Opinion
No. COA14–1018.
03-03-2015
STATE of North Carolina v. Khrystal LANCASTER.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Deborah Greene, for the State. Appellate Defender Staples Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender LTillian C. Katz, for defendant-appellant.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Deborah Greene, for the State.
Appellate Defender Staples Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender LTillian C. Katz, for defendant-appellant.
HUNTER, JR., ROBERT N., Judge.
On 4 February 2013, defendant was charged by bills of indictment with two counts of felonious uttering a forged instrument. On 23 April 2013, defendant entered a plea of guilty to two counts of misdemeanor common law uttering. In exchange, the State dismissed the two felony counts. The trial court imposed a suspended 45–day sentence and placed defendant on 18 months of supervised probation. The court gave defendant one day of jail credit for time spent in pretrial confinement and ordered her to pay $2,163.45 in restitution and fees.
On 11 December 2013, defendant's probation officer filed a violation report alleging that defendant violated her probation by (1) testing positive for marijuana; (2) failing to report for scheduled office appointments; (3) having a $970 arrearage with respect to court fees and restitution; and (4) having a $240 arrearage with respect to probation supervision fees. The trial court conducted a hearing on 17 March 2014, during which defendant admitted the marijuana violation but denied the willfulness of the remaining violations. The trial court found that defendant willfully violated the conditions of her probation as set forth in the violation report and imposed a 44–day period of confinement in response to violation (“CRV”), which was the remainder of defendant's suspended sentence. On 28 May 2014, defendant filed a pro sewritten notice of appeal.
As an initial matter, we note that it is not clear whether defendant has a right to appeal from the trial court's order imposing a CRV. This Court recently concluded that a defendant has no statutory right to appeal from a trial court's imposition of a CRV pursuant to N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A–1347. State v. Romero,––– N.C.App. ––––, ––––, 745 S.E.2d 364, 366–67 (2013). In Romero,however, the CRV at issue did not consume the defendant's entire suspended sentence. Therefore, this Court declined to express any opinion on the issue of whether a CRV that constitutes the balance of a defendant's suspended sentence “would have constituted a de factorevocation of [ ] probation, thereby ‘activating’ [a suspended] sentence and triggering a right to appeal under N.C. Gen.Stat. § 15A–1347.” Id.at –––– n. 1, 745 S.E.2d at 366 n. 1.
We conclude, however, that defendant's appeal is wholly frivolous. Counsel appointed to represent defendant has been unable to identify any issue with sufficient merit to support a meaningful argument for relief on appeal and asks that this Court conduct its own review of the record for possible prejudicial error. Counsel has also shown to the satisfaction of this Court that she has complied with the requirements of Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), and State v. Kinch, 314 N.C. 99, 331 S.E.2d 665 (1985), by advising defendant of her right to file written arguments with this Court and by providing her with the documents necessary for her to do so. Counsel directs our attention to potential issues on appeal, but acknowledges that she detected no reversible error on the part of the trial court.
Defendant has not filed any written arguments on her own behalf with this Court and a reasonable time in which she could have done so has passed. In accordance with Anders,we have fully examined the record to determine whether any issues of arguable merit appear therefrom or whether the appeal is wholly frivolous. We conclude the appeal is wholly frivolous. Furthermore, we have examined the record for possible prejudicial error and found none.
No error.
Chief Judge McGEE and Judge STEPHENS concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).
Opinion
Appeal by defendant from order entered 17 March 2014 by Judge Milton F. Fitch, Jr. in Wilson County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 9 February 2015.