Court Opinion

ID: 9622799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:23:50.88501+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:35.129994
License: Public Domain

CALABRIA, Judge.
Johnny Dwayne Hill (“defendant”) appeals from judgments entered upon jury verdicts finding him guilty of first-degree sexual offense. Because we determine that five of the six indictments were fatally defective, we vacate the judgments entered upon those indictments.
At trial, the State presented evidence that defendant frequently visited with his parents in the summer of 1999. Deborah H. (“Deborah”) lived in a trailer next to defendant’s parents with her two sons, B.S. (“B.S.”) and D.S. (“D.S.”), ages 15 and 11, respectively. Deborah, a single mother, worked long hours as a waitress and often left the boys home alone.
One day, defendant befriended the boys after helping B.S. change the tire on his mother’s car. Defendant, who did remodeling work, suggested to Deborah that he could watch the boys during the day, and she agreed. Defendant took the boys out to eat, rented movies with them, and occasionally stayed overnight, sleeping with the boys on a mattress on the floor. The boys testified that during this time, defendant abused them sexually in a number of ways.
B.S. testified that in August of 1999, when defendant was staying overnight with the boys, defendant pulled down B.S.’s pants and fondled him, and performed fellatio on B.S. until B.S. ejaculated. On another occasion defendant put B.S.’s penis in his mouth. B.S. further testified defendant asked him to perform anal sex on him and he complied.
D.S. corroborated his brother’s testimony and stated that defendant had sexually abused him as well. D.S. testified that between *218August and November of 1999 he and defendant engaged in a sexual relationship. D.S. stated that defendant took him on a trip to Texas and dyed D.S.’s hair black to alter his looks.
When D.S. was 15 or 16, he started dating S.S. (“S.S.”) and confided in her that he had sexual relations with defendant during the summer and fall of 1999. The two discussed reporting the abuse to police, but D.S. said he could not go through with it. During Christmas of 2004, D.S. and S.S. were watching a video of D.S.’s twelfth birthday party and in the video D.S.’s hair was dyed black. D.S. and S.S. began crying. Deborah asked D.S. if something had happened to him, and he told his mother that defendant had sexually abused him. Deborah later asked B.S. the same question and he admitted that he too had been abused by defendant. Deborah then contacted law enforcement officials, and defendant was arrested for sexually abusing the boys.
The Davidson County grand jury returned eight indictments charging defendant with eleven offenses. Two of the indictments related to B.S., and the other indictments concerned D.S. Prior to trial, the State dismissed one of the sex offense charges involving D.S. Defendant moved to dismiss six charges of committing first-degree statutory sex offense, claiming the indictments were fatally defective. The trial court denied defendant’s motion and, over defendant’s objection, allowed the State to alter the indictments to allege the crime of first-degree sexual offense.
On 13 April 2006, the jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of all charges. Judge W. Erwin Spainhour then entered judgments upon those verdicts, sentencing defendant to a minimum of 154 years and a maximum of 324 years in the North Carolina Department of Correction. From six judgments entered upon jury verdicts finding him guilty of first-degree sexual offense, defendant appeals.
On appeal, defendant argues that six of the indictments against him were fatally defective. Although defendant appealed the judgment entered in 05 CRS 51915, he fails to argue that assignment of error in his brief, and it is therefore deemed abandoned. N.C. R. App. P. 28(b)(6) (2006) (“Assignments of error not set out in the appellant’s brief, or in support of which no reason or argument is stated or authority cited, will be taken as abandoned.”).
Having abandoned his assignment of error with respect to the judgment in 05 CRS 51915, defendant specifically appeals from judg*219ments entered upon indictments in 05 CRS 51918, 05 CRS 51919, 05 CRS 51921, 05 CRS 51922, and 05 CRS 51923. He argues that the trial court erred by refusing to dismiss those indictments and by allowing the State to amend the indictments. We agree.
Our Supreme Court has stated that jurisdiction to try an accused for a felony depends upon a valid bill of indictment guaranteed by Article I, Section 22 of the North Carolina Constitution. Our Legislature has required that an indictment or other criminal pleading must contain:
A plain and concise factual statement in each count which, without allegations of an evidentiary nature, asserts facts supporting every element of a criminal offense and the defendant’s commission thereof with sufficient precision clearly to apprise the defendant or defendants of the conduct which is the subject of the accusation.
State v. Miller, 159 N.C. App. 608, 611, 583 S.E.2d 620, 622 (2003) (citations and quotation marks omitted), aff’d per curiam, 358 N.C. 133, 591 S.E.2d 520 (2004).
“[T]he purposes of an indictment include giving a defendant notice of the charge against him so that he may prepare his defense and be in a position to plead prior jeopardy if he is again brought to trial for the same offense.” State v. Freeman, 314 N.C. 432, 435, 333 S.E.2d 743, 745 (1985).
The five indictments at issue here all state the charge made by the grand jury in the following language:
OFFENSE: FIRST DEGREE STATUTORY SEXUAL OFFENSE
OFFENSE IN VIOLATION OF: g.s. 14-27.7A
THE JURORS FOR THE STATE upon their oath present that . . . the defendant named above unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did engage in a sex offense with [D.S.], a child under the age of 13 years.
First-degree statutory sexual offense is set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4 (2005), not in N.C. Gen. Stat. § Í4-27.7A. North Carolina General Statute § 14-27.7A(a) states as follows:
A defendant is guilty of a Class B1 felony if the defendant engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old and the defendant is at least six years older *220than the person, except when the defendant is lawfully married to the person.

Id.

It is clear that one of the elements of the crime set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.7A is that the victim’s age is 13, 14, or 15 years old. While the indictments’ heading accused defendant of violating N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.7A, the body of the indictment alleges defendant “engage [d] in a sex offense with [D.S.], a child under the age of 13 years.”
First-degree statutory sexual offense, set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4 (2005) is stated as such:
(a) A person is guilty of a sexual offense in the first degree if the person engages in a sexual act:
(1) With 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[.]

Id.

If defendant had been properly indicted under this section, he could have been tried and convicted of that offense. However, such was not the case here. Instead, the indictment was a confusing instrument purporting to charge two similar but distinct crimes and effectively charging neither. A defendant facing such an indictment would be forced to guess as to what statutory charge he was facing, and would be prejudiced by such confusion because the two crimes have different and mutually exclusive elements. As such, defendant did not have proper notice sufficient to enable him to prepare a defense against such an indictment.
Here, the State sought to eliminate the confusion by petitioning the court at the close of evidence to amend the indictments to accuse defendant of violating N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4, the correct statute for the crime of first-degree statutory sexual offense. Over defendant’s objection, the trial court allowed the State to correct the indictments.
North Carolina General Statute § 15A-923(e) (2005) states that “[a] bill of indictment may not be amended.” Id. However, our courts have interpreted “amend” to mean “substantially alter.” State v. Parker, 146 N.C. App. 715, 718, 555 S.E.2d 609, 611 (2001). “[A] bill of indictment may not be amended in a manner which substantially *221alters the charge set forth.” State v. Haywood, 144 N.C. App. 223, 228, 550 S.E.2d 38, 42 (2001).
As the concurring opinion correctly notes, the facts of this case are virtually identical to those in State v. Miller, 159 N.C. App. 608, 583 S.E.2d 620 (2003). In Miller, the defendant was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual offense in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4. However, the indictments alleged that defendant had committed the crime of statutory sexual offense in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.7A. As in the instant case, the indictments in Miller presented a confusing mix of the two similar but distinct crimes.
In the instant case, a careful reading of the indictments upon which defendant’s first-degree sexual offense convictions were obtained reveals that not only do they erroneously cite a different statute than the one under which defendant was tried, convicted, and sentenced, the indictments also allege violation of a combination of the elements of the two separate and distinct offenses set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.4(a)(l) and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.7A(a), without alleging each element of either offense.
Id. at 612, 583 S.E.2d at 622-23.
As in Miller, the five indictments at issue here allege parts of both offenses but fail to state the correct elements of either one. Despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, the instant case cannot be factually distinguished from Miller, which in turn controls the result here. Thus, the trial court’s decision to allow the State to correct the indictments did not cure a mere clerical defect, but fundamentally changed the nature of the charge against defendant. As such, we determine the amendment allowed by the trial court amounted to a substantial alteration of the original charge. The dissent notes that the indictments in Miller were never amended. However, this distinction is immaterial since we have determined that the alterations allowed by the trial court in this case amounted to a substantial alteration of the original indictments, and as such, the amendments violated N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-923(e). We accordingly vacate the judgments entered upon the five defective indictments. In doing so, we leave undisturbed the consolidated judgment entered upon the indictments in 05 CRS 51915, 05 CRS 51917, and 05 CRS 51920, in which the trial court sentenced defendant to a minimum of 269 months and a maximum of 332 months imprisonment in the North Carolina Department of Correction.
*222Vacated.
Judge WYNN concurs with a separate opinion.
Judge TYSON concurs in part and dissents in part with a separate opinion.