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Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Aug. 20, 2025)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on August 20, 2025.

An indictment for injuring property to obtain non-ferrous metals was sufficient despite the lack of any allegation concerning the value of the property damage.

State v. Council, No. COA25-78 (N.C. Ct. App. Aug. 20, 2025) (Hampson). In this Durham County case, the defendant was suspected of stealing a catalytic converter from a truck. He was indicted for, and convicted of, felony larceny and felony injury to property to obtain non-ferrous metals. He appealed, asserting that the indictment for the injury to property charge was defective for failing to specify the value of the property damage.

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News Roundup

Erik Menendez was denied parole by a panel of California commissioners yesterday. He and his brother Lyle were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.

During his 10-hour hearing, he offered a detailed account of how he was raised and why he made the choices he did, both at the time of his parents’ killing and during his decades in prison. A panel of two parole commissioners said Menendez was unsuitable for release. They said his actions in prison—including affiliating with a prison gang and having a cellphone in violation of the rules—showed he was a risk to public safety.

Menendez can come before the parole board again in three years if the decision is not overturned. Lyle Menendez’s case is set to be heard by the parole board today.

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Annual Report from the North Carolina Judicial College (2024-25)

I am excited to share this year’s annual report from the North Carolina Judicial College. Taking stock of a year’s work can be a meaningful exercise, and I’m proud of what we — and the judicial officials we serve — accomplished. Last year, we offered nearly 50 continuing education courses that provided more than 700 hours of continuing education credit. Those courses included Advanced Criminal Procedure for Superior Court Judges, Conducting Hearings and Entering Judgment for Magistrates, Drafting Orders for Clerks, and the Indian Child Welfare Act Seminar, all of which are featured in the report along with reviews from participants. We also participated in the awarding of certifications to several officials. Seven district court judges were among the first group to ever receive the Advanced Juvenile Justice Certification and eleven magistrates were certified, nine in civil law and two in criminal law. The report lists those officials by name and district; if you know them, please extend your congratulations.

 

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News Roundup

President Trump deployed the D.C. National Guard, took control of the Metropolitan Police Department, and reassigned FBI agents from their regular duties to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. this week. At a press conference on Monday, Trump identified rising crime rates and the threat of violent crime as the primary reasons for his attention to law enforcement in the District. In response, the New York Times and CNN have published reports showing crime rates have steadily dropped since the pandemic, and are dropping as part of a larger trend since the 1990’s. Also this week, a federal judge in California is considering whether President Trump violated the law when he deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles. Read on for more criminal law news.

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New Edition of Probation Violations in North Carolina

I’m happy to announce the availability of the Second Edition of Probation Violations in North Carolina. The book is available in the School of Government bookstore, here. Even though the number of people on probation in North Carolina is about half of what it was when I started at the School of Government in 2007, … Read more

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News Roundup

The town of Wendell, NC, recently purchased two drones and associated equipment for $20,000 to support the police department. Officials state the drones will help locate missing or endangered people, find criminal suspects, investigate traffic crashes, and support special operations. A sergeant noted the drones could be particularly helpful in locating children or adults with cognitive issues who go missing. The drones have heat-detecting cameras, live tracking, high-powered zoom, and distance-measuring tools. Proponents are optimistic that the technology will help officers by providing a perspective on chaotic scenes before officers go in blind. However, civil liberties groups have concerns that the technology may lead to intrusions on privacy. Law enforcement drone programs are proliferating throughout North Carolina in places such as Asheville, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem.

Read on for more criminal law news.

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New Judicial College Course Catalog

The North Carolina Judicial College was founded in 2005 to expand the education and training the School of Government has provided to judicial branch officials since its founding in 1931. And expand we have! Last year we offered nearly 50 continuing education courses that provided more than 700 hours of continuing education credit. Those courses include orientation programs, classes focused on discrete topics of interest, experiential learning opportunities, skills-based training, and leadership seminars. They are offered to an array of judicial officials, including trial and appellate court judges, magistrates, and clerks of court.

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Summer 2025 Motor Vehicle Law Changes

The legislature enacted a raft of changes this summer to motor vehicle and criminal law. This post examines three session laws that enhanced criminal penalties and revised regulations for motor vehicle offenses and operation. The changes cover broad ground, including changing vehicle inspection requirements, authorizing speed-measuring cameras, and heightening penalties for certain motor vehicle offenses that result in injury. Read on to learn more.

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Purses, Fanny Packs, Backpacks, and Duffel Bags: The Impact of Arizona v. Gant on Searches of Hand Luggage Incident to Arrest

Law enforcement officers have long been authorized to search a person incident to the person’s arrest. But the precise scope of that authority has shifted over time. The most recent major case in this area was Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009), which placed new limits on an officer’s ability to search a motor vehicle incident to the arrest of an occupant. Whether Gant has any impact on an officer’s authority to search hand luggage like purses and backpacks has been the subject of considerable controversy. The issue is important given the ubiquity with which men as well as women carry backpacks, satchels, crossbody slings, and many other types of bags. This post discusses searches of such items incident to arrest.

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News Roundup

If you thought it was only corner-cutting lawyers and tech-savvy college students that were relying on artificial intelligence to do their work for them, this week may force you to reconsider. Reuters reports here that “[f]ederal judges in Mississippi and New Jersey have withdrawn written rulings in a pair of unrelated lawsuits after lawyers in the cases said they contained factual inaccuracies and other serious errors.” Although the judges have not revealed how the “inaccuracies” and “errors” came to be, the types of mistakes involved will be familiar to anyone who uses generative AI or even reads about it: phantom quotations from real cases; citations to testimony from non-existent declarants; recitations of allegations that were never made; and fundamentally flawed legal “interpretation.” Keep reading for more news, curated and written up by a real, live human being.

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