The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) allows for the enhancement of a sentence if the defendant has “three previous convictions . . . for a violent felony or a serious drug offense . . . committed on occasions different from one another.” The court rejects defendant’s argument that a jury must decide whether prior offenses
Where defendant did not follow up his preliminary objection with a timely objection to the testimony of the prosecution’s expert in accident reconstruction, defendant did not preserve his objection for appellate review. Furthermore, at the trial level, defense counsel argued in his preliminary objection that the expert’s testimony was too speculative to be relevant. Yet
Defense counsel moved to dismiss several of the charges brought against defendant but not the one defendant challenges on appeal: trafficking in opiates by possession. Consequently, defendant has not preserved for appeal his argument that the trial court erred in failing to dismiss this charge. In any event, defendant argues the charge should have been
While searching a parking lot for a suspect who had fled on foot, wearing dark multi-color jeans, Goldsboro Police Corporal Michael Rivers was armed with an AR-15, a handgun and a taser. He called out to defendant, who was wearing multi-colored jeans. Defendant walked to him as requested and, after answering his questions, walked away.
Defendant caused a fatal accident around the time of a police-department shift change, leaving the investigating officer without assistance. It took significant time for him to investigate the scene of the accident, and he testified that going to the magistrate’s office to get a warrant would have added at least another hour for suspected alcohol,