State v. Stacy, 7326SC533
| Decision Date | 25 July 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 7326SC533,7326SC533 |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Larry STACY. |
Atty. Gen. Robert Morgan by Asst. Atty. Gen. Eugene Hafer, Raleigh, for the State.
Mraz, Aycock, Casstevens & Davis by Frank B. Aycock, III, Charlotte, for defendant appellant.
Appellant assigns error to the action of the trial court in permitting the State's witness, Best, to testify over defendant's objection that in his opinion the contents of the bags was heroin. Prior to this the witness had testified without objection to his extensive academic and practical training in chemistry, including testimony that he had 'run thousands of analyses on heroin.' This testimony furnished ample support for admission of the witness's opinion as an expert. 'In the absence of a request by the appellant for a finding by the trial court as to the qualification of a witness as an expert, it is not essential that the record show an express finding on this matter, the finding, one way or the other, being deemed implicit in the ruling admitting or rejecting the opinion testimony of the witness.' State v. Perry, 275 N.C. 565, 169 S.E.2d 839. Here, appellant made no request for a finding by the trial court as to the qualification of the witness as an expert, and under the circumstances disclosed in this record there was no error in permitting the witness to state his opinion.
In apt time the defendant filed with the trial judge written request that the jury be instructed as follows:
'If you find that the defendant distributed hereoin to Donald P. Stockett, but if you further find that he did not know or had no reasonable ground to believe the substance was a controlled substance, then it would be your duty to find for the defendant.'
The trial judge denied this request, and instead charged the jury that if they should find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had passed a packet containing heroin to Donald Stockett, it would be their duty to return a verdict of guilty as charged.
Under the evidence in this case the court should have instructed the jury that the defendant is guilty only in the event he knew the package contained heroin and that if he was ignorant of that fact, and the jury should so find, they should return a verdict of not guilty. State v. Elliott, 232 N.C. 377, 61 S.E.2d 93. For failure to so charge, defendant is entitled to a
New trial.
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Boone
...defendant notes, this portion of the pattern jury instruction is allegedly based on the Court of Appeals' decision in State v. Stacy, 19 N.C.App. 35, 197 S.E.2d 881 (1973). However, in that case, the Court of Appeals rejected a similar request for instruction to the jury and held that under......
-
State v. Lopez
...Id. at 291, 311 S.E.2d at 557. The defendant contended that the instruction, which was allegedly based on the case of State v. Stacy, 19 N.C.App. 35, 197 S.E.2d 881 (1973), was not supported by case law, and our Supreme Court agreed. The Court found that Stacy had rejected an instruction si......
-
State v. Bogle
...so find, they should return a verdict of not guilty. Id. at 294, 311 S.E.2d at 559 (citation omitted); see also State v. Stacy, 19 N.C.App. 35, 197 S.E.2d 881 (1973). Defendant argues that the doctrine of "willful blindness" as adopted by the Ninth Circuit in Jewell is inconsistent with the......
-
State v. Coleman
...in State v. Oates, 366 N.C. 264, 732 S.E.2d 571 (2012); State v. Elliott, 232 N.C. 377, 61 S.E.2d 93 (1950); and State v. Stacy, 19 N.C.App. 35, 197 S.E.2d 881 (1973), cases upon which the Lopez Court relied in reaching its decision to order a new trial for the defendant Lopez, the defendan......