State v. Mills
| Decision Date | 21 September 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 5,5 |
| Citation | 268 N.C. 142,150 S.E.2d 13 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Fred T. MILLS. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton and Staff Atty. Wilson B. Partin, Jr., Raleigh, for the State.
I. C. Crawford, Asheville, for defendant appellant.
Defendant offered no evidence. He assigns as error the denial of his motion for judgment of compulsory nonsuit entered at the close of the State's evidence. The State's evidence tends to show the following facts: Arthur Dillingham, a seventeen-year-old student, testified in substance: On 12 December 1965 he was driving a car in the vicinity of Baldwin Avenue on his way home. It was about 10 o'clock at night. A man passed him on the left side driving an automobile which went under a red light, struck a station wagon on the left side, and went off the right side of the road down an embankment. He stopped his car and went down the embankment to this automobile to see if anyone was hurt. He saw defendant Mills getting out of the right side of the automobile which went over the embankment. There was a person in the back seat on the floor board, and he was unconscious. Defendant got out of the automobile and started up the bank towards the road. When defendant got up the embankment he was staggering. Dillingham smelled the odor of alcohol on defendant's breath.
Troy Messer testified in substance: He was driving his automobile east on Highway $70 about 150 feet below the red light at Baldwin Avenue. He attempted to make a left turn into Fifth Street at Clinchfield, and an automobile hit him on the left side. It was a green Ford. This automobile continued on down the highway on the left side and then swerved across the highway over into a swamp. He parked his automobile and ran down to see if anyone was hurt. When he arrived, defendant was getting out from under the steering wheel. He asked defendant if anyone was hurt, and all he said was, 'Where am I and what's that over there?' Defendant was pointing to a church, and Messer told him he was in Clinchfield and that was a church over there. There was a man lying on the back floor board. Defendant talked crazy and kept wanting to leave, and Messer told him he had better stay there. Messer got close enough to defendant to smell his breath, and he smelled liquor on his breath.
Tommy Adams, a member of the State Highway Patrol, investigated the accident. He saw defendant sitting in the right rear of Deputy Sheriff Baxter's patrol car. He had a conversation with defendant. Defendant told him he was driving a Ford and started to pass a car, and the car turned in front of him and he wrecked. This question and answer were not objected to. Defendant had a strong odor of alcohol on his breach, and he was talking very loud and appeared to be intoxicated. In his opinion, defendant was under the influence of intoxicating liquor.
C. A. Waddell, a member of the State Highway Patrol, was riding in the patrol car with Tommy Adams. He saw defendant in the car of Deputy Sheriff Baxter. Defendant was talking loud and waving his arms and pointing, and he had a smell of alcohol. Defendant was sitting up against an open window and when he turned his head, Waddell smelled alcohol on his breath. He has an opinion satisfactory to himself that defendant was under the influence of some intoxicating beverage.
Defendant assigns as error that Patrolmen Adams and Waddell, over his objections and exceptions, were allowed to testify that in their opinion defendant was under the influence of intoxicating liquor. This assignment of error is overruled upon authority of State v. Warren, 236 N.C. 358, 72 S.E.2d 763; State v. Dawson, 228 N.C. 85, 44 S.E.2d 527; State v. Harris, 213 N.C. 648, 197 S.E. 142.
The record shows that the State asked Patrolman Adams if...
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