State v. Shore

• Decision Date: 05 September 2017
• Docket Number: No. COA16-1243,COA16-1243
• Citation: State v. Shore, 804 S.E.2d 606, 255 N.C.App. 420 (N.C. App. 2017)
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Charles Augustus SHORE, Jr.

255 N.C.App. 420

804 S.E.2d 606

STATE of North Carolina

v.Charles Augustus SHORE, Jr.

No. COA16-1243

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Filed: September 5, 2017

Attorney GeneralJoshua H. Stein, by Assistant Attorney GeneralMargaret A. Force, for the State.

Hale Blau & Saad Attorneys at Law, P.C., Raleigh, by Daniel M. Blau, for defendant-appellant.

ARROWOOD, Judge.

Charles Shore("defendant") appeals from judgments entered upon his convictions for statutory sexual offense of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old, and for statutory rape of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old.Based on the reasons stated herein, we dismiss in part and find no error in part.

I.Background

On 31 March 2014, defendant was indicted on the following charges: four counts of indecent liberties with a child in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-202.1; one count of statutory sexual offense of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27.7A(a); and three counts of statutory rape of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-27A.

Defendant was tried at the 18 April 2016 criminal session of Mecklenburg County Superior Court, the Honorable Stanley Allen presiding.

The State's evidence tended to show that in 2012, H.M.¹ began living with her father.She was eleven years old at the time.H.M.’s father was living with Brandi Coleman("Brandi") and defendant, who was Brandi's boyfriend.H.M. testified that after moving into the house, she spent time with defendant by jumping on the trampoline, watching sports, fishing, watching television, and playing video games.She described their relationship as "always friendly, really nice.Anything I ever needed when my dad wasn't around or Brandi wasn't around, he always helped me."In the summer of 2013, defendant's son moved into the house.H.M. shared a room with defendant's son and they became best friends.

In January 2014, after Brandi and defendant ended their relationship, defendant and defendant's son moved to a nearby apartment complex.H.M. testified that she saw defendant and defendant's son "all the time" after they moved, frequently visiting their apartment to "hang out."H.M. spent the night at their apartment more than once and slept in defendant's bed.

H.M. testified that one night, she was sleeping in defendant's bed when defendant got into his pajamas and crawled into bed with her.They"cuddled up together."H.M. testified that defendant's hands "slowly started to go down my side,"defendant put his hands around the waistband of her pants, and then her shorts came off.Defendant's hands "entered" her underwear and defendant began touching H.M.’s vagina.Defendant got on top of H.M. and kissed her neck.H.M. told defendant that she was tired and defendant replied, "okay," gave her a hug, and the two fell asleep.

H.M. testified that she and defendant had vaginal intercourse on two occasions.One incident occurred when she spent a few nights at defendant's apartment during the weekend of 14 February 2014.On one of those nights, defendant and H.M. began kissing on the couch.They went into defendant's bedroom where defendant"crawled" on top of her, put his hand inside of her, and then put his penis inside of her.The next morning, defendant gave her a pill which he instructed her to take.The other occasion where defendant had sex with H.M. occurred in the same way except that defendant did not give her a pill to take.

H.M.’s father testified that he would check H.M.’s cell phone on a regular basis.On 22 February 2014, H.M.’s father was looking through H.M.’s cell phone when he noticed text messages from defendant.The messages included "Good morning, Baby[,]"Good morning, Beautiful[,]" and "Hello, Princess."H.M.’s father became very angry and threw the cell phone on the ground and the screen broke.H.M.’s father confronted H.M., asking if "anything ever happened between you and [defendant]" and H.M. replied, "yes."H.M.’s father proceeded to drive to defendant's apartment.

While H.M.’s father was gone, Brandi spoke with H.M.During the conversation, H.M. revealed that defendant had touched her in "her private areas" and that she and defendant engaged in sex.

Defendant was not at his apartment when H.M.’s father arrived.H.M.’s father called Brandi and she was able to convince him to return back to his house.At his house, H.M.’s father directly asked H.M. if she and defendant had ever had sex and H.M. replied, "yes, Dad[.]"H.M.’s father left his house again and went to defendant's apartment.Defendant was not home, so H.M. went to a nearby karate studio in search of defendant.As H.M.’s father walked up to the karate studio, defendant was walking out.H.M.’s father yelled, "you son of a b****, I'm here to kill you[.]"Defendant ran back inside the studio and came back outside with twenty men to protect him.H.M.’s father continued to scream at defendant, claiming that defendant had raped his daughter.

H.M.’s father had called the police earlier and the police arrived on the scene.Officer Thomas Gordon and Sergeant Grant Nelson, of the Matthews Police Department, testified that on 22 February 2014, they responded to a call at Scott Shields Martial Arts Academy.H.M.’s father informed the officers why he was angry and accused defendant of inappropriately touching H.M. Sergeant Nelson testified defendant"knew what we were there [in] reference to."After Sergeant Nelson explained to defendant that he was not under arrest, defendant told him of two different incidents that occurred with H.M. Defendant stated that one time, H.M. had sat on defendant's lap, grinding her bottom pelvic area into his pelvic area and grabbing his crotch area.Defendant told her to stop, but she continued.On another occasion, defendant was standing when H.M. approached him from behind and grabbed his crotch.Defendant again told her to stop, but she continued to grab him.H.M. then took defendant's hand and placed it down her pants.Defendant left his hand there for a minute and then pulled it out of her pants.

Kelli Wood("Wood") testified as an expert in clinical social work, specializing in child sexual abuse cases.Wood testified that on 5 March 2014, she interviewed H.M. at Pat's Place Child Advocacy Center, a center providing services to children and their families when there are concerns that a child may be a victim of maltreatment or may have witnessed violence.A videotape of her interview was played for the jury with a limiting instruction that it should be received for corroborative purposes.

At the close of the State's evidence, the State dismissed one count of indecent liberties and one count of statutory rape.

Defendant testified that his relationship with H.M. was "[p]retty good" and they were like family.Defendant denied ever sitting on his couch and kissing H.M. and denied ever sleeping in his bed with H.M.

He also denied ever touching her sexually with his hands, using his mouth to touch her private parts, or having sexual intercourse with her.Defendant admitted that H.M. spent the night at his apartment on 14 and 15 February 2014, but testified that H.M. slept on the lower bunk bed one of the nights and slept on the couch the other night.He testified that on 15 February 2014, his girlfriend, Bridget Davenport, had spent the night with defendant in his bedroom.Defendant testified that on 16 February 2014, he was making lunch in the kitchen when H.M. walked up to him and grabbed his crotch.He backed away and told her "no, no. Inappropriate."H.M. giggled in response.Defendant further testified that on the same day, he was sitting in a recliner when H.M. sat on top of him.Defendant pushed H.M. off of him and told her that "it was very inappropriate, she couldn't do it, could not do that."

On 26 April 2016, a jury found defendant guilty of three counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, one count of statutory sexual offense of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old, and one count of statutory rape of a person thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen years old.The jury acquitted defendant of one count of statutory rape.

Judgment was arrested as to the indecent liberties convictions.Defendant was sentenced to a term of 144 to 233 months for the statutory rape conviction and to a consecutive term of 144 to 233 months for the statutory sexual offense conviction.

Defendant was ordered to register as a sex offender upon release from imprisonment.The trial court further ordered that the Department of Adult Correction shall perform a risk assessment of defendant and will determine the need for satellite-based monitoring ("SBM").

Defendant gave oral notice of appeal in open court.Defendant also filed a petition for writ of certiorari to this Court, since the sex offender registration and SBM are civil in nature, and thus require written notice of appeal.N.C. R. App. P. 3(a)(2017);State v. Brooks , 204 N.C. App. 193, 195, 693 S.E.2d 204, 206(2010).Our Court granted defendant's petition for writ of certiorari on 21 July 2017 and we review the merits of his appeal.

II.Discussion

On appeal, defendant argues that: (A)the trial court erred by permitting the State to introduce unreliable expert testimony, in violation of Rule 702 of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence;(B)he received ineffective assistance of counsel where his attorney elicited evidence of guilt that the State had not introduced; (C)the trial court erred by failing to declare a mistrial sua sponte after a State's witness engaged in a "pattern of abusive and prejudicial behavior" during defendant's trial; and (D)the trial court impermissibly expressed an opinion on the evidence by denying defendant's motion to dismiss in the presence of the jury, in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1222.We address each argument in turn.

A.Expert Testimony Under Rule 702

Defendant argues the trial court abused its...