NC Criminal Law
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on September 16, 2026.
Trial court did not err by finding a violation of conditions of probation based on Defendant’s admission to failure to pay; insufficient evidence supported the findings that Defendant committed new criminal offenses and failed to report as directed; trial court did not err by imposing a five-month...
The use of the conjunctive “and” in an indictment charging two theories by which offense may be committed does not require the state to prove both theories.
G.S. 15A-134 provides that if a charged offense occurred partly in North Carolina and partly in another state, a person charged with that offense may be tried in North Carolina only if he or she has not already been placed in jeopardy for the same offense by the other state.
A judge may accept an Alford plea, in which a defendant pleads guilty but does not admit committing the offense and protests his or her innocence, if the record strongly supports the defendant’s guilt and the defendant intelligently concludes that it is in his or her interest to enter such a plea. The consent of the prosecutor is not required.
A court should allow a defendant who moves to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing to withdraw the plea for any “fair and just” reason.
If the elements of the offense were committed in more than one county, each county in which an element of the crime was committed has concurrent venue. See G.S. 15A-132(a).