Court Opinion

ID: 9853577
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:50:34.609492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:51.439149
License: Public Domain

Chief Judge HEDRICK
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with that part of the majority opinion finding no error in the case wherein defendant was charged with felonious possession with intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance.
*134I dissent, however, in the case wherein defendant was charged with sale or delivery of a controlled substance, was found guilty of that offense, and had judgment imposed on the verdict.
In State v. Helms, 247 N.C. 740, 102 S.E. 2d 241 (1958) the Supreme Court held that a bill of indictment charging a defendant with separate crimes in the disjunctive was fatally defective and arrested judgment. Selling a controlled substance and delivering a controlled substance are separate crimes. State v. Dietz, 289 N.C. 488, 223 S.E. 2d 357 (1976).
In the present case, defendant was charged in the disjunctive with the separate crimes of selling a controlled substance and delivering a controlled substance. The critical part of the indictment states as follows: “. . . the defendant named above unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did sell or deliver to Special Agent M. A. Walker, a controlled substance. . . .” Thus this indictment which charges separate crimes in the disjunctive is fatally defective and judgment should be arrested.
While I realize that such a holding cannot be wholly reconciled with the holding in State v. McLamb, 71 N.C. App. 220, 321 S.E. 2d 465 (1984), affirmed in pertinent part, 313 N.C. 572, 330 S.E. 2d 476 (1985), I nevertheless vote to arrest judgment in the present case, and suggest that the State might proceed against defendant on a new and proper indictment. This of course the State can do even under the mandate of the majority decision in this case. In my opinion, the State would be ill-advised to afford defendant a new trial on the bill of indictment charging defendant in the disjunctive.