{ "id": 4161644, "name": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. TIMOTHY LAVONNE CROCKETT", "name_abbreviation": "State v. Crockett", "decision_date": "2008-10-21", "docket_number": "No. COA07-1283", "first_page": "446", "last_page": "450", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "193 N.C. App. 446" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C. Ct. App.", "id": 14983, "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "516 S.E.2d 605", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1998, "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "349 N.C. 237", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 571526, 571542, 571528, 571582 ], "year": 1998, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/349/0237-04", "/nc/349/0237-02", "/nc/349/0237-01", "/nc/349/0237-03" ] }, { "cite": "502 S.E.2d 49", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1998, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "51" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "130 N.C. App. 113", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 11465606 ], "year": 1998, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "116" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/130/0113-01" ] }, { "cite": "605 S.E.2d 672", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 2004, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "674", "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "167 N.C. App. 575", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 8412328 ], "year": 2004, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "578", "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/167/0575-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 423, "char_count": 9017, "ocr_confidence": 0.735, "pagerank": { "raw": 4.03580807328026e-08, "percentile": 0.13573436134693567 }, "sha256": "e584855cdbb3b1b149e93f0ab7c0c161e0ff5858fae94fae458dc605311128d8", "simhash": "1:82785c664f2fbee4", "word_count": 1447 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T16:30:29.332614+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [ "Judges McCULLOUGH and STROUD concur." ], "parties": [ "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. TIMOTHY LAVONNE CROCKETT" ], "opinions": [ { "text": "McGEE, Judge.\nTimothy L. Crockett (Defendant) was convicted on 1 May 2007 of possession with intent to sell or deliver cocaine and sale of cocaine. The events giving rise to Defendant\u2019s convictions occurred on 23 August 2006 when Defendant sold cocaine to undercover police officers. During the second phase of Defendant\u2019s trial, which began on 1 May 2007, Defendant was tried for attaining the status of habitual felon. During this part of Defendant\u2019s trial, the State called an employee of the Mecklenburg County Clerk of Court\u2019s office to identify certified copies of judgments for the following underlying felonies: (1) possession of cocaine, file 92 CRS 75167, conviction date 21 September 1995; (2) felonious breaking and entering, file 98 CRS 51194, conviction date 24 June 1999; and (3) possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, file 05 CRS 30213, conviction date 21 February 2006. The jury convicted Defendant of being an habitual felon based on these three felonies on 1 May 2007.\nAt sentencing, the State presented a prior record level worksheet listing Defendant\u2019s prior convictions and showing a total of nine prior record points, making Defendant a record level IV for sentencing purposes. Although Defendant did not include the prior record level worksheet in the record on appeal, the transcript of the sentencing hearing shows that the nine prior record points were calculated as follows: (1) four points for sale of cocaine, a Class G felony; (2) two points for larceny after breaking and entering, a Class H felony; (3) one point each for two Class M-l misdemeanors; and (4) one point for the elements of the current offense being included in a prior offense for which Defendant had been convicted. The trial court found that Defendant was a prior record level IV for sentencing purposes. The trial court sentenced Defendant within the presumptive range to a minimum of 125 months to a maximum of 159 months in prison.\nDefendant\u2019s sole argument on appeal is that the trial court erred in sentencing him as a level IV offender because the State failed to produce sufficient evidence that Defendant was convicted of larceny after breaking and entering. Without that conviction, Defendant would be a level III offender and therefore be subject to a lower presumptive range for sentencing purposes. We do not agree with Defendant\u2019s contention.\nIn addressing this assignment of error, the standard of review is whether the sentence is supported by evidence presented at Defendant\u2019s trial and sentencing hearing. State v. Jeffery, 167 N.C. App. 575, 578, 605 S.E.2d 672, 674 (2004) (citations omitted). The proof needed to determine a defendant\u2019s prior record level is set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 15A-1340.14(f), which provides in pertinent part:\nA prior conviction shall be proved by any of the following methods:\n(1) Stipulation of the parties.\n(2) An original or copy of the court record of the prior conviction.\n(3) A copy of records maintained by the Division of Criminal Information, the Division of Motor Vehicles, or of the Administrative Office of the Courts.\n(4) Any other method found, by the court to be reliable.\nThe State bears the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a prior conviction exists and that the offender before the court is the same person as the offender named in the prior conviction. The original or a copy of the court records or records maintained by the Division of Criminal Information, the Division of Motor Vehicles, or of the Administrative Office of the Courts, bearing the same name as that by which the offender is charged, is prima facie evidence that the offender named is the same person as the offender before the court, and that the facts set out in the record are true. For purposes of this subsection, \u201ca copy\u201d includes a paper writing containing a reproduction of a record maintained electronically on a computer or other data processing equipment, and a document produced by a facsimile machine. The prosecutor shall make all feasible efforts to obtain and present to the court the offender\u2019s full record.\nN.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 15A-1340.14(f) (2007).\nTo prove Defendant\u2019s prior conviction of larceny after breaking and entering, the State introduced a computerized criminal history from the Department of Criminal Information (DCI report) and a printout from records maintained by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff\u2019s Department. At sentencing, the trial court also noted that the clerk of court\u2019s computer system showed the larceny conviction. These records appear to show that Defendant was charged with breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, and possession of stolen goods on 28 December 1998. The DCI report showed that Defendant pleaded guilty to both the larceny and the breaking and entering charges, and that the charge of possession of stolen goods was dismissed. The DCI report also shows that the larceny conviction was consolidated for judgment with the breaking and entering conviction.\nThe breaking and entering conviction was used to support Defendant\u2019s habitual felon conviction. The judgment suspending Defendant\u2019s sentence for the breaking and entering conviction in file 98 CRS 51194 was introduced at trial by the State to prove that Defendant had obtained the status of an habitual felon. This judgment lists only the breaking and entering offense, which was the only offense charged in file 98 CRS 51194.\nDefendant argued at sentencing that the larceny charge had been dismissed as part of a plea agreement for the breaking and entering charge, but no documentation of a dismissal for the larceny charge in file 98 CRS 51195 was presented. Defendant now argues that if he had actually been convicted of larceny, the judgment should reflect both the larceny and the breaking and entering convictions, but that it only lists the latter. Defendant contends that the judgment is the best evidence of whether or not he was convicted of larceny, and that the absence of that charge on the judgment renders the other records insufficient to satisfy the State\u2019s burden.\nThe record introduced by the State to show Defendant\u2019s prior conviction of larceny is included within the methods of proof set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 15A-1340.14(f). In State v. Rich, this Court held that an unverified computerized DCI report was sufficiently reliable to constitute an acceptable method of proof of prior convictions. State v. Rich, 130 N.C. App. 113, 116, 502 S.E.2d 49, 51, disc. review denied, 349 N.C. 237, 516 S.E.2d 605 (1998). Additionally, as the State argues, North Carolina\u2019s statutory scheme for proving prior convictions does not prioritize the methods of proving prior convictions. N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 15A-1340.14(f) provides that a prior conviction \u201cshall be proved by any of the following methods\u201d (emphasis added), including a copy of a DCI report.\nWe are not persuaded by Defendant\u2019s assertion that the judgment\u2019s failure to list Defendant\u2019s larceny conviction renders the State\u2019s other evidence of the larceny conviction insufficient. Since prima facie evidence was presented by the State showing that Defendant was previously convicted of larceny, such evidence supports the two prior record points challenged by Defendant, as well as the sentence imposed by the trial court. Therefore, we find the trial court did not err in determining that the State had met its burden, or in sentencing Defendant as a level IV offender. Defendant\u2019s assignment of error is overruled.\nNo error.\nJudges McCULLOUGH and STROUD concur.\n. It appears Defendant did not include any records from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff\u2019s Department in the record on appeal. However, Defendant did include a \u201clocal identification inquiry\u201d from the Administrative Office of the Courts\u2019 computer system, that listed Defendant\u2019s convictions, as well as the DCI report.", "type": "majority", "author": "McGEE, Judge." } ], "attorneys": [ "Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Special Deputy Attorney General T. Lane Mallonee, for the State.", "Russell J: Hollers, III for Defendant." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. TIMOTHY LAVONNE CROCKETT\nNo. COA07-1283\n(Filed 21 October 2008)\nSentencing\u2014 prior conviction \u2014 sufficiency of proof\nThe State presented prima facie evidence that defendant was previously convicted of larceny after breaking and entering so as to support defendant\u2019s sentence as a level IV offender, even though the judgment lists only the breaking and entering conviction, where the State introduced a computerized criminal history from the Department of Criminal Information and a printout from records maintained by the County Sheriff\u2019s Department that showed the larceny conviction, and the court noted that the clerk of court\u2019s computer system showed the larceny conviction. The scheme for proving prior convictions set forth in N.C.G.S. \u00a7 15-A-1340.14(f) does not prioritize the methods of proving prior convictions.\nAppeal by Defendant from judgment entered 1 May 2007 by Judge J. Gentry Caudill in Superior Court, Mecklenburg County. Heard in the Court of.Appeals 9 September 2008.\nAttorney General Roy Cooper, by Special Deputy Attorney General T. Lane Mallonee, for the State.\nRussell J: Hollers, III for Defendant." }, "file_name": "0446-01", "first_page_order": 478, "last_page_order": 482 }