the solicitor in the latter's argument to the jury. The statement by the solicitor was, his [the defendant's] mother said she didn't remember whether she was charged with killing her first husband or not. When the defendant's counsel objected, the court replied, I remember distinctly that she said it. The defendant is not entitled to a new trial on this account. The narrative summary of the testimony of the defendant's mother set forth in the record before us does not contain this alleged statement by her. She did testify: I have been married twice. I did not kill my second husband but I was convicted and served time for his murder. There was testimony by another witness that her first husband (the father of the defendant) committed suicide when (the defendant) was only four months old. In reviewing the evidence in his charge to the jury, as he was required to do by the statute, the trial judge again stated that the defendant's mother testified she was convicted of murdering her second husband, that she did not recall and does not remember whether she was charged with killing her first husband, the father of the defendant. To this statement the defendant did not object and he made no attempt to call its alleged inaccuracy to the attention of the court. It is not required that the appellant set forth in his statement of the case on appeal the evidence in its entirety. On the contrary, G.S. § 1-282 states that the case on appeal shall be a concise statement of the case, and it is common practice to omit portions of the testimony deemed by the parties of no consequence upon the appeal. Our examination of the entire charge of the court discloses that there were a number of instances in which evidence summarized therein by the judge for the benefit of the jury is not otherwise reflected in the record before us. These indicate that in the preparation of the statement of the case on appeal the appellant did not undertake to set out the evidence in its entirety. The court correctly instructed the jury that it was to recall all of the testimony and to be guided by its recollection and not by the court's summary of the evidence. While it is error for the court to express an opinion to the jury reflecting upon the credibility of a witness, State v. Auston, 223 N.C. 203, 25 S.E.2d 613, we think it a strained construction of the remark of the court in this instance to call it an expression of opinion by the court as to the credibility of the witness. If it was, it is obvious that the statement was not prejudicial error since the witness had admitted her conviction of the murder of the second husband. It is inconceivable that this statement by the court, even if inaccurate, affected the verdict of the jury. It does not justify awarding a new trial to the defendant. The point is not stressed by the defendant in his brief.