State v. Hobson
| Decision Date | 21 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. COA17-1052,COA17-1052 |
| Citation | 819 S.E.2d 397,261 N.C.App. 60 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Jeffrey Keith HOBSON |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Assistant Attorney Generals Stuart M. Saunders and Teresa M. Postell, for the State.
Lisa S. Costner, Winston Salem, for defendant.
Defendant Jeffrey Keith Hobson appeals from judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of misdemeanor stalking. On appeal, defendant raises five assignments of error related to the trial court's subject-matter jurisdiction; its admission of certain evidence, including civil domestic violence protective orders, portions of defendant's ex-girlfriend's testimony, and various photographs; and its denial of his motion to dismiss.
Although the trial court may have abused its discretion in admitting into evidence approximately twenty-eight photographs of firearms, ammunition, and surveillance equipment found throughout defendant's home, we nevertheless conclude that defendant received a fair trial, free from prejudicial error.
The evidence at trial tended to show that defendant and the victim, Lorrie, were in a dating relationship for approximately four to five months beginning in late 2009. The relationship was not serious or exclusive, and it ended when defendant moved from Wilmington to Greensboro in early 2010.
In October 2010, Lorrie began working at Gold's Gym in Wilmington. When defendant moved back to Wilmington in early 2011, he began making persistent and unwelcome attempts to reconnect with Lorrie, which included repeatedly coming to her workplace and staring at her, calling and texting her, leaving a note on her vehicle, and sending derogatory letters about Lorrie to her father and boyfriend. When Lorrie's ex-husband asked defendant to leave her alone, defendant indicated that "he would make [her] pay and he would not leave [her] alone." Defendant was eventually banned from and escorted out of Gold's Gym by law enforcement.
In February 2012, Lorrie filed a complaint for and obtained a civil domestic violence protective order (DVPO) against defendant pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50B. The DVPO provided that defendant not harass or interfere with Lorrie or her children, that he stay away from Lorrie's residence and workplace, and that he surrender all firearms in his possession to law enforcement. In February 2013, Lorrie sought and was granted a renewal of the DVPO for an additional twelve months based on her continued fear of defendant as well as defendant's conduct in approaching Lorrie and her children at a Halloween outing in 2012, while the initial DVPO was still in effect, to ask "if [she] was still mad at him." Defendant was present at both the initial hearing in 2012 and the renewal hearing in 2013, and redacted versions of the DVPOs as well as the filings related thereto were admitted into evidence at trial. Lorrie did not seek an additional renewal of the DVPO, which expired in February 2014.
In October 2014, a deputy with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office responded to a home "in reference to somebody stating that they had received a letter ... in the mail that appeared to be a flyer for prostitution." The flyer, which had been mailed to countless residents of New Hanover County, stated that Lorrie was a prostitute with sexually transmitted diseases
, and it included her photograph, home address, cell phone number, work address, and work number. Lorrie told law enforcement that she suspected defendant was responsible for the flyers.
Defendant's ex-girlfriend, Holly, testified that she began a dating relationship with defendant in 2010, and he moved into her Wilmington home in May 2011. Holly was aware of defendant's attempts to reconnect with Lorrie. According to Holly, defendant wanted to find out why Lorrie had stopped seeing him, he was angry that Lorrie would not accept his calls, and he expressed a hatred for Lorrie and a desire to make her miserable; defendant "wanted revenge" and "he said [Lorrie] would deserve whatever she got." Sometime after Lorrie obtained the DVPO against defendant, defendant showed Holly a copy of the flyer concerning Lorrie, told Holly that he intended to mail the flyers, and asked Holly for the addresses of people in her neighborhood. Defendant also told Holly "not to say anything and to forget that [she] ever saw it," which Holly stated she interpreted as a threat.
Holly further testified that in January 2013, defendant fractured her nose
during an argument about defendant's inappropriate communications with other women. Holly pressed assault charges against defendant, but later requested that the charges be dismissed. Holly explained that she was "afraid that if [she] continued with the charges that [she] would be punished somehow," that defendant was embarrassed and angry about being arrested for assault, and that defendant told her "he would never be arrested again" and "he would not be taken alive." Holly thereafter discovered a stack of the flyers concerning Lorrie among defendant's belongings, and she took one as "[she] was afraid that the same thing would have been done to [her], and [she] wanted to have proof of what [defendant] was capable of." Holly texted Lorrie about the assault and warned Lorrie to be careful, but she did not mention the flyers. Holly did not submit her copy of the flyer to law enforcement until October 2014, after the others had been mailed.
In December 2014, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at defendant's residence. Firearms, ammunition, and surveillance equipment were located throughout the home, and approximately twenty-eight photographs of those items were admitted into evidence at trial. No white envelopes, American flag stamps, or images or other documents depicting Lorrie as a prostitute were found in the home.
At the conclusion of the State's evidence, defendant moved to dismiss the charge on the basis that "the State ha[d] failed on elements of the crime." The trial court denied the motion. Defendant did not present any evidence on his behalf but renewed his motion to dismiss, which the trial court again denied. The trial court then charged the jury as follows:
Following the guilty verdict, the trial court sentenced defendant to 75 days’ imprisonment, suspended on the condition that he serve 60 months’ supervised probation. The trial court also ordered that defendant serve 18 days in the New Hanover County jail and pay $195.00 in costs as well as a $2,000.00 fine. Defendant appeals.
On appeal, defendant contends the trial court (I) lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the misdemeanor charge of stalking; (II) abused its discretion in admitting Lorrie's DVPOs against defendant into evidence; (III) erred in failing to exclude from evidence certain portions of Holly's testimony; (IV) abused its discretion in admitting into evidence numerous photographs of firearms, ammunition, and surveillance equipment located throughout defendant's home; and (V) erred in denying defendant's motion to dismiss the charge for insufficiency of the evidence.
As an initial matter, defendant asserts that the trial court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the misdemeanor charge of stalking "where the charge was not initiated by a grand jury presentment prior to indictment."
The State is required to prove subject-matter jurisdiction in the trial court beyond a reasonable doubt.
State v. Batdorf , 293 N.C. 486, 494, 238 S.E.2d 497, 502-03 (1977). When the record on appeal affirmatively shows a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction in the trial court, this Court will arrest judgment or vacate any order entered without authority. State v. Petersilie , 334 N.C. 169, 175, 432 S.E.2d 832, 836 (1993) (citation omitted). "Whether a trial court has subject-matter jurisdiction is a question of law, reviewed de novo on appeal." McKoy v. McKoy , 202 N.C. App. 509, 511, 689 S.E.2d 590, 592 (2010) (citation omitted).
In the instant case, a grand jury indicted defendant for the offense of stalking pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-277.3A, which provides that "[a] violation of this section is a Class A1 misdemeanor." N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-277.3A(d) (2017). While "the district court division has exclusive, original jurisdiction for the trial of criminal actions ... below the grade of felony, and the same are hereby declared to be petty misdemeanors," N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-272(a) (2017), the superior court has jurisdiction to try a misdemeanor "[w]hen the charge is initiated by presentment," N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-271(a)(2) (2017).
A presentment is a written accusation by a grand jury, made on its own motion and filed with a superior court, charging a person ... with the commission of one or more criminal offenses. A presentment does not institute criminal proceedings against any person, but the district attorney is obligated to investigate the factual background of every presentment returned in his district and to submit bills of indictment to the grand jury dealing with the subject matter of any presentments when it is appropriate to do so.
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