Court Opinion

ID: 9614519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:26:05.043013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:36.598744
License: Public Domain

HUNTER, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that Audrey Gobal’s (“defendant”) trial was free from prejudicial error as it pertains to the admission of Detective Kerley’s testimony and to the admission of Keisha Hooks’s testimony. I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that the issue of sentencing is not properly before this Court. Instead, I would hold that the issue has been properly preserved for appellate review and that defendant’s indictment was multiplicious and would therefore vacate one of defendant’s convictions for first degree sexual offense and remand for resentencing.
The majority bases its conclusion that the sentencing issue is not properly before this Court on the grounds that defendant did not raise the constitutional issue of double jeopardy to the trial court and, as such, has failed to preserve that argument for appellate review. Defendant, however, does not raise the issue of double jeopardy to this Court but instead argues that her indictment was multiplicious.
The issues in this case are: (1) whether the issue of sentencing is properly before this Court; (2) whether the statutory definition of “sexual act” creates disparate offenses or whether it enumerates the methods by which the single wrong of engaging in a sexual act with a child may be shown; and (3) if the statutory definition of “sexual act” does not create disparate offenses, whether the acts of cunnilingus and fellatio committed by defendant against the victim occurred in the same transaction, thus rendering her indictment multiplicious.
I.
The majority contends that defendant is making a double jeopardy argument and that it has been waived because it was not *324properly preserved.8 Defendant asserts in assignment of error number 6 that her indictment was multiplicious. During the sentencing hearing, defense counsel made the substance of a multiplicity argument when he stated that the sexual acts “all happened at one time.” Accordingly, I would address defendant’s contention that her indictment was multiplicious.
II.
In this case, the jury convicted defendant, inter alia, of two counts of first degree sexual offense in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4(a)(l) (2005), for which the trial court imposed consecutive sentences. A person will be guilty of a first degree sexual offense if the person engages in a sexual act “[w]ith a victim who is a child under the age of 13 years and the defendant is at least 12 years old and is at least four years older than the victim[.]” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14.27.4(a)(1). A “sexual act” is defined as, inter alia, cunnilingus and fellatio. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14.27.1(4) (2005). The State alleged that the two sexual acts committed by defendant, cunnilingus and fellatio, warrant two separate charges for first degree sexual offense. Defendant, however, argues that the alleged sexual acts of cunnilingus and fellatio occurred during the same transaction so that the State could only indict her on one count of first degree sexual offense.
An indictment will be multiplicious if it charges a single offense in multiple counts. State v. Petty, 132 N.C. App. 453, 463 n.2, 512 S.E.2d 428, 435 n.2 (1999). As with the dangers guarded against by the double jeopardy clause, “ ‘[t]he principal danger in multiplicity is that the defendant will receive multiple sentences for a single offense[.]’ ” Id. (quoting 2 Wayne R. LaFave & Jerold H. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 19.2, at 457-58 (1984)). Where an indictment is multipli-*325cious, a defendant is not entitled to a dismissal of the indictment but will be entitled to relief from the improper sentence. Id.
A.
This Court has already stated that the “statutory definition of ‘sexual act’ does not create disparate offenses, rather it enumerates the methods by which the single wrong of engaging in a sexual act with a child may be shown.” Petty, 132 N.C. App. at 462, 512 S.E.2d at 434; see also State v. Youngs, 141 N.C. App. 220, 233, 540 S.E.2d 794, 802 (2000) (same). Accordingly, it has also been held that “disjunctive jury instructions do not risk nonunanimous verdicts in first-degree sexual offense cases.” Petty, 132 N.C. App. at 462, 512 S.E.2d at 434 (citing State v. McCarty, 326 N.C. 782, 784, 392 S.E.2d 359, 360 (1990) “(upholding jury instruction that the defendant could be found guilty of first-degree sexual offense ‘if [the jury] found [the] defendant [had] engaged in either fellatio or vaginal penetration’)”); State v. Hartness, 326 N.C. 561, 565, 391 S.E.2d 177, 179 (1990) (holding that disjunctive instructions did not result in a fatally ambiguous verdict in an indecent liberties case, and noting that the indecent liberties statute is “more similar to the statute relating to first-degree sexual offense . . . than to the trafficking statute discussed in Diaz"). It also then follows that because “first-degree sexual offense is a single wrong for unanimity purposes [it] requires us to conclude that charging a defendant with a separate count of first-degree sexual offense for each alternative sexual act performed in a single transaction would result in a multiplicious indictment.”9 Petty, 132 N.C. App. at 463, 512 S.E.2d at 435 (footnote omitted). Thus, I would next determine whether the acts committed by defendant in this case occurred during the same transaction.
*326B.
In this case, the evidence presented at trial tended to show the acts of fellatio and cunnilingus occurred during the same transaction, and under the reasoning of Petty, I would hold that the indictment was multiplicious. On 2 April 2004, defendant and her boyfriend, John Paul McCloskey (“McCloskey”), went into his bedroom with the victim. Once in the bedroom, McCloskey performed cunnilingus upon defendant. The victim then said, “ T can take care of Mom from here,’ ” and she then began to masturbate defendant while McCloskey kissed defendant. McCloskey then performed cunnilingus upon defendant and the victim. The victim then performed fellatio on McCloskey for five or six minutes. There was a gap of approximately three to five minutes between the acts of cunnilingus and fellatio. During this time, there was no break in sexual acts between defendant and her boyfriend, and the victim remained nearby. Under these circumstances, I would hold that the sexual acts occurred during a single transaction. Accordingly, defendant’s indictment was multipli-cious because she was charged with two separate counts of first degree sexual offense in a single indictment when each alternative sexual act occurred during a single transaction. I would therefore vacate one of defendant’s convictions for first degree sexual offense and remand for resentencing.
III.
The majority has concluded that defendant’s argument is one of double jeopardy and not multiplicity. Due to the similarities between the two arguments, this Court has addressed them under the same standard. See State v. Howell, 169 N.C. App. 58, 61, 609 S.E.2d 417, 419 (2005). For the reasons discussed in footnote two of this dissent, I would address whether defendant was convicted in violation of the double jeopardy clause.
“Both the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution prohibit multiple punishments for the same offense absent clear legislative intent to the contrary.”10 Etheridge, 319 N.C. at 50, 352 S.E.2d at 683 (emphasis added); see also Ezell, 159 N.C. App. at 106, 582 S.E.2d at 682 (same). “Our courts consider the ‘gravamen’ or ‘gist’ of the statute to determine whether it criminalizes a single wrong or multi-*327pie discrete and separate wrongs.” Petty, 132 N.C. App. at 461, 512 S.E.2d at 434.
“Section 14-27.4’s gravamen, or gist, is to criminalize the performance of a sexual act with a child.” Id. at 462, 512 S.E.2d at 434. As stated above, “[t]he statutory definition of ‘sexual act’ does not create disparate offenses, rather it enumerates the methods by which the single wrong of engaging in a sexual act with a child may be shown.” Id. Accordingly, if defendant engaged in the sexual act in one transaction, then she could not be convicted on two counts of first degree sexual offense. On the other hand, if defendant engaged “in alternative sexual acts in separate transactions . . . each separate transaction may properly form the basis for charging the defendant with a separate count of first-degree sexual offense.” Id. at 463, 512 S.E.2d at 435.
For the reasons discussed in section IIB of this dissent, I would find that the acts of cunnilingus and fellatio occurred during a single transaction. Accordingly, defendant was convicted twice for a single offense in violation of the double jeopardy clause, and I would remand with instructions to vacate one first degree sexual offense conviction and to resentence defendant.
IV.
In summary, I would hold that defendant’s indictment was multi-plicious and would remand for resentencing on that ground. In the alternative, I would hold that the issue of double jeopardy is properly before this Court and that defendant’s convictions on two counts of a first degree sexual offense arising out of the same transaction violated the double jeopardy clause and would thus vacate one conviction and remand for resentencing. For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent as to these issues.

. Assuming, as the majority has, that defendant’s actual argument is one of double jeopardy, I disagree with the majority’s contention that the issue has been waived. The merits of a double jeopardy defense may be reviewed by an appellate court even where a defendant does not “us[e] those exact words,” so long as “the substance of the argument was sufficiently presented and, more importantly, addressed by the trial court in finalizing its instructions to the jury.” State v. Ezell, 159 N.C. App. 103, 106, 582 S.E.2d 679, 682 (2003). The substance of the argument was made when defense counsel said that the alleged sexual acts “all happened at one time”; the trial court instructed the jury on the double jeopardy issue when it told the jury “that for you to convict the defendant of more than one of the offenses charged you must find that each offense constituted a separate and distinct criminal act, and you must weigh the evidence of each alleged offense separately and apart from any other.” (Emphasis added.)

. This Court, in State v. James, 182 N.C. App. 698, 704-06, 643 S.E.2d 34, 38 (2007), has reached a different conclusion as it pertains to the criminal violation of taking indecent liberties with a child. Although that Court was addressing a multiplicity argument, I would find it distinguishable from the instant case because James dealt with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-202.1(a)(l)-(2) (indecent liberties with children statute) and not N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4(a)(l) (first degree sexual offense statute). Moreover, the James Court, in rejecting the defendant’s multiplicity argument, applied a rule used to determine whether a double jeopardy violation had occurred where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, a rule that is inapplicable to the determination of whether an indictment was multiplicious. See James, 182 N.C. App. at 704, 643 S.E.2d at 38 (citing State v. Etheridge, 319 N.C. 34, 50, 352 S.E.2d 673, 683 (1987)). Accordingly, I would find James distinguishable from the instant case on this ground as well.

. The double jeopardy clause also “prohibits (1) a second prosecution for the same offenses after acquittal; [and] (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction].]” Ezell, 159 N.C. App. at 106, 582 S.E.2d at 682.