Court Opinion

ID: 9591954
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:09:04.270778+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:43.593576
License: Public Domain

Justice HUDSON
dissenting.
I would conclude that the State waived its preservation argument by neglecting to raise it below, specifically by failing to either cross-assign it as error in accordance with the then-applicable version of North Carolina Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(d) or to make the argument in its brief to the Court of Appeals. I would further conclude that admission of the cross-examination testimony regarding the 1990 assaults violated Rule 404(b) and resulted in reversible error warranting a new trial. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
At the time of defendant’s appeal, North Carolina Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(d) provided, in pertinent part:
(d) Cross-assignments of error by appellee. Without taking an appeal an appellee may cross-assign as error any action or omission of the trial court which was properly preserved for appellate review and which deprived the appellee of an alternative basis in law for supporting the judgment, order, or other determination from which appeal has been taken.
*280N.C. R. App. P. 10(d).2 Here, it is undisputed that defendant asserted in his assignments of error that the admission of his cross-examination testimony regarding the 1990 assaults violated Rule 404(b).3 In his brief he set forth the standard of review as abuse of discretion and argued that its erroneous admission resulted in prejudicial error under N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a). Despite this, the State neglected to assert, either in a cross-assignment of error or in its brief to the Court of Appeals, that defendant had waived his Rule 404(b) argument by not assigning or arguing plain error in the record on appeal or his brief. This argument would have provided an alternative basis for the relief sought by the State — in fact, the basis for the relief it now seeks. Instead, the State simply responded to the defendant’s argument by maintaining that there was no abuse of discretion — even though arguing that defendant waived the issue would have been simpler. As a result, the Court of Appeals did not address the issue of waiver or plain error, as the State now argues.
Based on earlier cases, I conclude it is not our role to allow the State another, different bite of the apple by permitting it to present, for the first time, an argument it did not make below. See Pearce v. Am. Defender Life Ins. Co., 316 N.C. 461, 467, 343 S.E.2d 174, 178 (1986) (“Petitioners whose cases come before this Court on discretionary review are limited by Rule 16 of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure to those questions they have presented in their briefs to the Court of Appeals. Because these causes of action were not argued to that court, they are not properly before us.”); see also Rowan Cty. Bd. of Educ. v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 332 N.C. 1, 21-22, 418 S.E.2d 648, 661 (1992) (same) (citing Pearce, 316 N.C. at 467, 343 S.E.2d at 178); State v. Fuller, 196 N.C. App. 412, 418, 674 S.E.2d 824, 829 (2009) (concluding that because the trial court had not denied the defendant’s motion to suppress based on lack of standing and the State had not cross-assigned standing as an “alternative basis for upholding the trial court’s order” under Appellate Rule 10(d), the State failed to preserve its argument for appellate review (citation *281omitted)). I would conclude that by not raising the issue until its petition for discretionary review to this Court,4 the State has waived the argument it makes now. Cf. State v. Homer, 310 N.C. 274, 283, 311 S.E.2d 281, 287 (1984) (stating that “[a] party may waive statutory or constitutional provisions by ... conduct inconsistent with a purpose to insist upon it” and declining to apply plain error review to alleged jury instruction error (citations omitted)). Similarly, I would decline to review this case for plain error, but would analyze it, if at all, to see if the Court of Appeals correctly saw error and prejudice.
Turning to the substance, I would conclude that the Court of Appeals correctly held that admission of the cross-examination testimony here clearly violated Rule 404(b). That court addressed the issue under the standard of review argued by both parties — whether there was an abuse of discretion. Ray, -N.C. App. at-, 678 S.E.2d at 384. Out of the presence of the jury, the State asked the court during the trial to permit it to cross-examine defendant regarding assaults he had committed against his former girlfriend, Brenda McPhaul (McPhaul), in 1990. The State argued that the 1990 incidents established defendant’s motive and intent to commit the 2005 crimes, specifically asserting “he had too much to drink as he has in the past, and he assaulted a woman, which is a child, yes, but. . . she is still a woman, and he assaulted her in an aggressive way, the same way he assaulted other women in aggressive ways after drinking.” The State indicated5 that McPhaul stated that all the 1990 incidents occurred while she and defendant were dating and'typically involved her confronting defendant with rumors of his infidelity upon his return home from drinking with friends. The confrontations led to fights, some initiated by McPhaul and some initiated by defendant. McPhaul further stated that: defendant never “seriously injured” her or sexually assaulted her; she had tried to hurt him during some of these altercations; her then minor children never indicated that defendant had “abuse[d them] in any way”; and she and defendant ended their relationship in or around December 1990 after he pulled a gun on her at a party “because she was seeing someone else.” Ultimately, the trial *282court ruled that the State could cross-examine defendant regarding the as-described, 1990 assaults to establish his motive and intent to sexually assault a seven year old child and that the probative value outweighed any prejudicial effect.
Rule 404(b) reads in pertinent part
(b) Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. — Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake, entrapment or accident.
N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 404(b) (2009). We recently described the potential dangers of this kind of evidence in State v. Carpenter, 361 N.C. 382, 646 S.E.2d 105 (2007):
When evidence of a prior [bad act] is introduced, the natural and inevitable tendency for a judge or jury is to give excessive weight to the vicious record . . . thus exhibited and either to allow it to bear too strongly on the present charge or to take the proof of it as justifying a condemnation, irrespective of the accused’s guilt of the present charge. Indeed, [t]he dangerous tendency of [Rule 404(b)] evidence to mislead and raise a legally spurious presumption of guilt requires that its admissibility should be subjected to strict scrutiny by the courts.
Id. at 387-88, 646 S.E.2d at 109-10 (third and fourth alteratiohs in original) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
Even though Rule 404(b) is often described as a “general rule of inclusion,” several limitations have been placed on the admission of such evidence because “of the perils inherent in introducing prior [bad acts] under Rule 404(b).” Id. at 388, 646 S.E.2d at 110; State v. Lynch, 334 N.C. 402, 412-13, 432 S.E.2d 349, 354-55 (1993) (citations omitted). The prior bad act “must be relevant to the currently alleged crime.” Carpenter, 361 N.C. at 388, 646 S.E.2d at 110 (citing N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rules 401 and 402 (2005)). Additionally, the prior bad acts’ admission “is constrained by the requirements of similarity and temporal proximity.” State v. Al-Bayyinah, 356 N.C. 150, 154, 567 S.E.2d 120, 123 (2002) (citations omitted). Regarding the “similarity” require-. ment, “[e]vidence of a prior bad act generally is admissible under Rule 404(b) if it constitutes substantial evidence tending to support a reasonable finding by the jury that the defendant committed the *283similar act.” Id. at 155, 567 S.E.2d at 123 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). “Finally, . . . the trial court must balance the danger of undue prejudice against-the probative value of the evidence, pursuant to [North Carolina] Rule [of Evidence] 403.” Carpenter, 361 N.C. at 388-89, 646 S.E.2d at 110 (citing N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 403 (2005)).
At most, the purported similarities between the 1990 incidents and the 2005 incident are merely generic. This Court has stated: “When the State’s efforts to show similarities between crimes establish no more than ‘characteristics inherent to most’ crimes of that type, the State has ‘failed to show . . . that sufficient similarities existed’ for the purposes of Rule 404(b).” Id. at 390, 646 S.E.2d at 111 (quoting Al-Bayyinah, 356 N.C. at 155, 567 S.E.2d at 123 (alteration in original)). At worst, they relate solely to defendant’s purported bad character, to show that he “acted in conformity” with a propensity to commit bad acts, which is expressly forbidden by Rule 404(b). N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 404(b). Given that defendant denied that alcohol played a role, his testimony undercut the State’s proffered theory that alcohol was the triggering factor (motive) in the 1990 incidents. Thus, admissibility of the evidence at issue even for that purpose falters. Further, as described by the State during the bench conference, the 1990 incidents are not similar at all to the 2005 incident for which defendant was on trial, except to show a propensity for assaultive behavior. The 1990 assaults involved violent incidents between two adults involved in a relationship, occurring fifteen years before the alleged 2005 crimes. They do not involve any assault, sexual or otherwise, on a seven year old child or share any additional factual similarities with the 2005 incident. As such, “ ‘substantial evidence of similarity among the prior bad acts and the crimes charged is . . . lacking.’ ” Carpenter, 361 N.C. at 391, 646 S.E.2d at 112 (quoting AlBayyinah, 356 N.C. at 155, 567 S.E.2d at 123 (alteration in original)). Given the lack of similarity, the temporal distance between the incidents assumes even greater importance. See, e.g., State v. Artis, 325 N.C. 278, 300, 384 S.E.2d 470, 482 (1989) (“Attenuated by time, the pertinence of evidence of prior offenses attaches to the defendant’s character rather than to the offense for which he is on trial. In other words, remoteness in time tends to diminish the probative value of the evidence .and enhance its tendency to prejudice.”), judgment vacated on other grounds, 494 U.S. 1023, 108 L. Ed. 2d 604 (1990). Further, any arguably “slight” probative value of this evidence is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, namely the “substantial likelihood that the jury w[ould] consider the evidence *284only for the purpose of determining the defendant’s propensity to commit the crimes with which he ha[d] been charged.” State v. White, 331 N.C. 604, 615-16, 419 S.E.2d 557, 564 (1992) (citation omitted), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 936, 136 L. Ed. 2d 229 (1996).
Finally, defendant has shown “a reasonable possibility that, had the error in question not been committed, a different result would have been reached at the trial out of which the appeal arises.” N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a) (2009). The majority brushes off the prejudicial effect of this erroneously admitted character evidence, stating that “the most the jury learned from this exchange was that defendant has in the past made poor decisions after consuming alcohol and that he has engaged in assaultive behavior.” Noting that the jury also learned that defendant had prior convictions for driving while impaired and assault with a deadly weapon, the majority concludes that “the jury essentially learned nothing more during the challenged exchange than it had already learned earlier in his testimony.” In doing so, the majority overlooks the most damaging matter the jury learned from this evidence — that defendant had assaulted a female of an unspecified age multiple times, including with a gun — which was certain to damage him in the eyes of the jury. Close examination of the record reveals that defendant’s credibility was critical to his defense, given the lack of physical evidence.6 The State’s only witnesses were a law enforcement officer, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, the medical doctor who saw the alleged victim two months after the alleged incident, and the young girl. Defendant took the stand and denied any assault. In my view, the Court of Appeals correctly concluded that “[a]gainst th[e] backdrop of evidence” in this case, which was not overwhelming, “the jury’s assessment of the relative credibility of L.G. and the Defendant assumed crucial significance.” Ray,- N.C. App. at-, 678 S.E.2d at 384. In light of the well-recognized dangers and prejudice that easily flow from propensity evidence of the type admitted here, I would affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision to award defendant a new trial.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.
Chief Justice PARKER and Justice TIMMONS-GOODSON join in this dissenting opinion.

. Although the current version of North Carolina Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(c) eliminated cross-assignments of error and allows an appellee to “list proposed issues on appeal in the record on appeal,” an appellee still must have “properly preserve[d]” these issues “for appellate review” by raising them below. N.C. R. App. P. 10(c).

. The State had attempted unsuccessfully to offer these 1990 incidents under North Carolina Rule of Evidence 609; any convictions resulting therefrom were ruled too remote in time to be admissible. State v. Ray, — N.C. App. —, —, 678 S.E.2d 378, 381 (2009).

. Although this Court accepted this casé for discretionary review, this area of the law is well settled; it is difficult for me to see how this issue meets any of the statutory criteria for review.

. The State informed the trial court that McPhaul was reluctant to communicate any details regarding the 1990 incidents and that it had to subpoena her in order to interview her and obtain a statement. McPhaul did not testify at trial, and the details that the State provided to the court regarding the incidents were purportedly derived from the pretrial interview.

. In fact, during the bench conference on the admissibility of the 1990 assaults under Rule 404(b), the State explicitly acknowledged: “[T]he only two issues in this case are credibility of witnesses and motive; who to believe and why would [defendant] have done this.”