State v. Phillips

Summary

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed Earl Mitchell Phillips’s convictions for assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, stalking with a court order in effect, and resisting a public officer. The court held that the stalking indictment sufficiently identified the charged offense and that Phillips failed to show prejudice from any alleged deficiency. The court also held that the evidence did not support including the “without justification or excuse” language in the assault jury instruction.

Holdings

1. The indictment sufficiently identified the stalking offense and gave Defendant adequate notice of the conduct charged; the trial court therefore properly denied the motion to dismiss.
2. The trial court did not err by refusing to include the requested parenthetical language because Defendant presented no affirmative defense and no evidence supporting involuntariness, justification, or excuse.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the stalking indictment was fatally defective because it failed to provide a plain and concise factual statement sufficient to identify the charged conduct and give Defendant adequate notice.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to include the parenthetical jury-instruction language 'and without justification or excuse' for the charge of assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer.

Disposition

other