Court Opinion

ID: 9588675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:36:49.012203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:41:11.768166
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Judge.
Counsel for defendant who was also counsel at trial enigmatically now argues on appeal that since there was no formal stipulation at the sentence hearing “the prosecutor’s mere assertion of the *29evidence in a statement to the court is totally insufficient to support the findings in aggravation.”
Defendant, citing cases such as State v. Powell, 254 N.C. 231, 118 S.E.2d 617 (1961), points out that while there is no particular form to be followed for a stipulation, the terms, nevertheless, must be definite and certain, and must be assented to by the parties.
A good case could be made on this record that there are no terms or issues which are not definite and certain. And, unlike Powell, there are no issues present here which are controverted by a not guilty plea. Furthermore, the Powell decision says silence is not an assent “unless the solicitor specifies that assent has been given.” (Emphasis added.) Powell at 235, 118 S.E.2d at 620. However, it is unnecessary to discuss formal stipulations in this appeal.
Rather than characterize the prosecuting attorney’s summary of the evidence as a “mere assertion” it is more appropriate to focus on the fact that defense counsel admitted the correctness of that summary in his own statement to the court. See State v. Jones, 309 N.C. 214, 306 S.E.2d 451 (1983). The message communicated to the trial court by defendant, through counsel, was very clear by conduct, syntax and vocabulary, and if not a stipulation, it was certainly an admission that defendant in fact stuck his penis in the mouth of the five-year-old niece whom he bathed, fed and took care of, and with whom he lived.
Therefore, there was sufficient evidence to support the findings in aggravation. See State v. Daniel, 319 N.C. 308, 354 S.E.2d 216 (1987), and State v. Melton, 307 N.C. 370, 298 S.E.2d 673 (1983).
Moreover, because he failed to object to the district attorney’s summary of the evidence offered upon his guilty plea, defendant has waived his right now to appeal any possible error regarding this evidence. State v. Bradley, 91 N.C. App. 559, 373 S.E.2d 130 (1988), disc. rev. denied, 324 N.C. 114, 377 S.E.2d 238 (1989).
Affirmed.
Judge LEWIS concurs.
Judge GREENE dissents.