Court Opinion

ID: 9845322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:18:59.282572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:01.199349
License: Public Domain

*371TYSON, Judge
dissenting.
The majority’s opinion grants Lekkie Constantine Wilson (“defendant”) a new trial based on the trial court’s conferences with only the jury foreman. I disagree and respectfully dissent.
I. Waiver
The majority’s opinion correctly notes that “our Court generally does not review constitutional arguments for the first time on appeal.” (Citing State v. King, 342 N.C. 357, 364, 464 S.E.2d 288, 293 (1995)). Yet, the majority’s opinion holds defendant preserved his constitutional argument that the trial court erred when it held “unrecorded” conversations with the jury foreman, even though-defendant failed, to object at trial. The majority’s opinion incorrectly relies on our Supreme Court’s opinion in State v. Ashe as a basis for this holding. 314 N.C. 28, 331 S.E.2d 652 (1985).
In Ashe, our Supreme Court held that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1233(a) “requires all jurors to be returned to the courtroom when the jury ‘requests a review of certain testimony or other evidence.’ ” 314 N.C. at 36, 331 S.E.2d at 657. Our Supreme Court stated:
Both Art. I, § 24 of the North Carolina Constitution and N.C.G.S. § 15A-7l233(a) require the trial court to summon all jurors into the courtroom before hearing and addressing a jury request to review testimony and to exercise its discretion in denying or granting the request. Under the principles stated above, failure of the trial court to comply with these statutory mandates entitles defendant to press these points on appeal, notwithstanding a failure to object at trial.
Id. at 40, 331 S.E.2d at 659.
Our Supreme Court’s holding in Ashe is simply not applicable to the facts at bar. 314 N.C. at 40, 331 S.E.2d at 659. Here, the trial court did not give an individual explanatory instruction to the foreman after a request to review testimony, as was the case in Ashe. 314 N.C. at 33, 331 S.E.2d at 656. The trial court merely spoke with the foreman after he stated, “[the other jurors] seem to think that I already have my mind made up.” The trial court conducted all conversations with the foreman in the presence of and without objection from counsel for both the State and defendant.
Our Supreme Court’s holding in State v. Tate is controlling precedent based on the facts at bar. 294 N.C. 189, 239 S.E.2d 821 (1978). In *372Tate, “jurors asked, or started to ask, questions addressed to the [trial] court. In [both instances, the trial court] directed the juror to approach the bench and a private discussion between the judge and juror ensued.” 294 N.C. at 197, 239 S.E.2d at 827. Our Supreme Court stated:
We are of the opinion that the trial court’s private conversations with jurors were ill-advised. The practice is disapproved. At least, the questions and the court’s response should be made in the presence of counsel. The record indicates, however, that defendant did not object to the procedure or request disclosure of the substance of the conversation. Failure to object in apt time to alleged procedural irregularities or improprieties constitutes a waiver.
Id. at 198, 239 S.E.2d at 827 (citations omitted) (emphasis supplied).
Based on our Supreme Court’s holding in Tate, defendant’s failure to object to the trial court’s conversation with the foreman outside the presence of the other eleven jurors, waived his right to appeal this alleged error. 294 N.C. at 198, 239 S.E.2d at 827. Having determined defendant waived his right to appeal this assignment of error, the issue becomes whether this Court may review defendant’s assignment of error under plain error review.
II. Plain Error Review
In State v. Cummings, our Supreme Court stated: •
In criminal cases, a question which was not preserved by objection noted at trial and which is not deemed preserved by rule of law without any such action may still be the basis of an assignment of error where the judicial action questioned is specifically and distinctly contended to amount to plain error. See N.C. R. App. P. 10(c)(4). When a defendant does not allege plain error, the question may still be reviewed in the exercise of the Court’s discretion. See N.C. R. App. P. 2.
361 N.C. 438, 469, 648 S.E.2d 788, 807 (2007), cert, denied, - U.S. -, 170 L. Ed. 2d 760 (2008).
As defendant failed to object to the-trial court’s conversations with the foreman or to assert or argue plain error to this Court, this issue is not properly preserved for appellate review. N.C.R. App. P. 10(c)(4) (2007). Appellate Rule 2 is the sole basis to review this issue and may only be invoked to prevent “manifest injustice” to *373defendant. N.C.R. App. P. 2 (2007); see State v. Hart, 361 N.C. 309, 316, 644 S.E.2d 201, 205 (2007) (“This Court has tended to invoke [Appellate] Rule 2 for the prevention of ‘manifest injustice’ in circumstances in which substantial rights of [a criminal defendant] are affected.” (Citations omitted)).
A. Standard of Review
“[P]lain error analysis applies only to instructions to the jury and evidentiary matters.” State v. Greene, 351 N.C. 562, 566, 528 S.E.2d 575, 578 (citing State v. Atkins, 349 N.C. 62, 505 S.E.2d 97 (1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1147, 143 L. Ed. 2d 1036 (1999)), cert, denied, 531 U.S. 1041, 148 L. Ed. 2d 543 (2000). “The plain error rule is always to be applied cautiously and only in the exceptional case where, after reviewing the entire record, ... it can be fairly said the instructional mistake had a probable impact on the jury’s finding that the defendant was guilty.” State v. Odom, 307 N.C. 655, 660, 300 S.E.2d 375, 378 (1983) (quotation omitted).
B. Analysis
The foreman approached the court to convey that the other jurors had expressed a belief that he had already made up his mind. With counsel for both parties present at all times, the trial court told the foreman that “[t]he issues about which we had talked in this courtroom, both here at the bench and also openly on the record, are issues that you are not to share with the other jurors . . . .” The trial court then stated that it believed the foreman could “continue to be a fair and impartial juror” and the foreman agreed that there was no “reason why [he could not] continue as a juror in this case[.]”
Based on the totality of the trial court’s conversations with the foreman, it cannot be said that the trial court’s conversation with the foreman was an “instruction” or, if so, that “the instructional mistake had a probable impact on the jury’s finding that . . . defendant was guilty” Odom, 307 N.C. at 660, 300 S.E.2d at 378 (quotation omitted). This assignment of error should be overruled. Having determined that this assignment of error should be overruled, I review defendant’s remaining assignments of error.
III. N.C. Gen. Stat. $ 15A-1235
Defendant argues that the trial court committed plain error when it “omitt[ed] critical language from [the N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1235] jury instruction . ...” I disagree.
*374N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1235(b) (2007) states:
Before the jury retires for deliberation, the judge may give an instruction which informs the jury that:
(1) Jurors have a duty to consult with one another and to deliberate with a view to reaching an agreement, if-it can be done without violence to individual judgment;
(2) Each juror must decide the case for himself, but only after an impartial consideration of the evidence with his fellow jurors;
(3) In the course of deliberations, a juror should not hesitate to reexamine his own views and change his opinion if convinced it is erroneous; and
(4) No juror should surrender his honest conviction as to the weight or effect of the evidence solely because of the opinion of his fellow jurors, or for the mere purpose of returning a verdict.
Defendant argues the trial court committed plain error when it gave the following instruction to the jury:
You all have a duty to consult with one another and deliberate with a view toward reaching an agreement, if it can be done without violence to individual judgment. Each of you must decide the case for yourself but only after an impartial consideration of the evidence with your fellow jurors. In the course of deliberations, each of you should not hesitate to reexamine your own views and change your opinion, if it is erroneous, but none of you should surrender your honest conviction as to the weight of the evidence solely because of the opinion of your fellow jurors or for the purpose of returning a verdict.
“The instructions prescribed in [N.C. Gen. Stat.] § 15A-1235 . . . need not be given verbatim whenever a jury is deadlocked; rather, such instructions are guidelines, and the trial judge must be allowed to exercise his sound judgment to deal with the myriad different circumstances he encounters at trial.” State v. Jeffries, 57 N.C. App. 416, 421, 291 S.E.2d 859, 862 (quotation omitted), disc. rev. denied, 306 N.C. 561, 294 S.E.2d 374 (1982). The challenged instruction substantially conforms to the guideline instruction in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1235. Id. This assignment of error should be overruled.
*375IV. Restitution
In his final argument on appeal, defendant argues the trial court erred when it awarded restitution in the amount of $118.86 to the Newport Police Department. I agree.
A state or a local agency can be the recipient of restitution where the offense charged results in particular damage or loss to it over and above its normal operating costs. It would be reasonable, for example, to require a defendant to pay the State for expenses incurred to provide him with court appointed counsel should he ever become financially able to pay. It would not however be reasonable to require the defendant to pay the State’s overhead attributable to the normal costs of prosecuting him.
Shore v. Edmisten, 290 N.C. 628, 633-34, 227 S.E.2d 553, 559 (1976) (internal citations omitted).
The trial court awarded the Newport Police Department $118.86 based on the mileage attributable for the extradition and transportation of a co-defendant from Quantico, Virginia to testify for the prosecution in defendant’s trial. The costs to bring a witness in to court to testify does not constitute an expense “over and above [the State’s] normal operating costs.” Id. at 634, 227 S.E.2d at 559. “It [is] not... reasonable to require ... defendant to pay the State’s overhead attributable to the normal costs of prosecuting him.” Id. (citations omitted).
Based on our Supreme Court’s holding in Shore, the trial court erred when it awarded the Newport Police Department $118.86 in restitution. 290 N.C. at 633-34, 227 S.E.2d at 559. This portion of the trial court’s judgment should be vacated.
V. Conclusion
Defendant waived his right to appeal the trial court’s conversations with the foreman outside the presence of the other eleven jurors. Tate, 294 N.C. at 198, 239 S.E.2d at 827. Without objection to preserve the error or the assertion and argument of plain error, review of this assignment of error pursuant to N.C.R. App. P. 2 is appropriate in order “[t]o prevent manifest injustice to [defendant] . . . .” Defendant failed to show that the trial court’s conversation with the foreman was an “instructional mistake” to constitute plain error. Odom, 307 N.C. at 660, 300 S.E.2d at 378 (quotation omitted).
*376The trial court properly instructed the jury pursuant to N.C. Gen: Stat. § 15A-1235(b). Jeffries, 57 N.C. App. at 421, 291 S.E.2d at 862. There was no error in the jury’s verdict.
The trial court improperly awarded the Newport Police Department restitution in the amount of $118.86. This portion of the trial court’s judgment should be vacated. Shore, 290 N.C. at 633-34, 227 S.E.2d at 559. In all other respects, there is no error in the jury’s verdict or the judgment .entered thereon. I respectfully dissent.