Opinion ID: 1306155
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: error assigned only by defendant ricky barnett.

Text: Defendant Ricky Barnett assigns as error the admission of testimony by Cheryl H. Little identifying him as one of the participants in the robbery, and her testimony concerning her out-of-court identification of him through a photographic display. We find no merit in this assignment. It is well established that [i]dentification evidence must be excluded as violating a defendant's rights to due process where the facts reveal a pretrial identification procedure so impermissibly suggestive that there is a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. State v. White, 307 N.C. 42, 45-46, 296 S.E.2d 267, 269 (1982) (citing Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); State v. Leggett, 305 N.C. 213, 287 S.E.2d 832 (1982); State v. Thompson, 303 N.C. 169, 277 S.E.2d 431 (1981); and State v. Wilson, 296 N.C. 298, 250 S.E.2d 621 (1979)). In the case at hand, the evidence presented on voir dire showed that Cheryl Little was requested by Officer Van Hoy to come to the police department. She was told that some people had been arrested in connection with the robbery and shooting. She was shown several sets of photographs but was not told photographs of any of the persons who had been arrested were in the group she received. Although the group contained photographs of all three defendants, she identified only a photograph of defendant Ricky Barnett. When she was at the Fast Fare she had a better opportunity to observe Ricky Barnett than she did the other defendants; she saw him face to face at a distance of only several feet. In selecting Ricky's photograph she stated that he was the little one with the hat. She had previously described the smallest of the robbers as being about 5 feet 6 or 7. Ricky Barnett was approximately that height, while the other defendants were more than 5 feet 10 inches tall. Cheryl Little further testified that her in-court identification of defendant Ricky Barnett was based solely upon what she saw at the Fast Fare store and not on any photographs which she had seen of him. Judge Johnson, after finding the above recited facts, concluded that Cheryl Little's identification of defendant Ricky Barnett was of independent origin and was not tainted by any pretrial identification procedure so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification as to constitute a denial of due process of law. He also concluded: The pretrial photographic identification procedure involving the defendants was not so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification as to violate the defendants' rights to due process of law. The findings of Judge Johnson are supported by the evidence and his conclusions are supported by his findings. This assignment of error is overruled. Having considered all of the assignments of error argued by each defendant and finding no merit in any of them, we conclude that defendants received fair trials, free from prejudicial error. NO ERROR. MITCHELL, MARTIN and FRYE, JJ., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.