State v. Stokes
| Docket Number | COA22-898 |
| Decision Date | 05 July 2023 |
| Parties | STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. DERRICK BRANDON STOKES |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute controlling legal authority. Citation is disfavored, but may be permitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 30(e)(3) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Heard in the Court of Appeals 25 May 2023.
Appeal by defendant from judgments entered 10 November 2021 by Judge Henry L. Stevens in Onslow County Superior Court Nos. 16 CRS 56184, 17 CRS 50499, 19 CRS 50295, 20 CRS 310-11.
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Deputy Solicitor General James W. Doggett, for the State.
Jason Christopher Yoder for defendant-appellant.
Derrick Brandon Stokes ("defendant") appeals from judgments entered upon his convictions for disclosure of private images, disseminating obscenity, and attaining the status of habitual felon. On appeal, defendant argues: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the charges; and (2) that if this Court vacates the trial judgments, we must also reverse the judgments revoking defendant's probation. In his brief, defendant also notes that he has filed a Motion for Appropriate Relief ("MAR") contending that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-190.5A is unconstitutional. Defendant did not raise the constitutionality of the statute at trial and has therefore waived that issue on direct appeal. See State v Gobal, 186 N.C.App. 308, 320, 651 S.E.2d 279, 287 (2007) (citations omitted) ("Constitutional issues not raised and passed upon at trial will not be considered for the first time on appeal, . . . not even for plain error[.]") aff'd per curiam, 362 N.C. 342, 661 S.E.2d 732 (Mem) (2008).
Understanding that his oral notice of appeal, given after the trial court's sentencing, may not have been sufficient to convey jurisdiction to this Court for the trial court judgments and the judgment revoking probation, defendant has also filed a writ of certiorari ("PWC"). We grant defendant's PWC in our discretion but find no error. Defendant's MAR is denied by separate order.
In 2016, B.L.[1] met defendant and they began dating. They communicated mainly through social media and "exchanged photos" throughout their relationship. While they were dating, defendant went by "Derrick Full Custody Stokes" on Facebook and "Emperor Stokes" on Instagram.
In March 2017, while visiting defendant out of state, B.L. agreed to let defendant "record videos" of them having sex and of her performing oral sex on him in their hotel bathroom. B.L. expressed to defendant that she was "scared" the video of her would be shared, but ultimately consented to being recorded because she was in a relationship with defendant and she "trusted that he wouldn't share those images of [her]." B.L. was under the impression the video would remain between them, and never provided defendant permission to share the video.
In June 2017, B.L. and defendant's relationship deteriorated, but they continued communicating for months thereafter. In October 2017, B.L. blocked defendant on social media, as her previous attempts to end communication with defendant were unsuccessful and he became "aggressive" if she did not "respond [to him] right away or if . . . the conversation wasn't going how he wanted[.]" Thereafter, defendant began contacting B.L. through different social media accounts under various names, but she knew it was still defendant based on the context of the conversations. Some of the accounts that contacted her were under the names "Chass Tan, Derrick Full Custody Stokes, and Ericka Chanelle." During this time, B.L. continued engaging with defendant, who had been posting explicit images of her online, "trying to see if [she] c[ould]" get him to take "the pictures down."
On 8 June 2018, Riley Eversull ("Ms. Eversull") was working as the public affairs officer for the Naval Medical Center ("the hospital") in Camp Lejune. It was her role to manage the hospital's public Facebook page, which got anywhere from 3,000 to 40-50,000 views, but upwards of 200,000 views, per post. On that day, Ms. Eversull opened a private message sent to the hospital's Facebook page from a profile with the username "Tsu Surf[.]" The message contained what appeared to be a video link, as it was an image with a play symbol over it. The image depicted B.L.'s face and a male torso reflected in the mirror behind her. No one other than B.L. was identifiable in the image. The message that accompanied the image stated:
I think it's absurd that the Naval Hospital can have employees that also make internet porn. You all seriously need to look into disciplining [B.L.] for making internet porn for profit while being an employee for a hospital. I will report you all if she is not disciplined for this inappropriate activity.
Ms. Eversull reported the message to the hospital's law enforcement agency and saved screenshots of the message.
B.L., who worked for the hospital at this time, was contacted by the director of her department, and advised "that the [hospital's] Facebook page had received some messages . . . stating that [she] did porn" and the person who sent the message sent "some . . . images . . . as well as the link of [her]." That same day, B.L. made a report with the Onslow County Sheriff's Office Special Victim's Unit, implicating defendant.
On 19 June 2018, defendant, under the username "Emperor Stokes[,]" sent B.L. a message via Instagram. In the message, defendant stated "hypothetically" if B.L. did "call the police" and they attempted to speak with him about the situation or he caught "wind that [B.L.] actually went the police route instead" of just talking with defendant, he would "actually go the route of coming through with the burner and forcing" her to have a conversation with him. B.L. "assumed" the reference to a "burner" meant a gun, and "felt threatened" by the messages. During another conversation via Instagram in early July 2018, defendant admitted he was "retaliati[ng]" against B.L., sending "non-nude photos of [her] to [her] job," and posting online about her, but denied ever posting videos.
In a conversation on 9 July 2018, defendant said he was not going to stop "unless [he was] satisfied[,]" and sent her "a screenshot of the video [where she was] performing oral sex." During a subsequent conversation, B.L. told defendant that he was going to jail if he continued to harass her, to which he replied that he was "not going to jail no matter what" because he "kn[e]w the system[,]" and defendant threatened to "get [B.L.] fired from [her] job and get [her] a felony[.]"
On 11 July 2018, Ms. Eversull began seeing comments on public posts made on "the [hospital's] Facebook page[,]" which appeared to be a video, since it had a play symbol over it. Ms. Eversull did not click on the images to determine whether it linked to the video. The posts were of the same image that was sent to the hospital the previous month with a play symbol over it. The comments were left by various Facebook profiles under the names "Ericka Chanelle, Chass Tan, [and] Derrick Full Custody Stokes." At this time, defendant also began sharing explicit photos of B.L. with her family members and friends. In July 2018, defendant sent B.L.'s mother pictures of B.L. "with a penis in her . . . mouth" through social media. B.L.'s sister and her friends were also contacted by defendant from various accounts under different names. B.L.'s sister was contacted on multiple platforms, including "Instagram, Facebook, [her] business page, and [B.L.'s] business page." Furthermore, a non-profit organization that B.L. worked with was sent explicit images of her.
On 11 July 2018, defendant posted on his Facebook page various images of B.L. "[p]erforming oral sex[,]" with captions that identified her by name. One post was "liked" by 800 people. On that same day, defendant posted on his Instagram an image of B.L. "performing oral sex[,]" and posted B.L.'s full name, employer, and home address. The image posted on defendant's Instagram was the same image that defendant had posted on his Facebook, and similar to the image sent to B.L.'s employer and posted on the hospital's Facebook page. Furthermore, posting B.L.'s address resulted in "different men [g]oing to [her] house looking for [her][,]" and in her having to file "multiple police reports."
In October 2018, defendant applied for, and was granted, a domestic violence protective order against B.L. After the order had been granted, defendant made allegations that B.L. had contacted him by text in violation of the order, resulting in her arrest. B.L. was eventually granted a protective order against defendant.
Detective Lindsay Kensington ("Detective Kensington") with the Onslow County Sheriff's Office Special Victim's Unit took the initial report on 8 June 2018, and began investigating. Initially, Detective Kensington began her investigation by looking at defendant's Facebook pages. On accounts belonging to defendant, Detective Kensington located "screenshots" from the video, images of B.L.'s "face and breasts[,]" and images of B.L. clearly engaged in "oral sex" and "vaginal penetration." One account also "contained screenshots of conversations regarding images of [B.L.]" and "a photograph of . . . a picture frame exposing [B.L.]'s children and a firearm next to the picture frame." The posts mentioned B.L. by name. With these findings, on 16 November 2018, Detective Kensington served a search warrant on Facebook and Instagram for information from defendant's accounts.
On 7 December 2018, while waiting for the search warrant information to be returned, Detective Kensington spoke with defenda...
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