Opinion
No. 07-1545.
Filed 5 August 2008.
Forsyth County No. 07 CRS 050340.
Appeal by defendant from judgments entered on or about 21 August 2007 by Judge Judson D. Deramus in Superior Court, Forsyth County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 21 July 2008.
Attorney General Roy A. Cooper III, by Assistant Attorney General Kathleen U. Baldwin, for the State. Glenn Gerding, for defendant-appellant.
A jury found defendant guilty of trafficking in at least 28 but less than 200 grams of cocaine by possession ("trafficking cocaine"), possession with intent to sell or deliver cocaine ("PWISD cocaine"), and second degree trespassing ("trespassing"). The trial court entered judgment on the trafficking charge, sentencing defendant to an active prison term of 35 to 42 months and ordering him to pay a fine of $50,000.00, court costs of $1,665.50, and attorney's fees of $1,025.00. The court recommended that defendant be placed on work release. In a second judgment, the court consolidated defendant's remaining offenses, imposed a suspended consecutive sentence of eight to ten months, and placed him on sixty months of supervised probation beginning at the expiration of his sentence for cocaine trafficking. As a condition of his probation, defendant was ordered to pay the fine, court costs, and attorney's fee assessed for the trafficking offense, "to the extent not paid on work release."
In his only argument on appeal, defendant claims that the trial court entered an "illegal sentence" by requiring him to pay the fine levied for cocaine trafficking as a condition of his probation for the crimes of PWISD cocaine and trespassing. He concedes that the trafficking offense carried a mandatory minimum fine of $50,000.00 under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95(h)(3)(a), but argues that this statute "does not authorize the trial court to exercise discretion to attach the fine to any other judgments in the case as a condition of probation."
Under N.C.R. App. P. 28(b)(6), an appellant's argument which lacks citation to supporting authority "will be taken as abandoned." N.C.R. App. P. 28(b)(6). Defendant has cited no authority in support of his assignment of error challenging the terms of his probation. Although defendant does refer to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95(h)(3)(a) in the body of his argument, his appeal does not concern the sentence imposed under this statute for his trafficking offense, which he acknowledges was proper. Moreover, defendant's brief to this Court does not include a table of authorities, as required by N.C.R. App. P. 26(g)(2) and 28(b)(1). N.C.R. App. P. 26(g)(2), 28(b)(1).
Defendant's failure to cite authority and to include a table of authorities is a nonjurisdictional failure to comply with appellate rules. Dogwood Dev. Mgmt. Co., LLC v. White Oak Transp. Co., 362 N.C. 191, 198-99, 657 S.E.2d 361, 365-66 (2008). Nonjurisdictional failures to comply with the appellate rules "normally should not lead to dismissal of the appeal." Id. at 198, 657 S.E.2d at 365 (citation omitted). Although defendant's rule violations are substantial, they do not seriously impair this court's review of the very limited single issue raised by defendant. His rule violations also do not frustrate the adversarial process, as both parties have addressed in their briefs the issue raised by defendant. We therefore conclude that defendant's rule violations do not require dismissal of the appeal. See id. at 198-99, 657 S.E.2d at 365-66. However, we do admonish defendant's counsel pursuant to Rule 34(b)(3) to exercise more diligence in preparing briefs for this Court.
Although defendant has abandoned his assignment of error by his failure to cite any authority, we note that defendant's assignment of error is without merit. "Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1343(b1), the trial court may impose any conditions on probation that it determines `to be reasonably related to defendant's rehabilitation.'" State v. Johnston, 123 N.C. App. 292, 304, 473 S.E.2d 25, 33 (quoting N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1343(b1)(10)) (brackets omitted), disc. review denied, appeal dismissed, 344 N.C. 737, 478 S.E.2d 10 (1996); see also N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1343(a) (2007) ("The court may impose conditions of probation reasonably necessary to insure that the defendant will lead a law-abiding life or to assist him to do so."); N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1343(b)(9) (2007) (requiring a defendant to "pay any fine ordered by the court" as a regular condition of probation). "The trial court is accorded `substantial discretion' in imposing conditions under this section. Johnston at 205, 473 S.E.2d at 33 (quoting State v. Harrington, 78 N.C. App. 39, 48, 336 S.E.2d 852, 857 (1985)). Here, the court conditioned the suspension of defendant's sentence for PWISD cocaine and trespassing upon his payment of the mandatory fine imposed for the offense of trafficking cocaine. It was within the court's discretion to conclude that defendant's rehabilitation for the crime of PWISD cocaine and trespassing would be furthered by paying the full penalty assessed for his misconduct.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Chief Judge MARTIN and Judge CALABRIA concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).