Court Opinion

ID: 9586573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:12:56.670117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:43.395596
License: Public Domain

Judge COZORT
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with all of the majority opinion except for that portion which reverses four of the convictions.
The defendant was convicted of three counts of first-degree rape and three counts of first-degree sex offense. A review of the evidence in the light most favorable to the State reveals that the defendant raped the four-year-old victim and committed first-degree sex offense upon her on at least three separate and distinct occasions. The State’s error in attempting to specify in the indictments the exact times the alleged offenses occurred should not be deemed a fatal variance from the evidence showing that multiple offenses occurred. See State v. Wood, 311 N.C. 739, 319 S.E.2d 247 (1984). In my view, the defendant was not prejudiced by the State’s inability to show that one rape and one sex offense occurred in February, one of each in March, and one of each in April. It was sufficient for the State to show that at least three distinct rapes and at least three distinct sex offenses occurred. I find no error in the trial court’s imposing a life sentence for one count of rape, a consecutive life sentence for another count of rape, and four concurrent life sentences in the remaining counts.