Court Opinion

ID: 9848214
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:14:45.027414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:08.050779
License: Public Domain

Judge Carson
dissenting.
The defendant’s daughter, Jane Austin, testified that the defendant committed an act of incest with her on two specific *543occasions — 6 March 1973, the date alleged in the bill of indictment, and 20 April 1973, the date she says that her father took her to the Alamo Plaza Motel in Charlotte. The defendant denied taking his daughter to the Alamo Plaza Motel on 20 April, but he admitted being with her in Charlotte on that date. He testified that the principal of the school she attended called him to come and get her on that date and that he took her with him to Charlotte to look at an automobile he was considering buying. He denied ever having had sexual relations with her. In rebuttal, the State did not recall Jane Austin to the witness stand. It called Mrs. E. S. Wolf, a desk clerk at the Alamo Plaza Motel in Charlotte.
Mrs. Wolf testified that she had been working for the Alamo Plaza for 23 years and was familiar with the records kept by the motel. She identified state’s exhibit 7 as a registration card that:
... we have the guest write their names and their home address on. Before they check in they write on it and then they pay. This is the type of card that was used by the Alamo Plaza Motel on the 20th of April, 1973.
Q. And whose name appears thereon?
Objection. Overruled.
A. Jodie and Jane Austin.
Exception.
The address is 608 State Street, Rockingham, N. C. It is the customary practice of the motel to have the guests to sign his or her (sic) before checking in. It is in handwriting.
State’s exhibit 7 was introduced into evidence over the objection of the defendant.
There can be no doubt but that the registration card bearing the purported signature of the defendant was highly prejudicial to the defendant. It was the only evidence other than the testimony of the daughter directly bearing on whether or not the defendant had committed the acts in question. The only question before us, therefore, is whether or not the introduction of this registration card into evidence was erroneous.
*544The defendant cites the case of State v. Vestal, 278 N.C. 561, 180 S.E. 2d 755 (1971), in support of his position that the document was inadmissible unless the signature was shown to be his signature. In the Vestal case several paper writings were admitted into evidence over the objection of the defendant. These paper writings were a financing statement, a chattel mortgage, a note, and a check. A signature purported to be of the defendant was on each of the documents. The court held that introduction of these documents was erroneous without handwriting testimony or other testimony showing that the signature on them was actually that of the defendant. The State in its brief candidly admits that it is unable to distinguish the ruling in the Vestal case from the facts in the instant case. I agree that the admission was erroneous and believe that it was also highly prejudicial.
The majority opinion further states that the admission of the registration card was only for the purpose of corroborating the testimony of Jane Austin. However, no mention of corroboration was made either at the time of its introduction or in the subsequent charge of the jury. Without any restrictions imposed by the trial court, the jury most likely considered the document as substantive evidence. Regardless of the purpose, however, its introduction was erroneous and highly prejudicial to the defendant. I believe that a new trial should be awarded.