#### STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. JOHN ARTHUR COUNCIL

No. 7014SC660

(Filed 16 December 1970)

Appeal by defendant from Ragsdale, S.J., 23 September 1969 Session, Durham Superior Court. (Certiorari allowed 25 August 1970).

In three bills of indictment, proper in form, defendant was charged with forgery and uttering forged instruments; in a fourth bill of indictment, proper in form, he was charged with store breaking and felonious larceny. Defendant pleaded not guilty to all charges; a jury found him guilty of store breaking, felonious larceny, and forgery in the three cases charged. From judgment imposing active prison sentences on the verdicts, defendant appealed.

Attorney General Robert Morgan by Staff Attorney Russell G. Walker, Jr. for the State.

Nicholas A. Smith for appellant.

BRITT, Judge.

The only assignment of error brought forward and argued in defendant’s brief relates to the trial court’s instructions to the jury. Specifically, defendant contends that the court erred in its instructions with respect to testimony of an alleged accomplice; also, that the court expressed an opinion on the evidence in violation of G.S. 1-180. The assignment of error is without merit. We have carefully reviewed the jury charge, with particular reference to the portion complained of, and conclude that the charge was fair to defendant and was free from prejudicial error.

No error.

Judges Campbell and Hedrick concur.