State v. Anderson
State v. Anderson
Opinion
*766 Where the evidence was insufficient to prove that defendant's presence as a sex offender in the parking lot shared by a daycare and other businesses was a location governed by N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(1), the trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to dismiss, and we reverse the judgment of the trial court as to the conviction in file no. 14 CRS 50721. Where the Fourth Circuit has ruled that subsection (a)(2) of N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18 is unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment, and the State asserts no argument to the contrary, we adopt the analysis of the Fourth Circuit's ruling and vacate defendant's conviction in file no. 14 CRS 50703. Where one conviction is reversed and another vacated, the essential and fundamental terms of defendant's plea agreement have become "unfulfillable," and we set aside the entire plea agreement and remand.
In June 2006, defendant Charles Mack Anderson Jr. pled guilty to the felony offense of lewd and lascivious molestation and was placed on sex offender probation. When defendant relocated to Graham County, he registered with the Graham County Sheriff's Department on 25 October 2014 pursuant to the North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Programs codified within Chapter 14 of our General Statutes.
*191 When registering, defendant signed an acknowledgment that persons registered under the act were prohibited from the
*767 premises of any place intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, including ... child care centers, nurseries and playgrounds; ... [and] [w]ithin 300 feet of any location intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors when the place is located on premises that are not intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors....
On 19 December 2014, Danny Millsaps, Sheriff of Graham County, was on routine patrol on Patton Street, which ran behind the Eagle Knob Learning Center, a daycare supervising approximately fifty-five children, from newborns to five-year-olds. At "the first residence behind the learning center," Sheriff Millsaps observed defendant outside chopping wood. By searching a police database, Sheriff Millsaps determined that defendant was a registered sex offender in visual and "close" proximity to a child care center. Sheriff Millsaps then informed defendant that he could not be at the residence due to its proximity to the child care center (hereinafter "daycare"). That afternoon, a law enforcement officer standing in the yard of the Patton Street residence observed two or three children playing on the daycare playground.
During the evening of 28 December 2014, a Sunday, Sergeant Cody George was on routine patrol on southbound Highway 129, passing in front of the Eagle Knob daycare center, when he observed defendant's green SUV in the parking lot. Sergeant George testified that he was familiar with defendant, having seen him some eight to ten times before, and was familiar with defendant's SUV. Sergeant George recognized defendant as the driver and testified that defendant was approximately seventy-five feet from the daycare. On cross-examination at trial, Sergeant George acknowledged that the daycare was not open when he observed defendant in the parking lot, and that the other businesses adjacent to the daycare in the shopping mall, a tax preparation service and a hair salon, were also closed at the time. Sergeant George testified he believed a stand-alone restaurant, which also shared the parking lot, was closed on Sundays as well. When Sergeant George determined that defendant was prohibited from being on the premises of the daycare at all times and not just during business hours, he obtained a warrant for defendant's arrest.
On 23 March 2015, a grand jury convened in Graham County Superior Court indicted defendant for being a sex offender unlawfully within 300 feet of a location intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors (file no. 14 CRS 50703 (for being a sex offender within
*768
300 feet of a daycare)),
1
and for being a sex offender unlawfully on premises intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors (14 CRS 50721 (for being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare)).
2
On 1 September 2015, defendant was indicted for failure to report a new address as required by the Sex Offender Registry Programs statutes,
After the jury verdict, the State was allowed, without objection, to amend the indictment against defendant charging failure to report a new address as a sex offender (15 CRS 50072). Defendant then pled guilty to the remaining charges: being a sex offender within 300 feet of a daycare (14 CRS 50703); failure to report a new address as a sex offender (15 CRS 50072); and three counts of attaining habitual felon status (15 CRS 250-52).
*769 In accordance with the jury verdict and guilty pleas, the trial court entered two judgments-one on the charge of being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare, combined with one count of attaining habitual felon status; and a second judgment on the charges of being a sex offender within 300 feet of a daycare, failure to report a new address, and two counts of attaining habitual felon status. For each judgment, defendant was sentenced to concurrent terms of 84 to 113 months. Defendant appealed from the judgment entered following the jury verdict on the charge of being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare (14 CRS 50721).
_________________________
On appeal, defendant challenges his conviction for being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare and petitions this Court for a writ of certiorari to review the remaining convictions to which defendant pled guilty.
I. Appeal of Right-Conviction for Violation of
Defendant first argues the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to dismiss the charge of being on the premises of a daycare (14 CRS 50721), in violation of N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(1) (2015). More specifically, defendant contends the State failed to present sufficient evidence that the parking lot shared by adjacent businesses was part of the premises of the daycare and thus, failed to establish the crime charged in the indictment. We agree.
"We review denial of a motion to dismiss criminal charges
de novo
, to determine whether there is substantial evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged, or of a lesser offense included therein, and (2) of defendant's being the perpetrator of such offense."
State v. Spruill
,
Pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes, section 14-208.18(a),
[i]t shall be unlawful for any person required to register under [the Sex Offender and Public Registration Programs], *770 if the offense requiring registration is described in subsection (c) of this section, to knowingly be at any of the following locations:
(1) On the premises of any place intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, including, but not limited to ... child care centers, nurseries, and playgrounds.
*193 (2) Within 300 feet of any location intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors when the place is located on premises that are not intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, including, but not limited to, places described in subdivision (1) of this subsection that are located in malls, shopping centers, or other property open to the general public.
(3) At any place where minors gather for regularly scheduled educational, recreational, or social programs.
*771 Defendant argues that because section 14-208.18(a)(1) is violated only by a sex offender's trespass on the premises of a place intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, the State failed to meet its burden of proof where the evidence showed only that defendant was in the parking lot of a strip mall containing a daycare and other businesses not intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors. The crux of defendant's challenge regards the meaning of the word "premises" within section 14-208.18(a)(1), specifically whether the shared parking lot of a daycare center, adjoining businesses, and a stand-alone restaurant constitutes the "premises" of the daycare center.
"Statutory interpretation properly begins with an examination of the plain words of the statute."
State v. Braxton
,
To begin, the term "premises" as used in N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18 is not defined in the
*194
statute or in N.C.G.S. § 14-208.6, which defines various terms as used in N.C.G.S. Chapter 14, Article 27A governing the Sex Offender Registration Program generally.
See
N.C.G.S. §§ 14-208.5
et seq.
Black's Law Dictionary
provides the following definition, among others: "A house or building, along with its grounds; esp., the buildings and land that a shop, restaurant, company, etc. uses < smoking is not allowed on these premises>."
Premises
, Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014).
*772
However,
Doe I
(in which the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina determined,
inter alia
, that subsection (a)(1) was not unconstitutionally vague,
All three subsections of § 14-208.18(a) relate to defining the restricted zones and therefore should be construed together as part of a single legislative framework. In this way, the first two subsections can be read as covering single-use properties (subsection (a)(1)) and mixed-use properties (subsection (a)(2))....
Specifically, subsection (a)(1) covers single-use or stand-alone facilities which are intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors. The best examples are those included in the statute itself: "schools, children's museums, child care centers, nurseries, and playgrounds."N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-208.18 (a)(1). The entire grounds ("premises") upon which these specific facilities ("place") are located are off-limits under subsection (a)(1). In other words, for example, a restricted sex offender is prohibited from not only a school building itself, but also the parking lot of the school or a storage shed outside the school , so long as those areas are on the school premises .
*773 In the ordinary case, restricted sex offenders will not have a legitimate reason for being in these locations.
In contrast, subsection (a)(2) is focused on mixed-use facilities and locations intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors when the location is not on property that is primarily intended for the use, care, or supervision of minors. In the ordinary case, restricted sex offenders may have very legitimate reasons for being on properties that include smaller portions dedicated to minors. Such reasons might include shopping, eating, exercising, attending religious services, or any other of the myriad activities in which humans engage. By drawing this distinction and including the 300-foot buffer zone, the General Assembly addressed the competing interests of allowing restricted sex offenders to go to locations where they have reason to be and keeping restricted sex offenders away from locations dedicated to minors. Restricted sex offenders are therefore permitted to go on premises that may have portions dedicated to the use, care, or supervision of minors, but they can only go on those parts of the premises which are at least 300 feet away from those portions dedicated to minors.
*195 ....
In summary, subsection (a)(1) applies where the place and premises in question are both primarily intended for the use, care, or supervision of minors. Restricted sex offenders are barred from the entire premises under subsection (a)(1). However, subsection (a)(2) applies where the premises in question is not intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, but a portion of that premises (the "place") is intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors. Restricted sex offenders can go onto the premises, but they cannot go within 300 feet of the portion of the property intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors ( i.e. , the "place").
Because subsection (a)(2) includes the 300-foot buffer zone but subsection (a)(1) does not, a restricted sex offender needs to be able to distinguish between (a)(1) and (a)(2) locations. Otherwise, the sex offender might believe that he or she is properly within 300 feet of an *774 (a)(1) location (which is permitted) when in fact he or she is impermissibly within an (a)(2) 300-foot buffer zone. Though there will be marginal cases where the distinction will be difficult to make , most instances will clearly fall within the ambit of either (a)(1) or (a)(2). Subsection (a)(2) also clarifies that "places" which are on "premises" which constitute a "mall[ ], shopping center[ ], or other property open to the public" will be considered (a)(2) places with their corresponding 300-foot buffer zone.
Doe I , 148 F.Supp.3d at 488-90 (alterations in original) (emphasis added) (footnote omitted).
We must acknowledge that "
ordinarily
, this Court is not bound by the [rulings] of the United States Circuit Courts" nor the rulings of other federal courts.
Haynes v. State
,
In the instant case, the evidence at trial tended to show that Eagle Knob daycare is located in a strip mall of various businesses. Next door to the daycare, on the right, is a hair salon, and next to the hair salon is a tax preparation business. All three businesses share a single building as well as a common parking lot. There is also a restaurant in a separate, freestanding building that shares the same parking lot. While parents use the parking lot to drop off and pick up their children, none of the parking spaces in the lot are specifically reserved or marked as intended for the daycare. The daycare, including the playground area to the side of the building, is surrounded by a chain-link fence, with some privacy screening attached.
*775 On Sunday, 28 December 2014, two officers were on patrol around lunchtime when they drove by Eagle Knob, which was closed at the time. As they drove by, they saw a green SUV slow almost to a stop in the parking lot about seventy-five feet from the daycare and let out a female passenger. The SUV then proceeded through the parking lot past the daycare and exited the parking lot. One of the officers recognized defendant as the driver of the SUV based on a distinctive tattoo on the right side of his neck and the blond highlights in his hair. The officers did not immediately arrest defendant, but rather conducted research first to determine whether defendant was allowed to be where he was within the vicinity of the daycare, and subsequently took out a warrant and arrested him.
*196
Though this is arguably one of those "marginal cases where the distinction [is] difficult to make,"
see
Doe I
, 148 F.Supp.3d at 490, based on this evidence, we believe defendant "[was]
properly
within 300 feet of an (a)(1) location (which is permitted [as there is no buffer zone] ) when in fact he ... [was also] impermissibly within an (a)(2) 300-foot buffer zone,"
see
id.
at 489-90 (emphasis added), when he stopped his car in the parking lot shared by the daycare and other businesses, about seventy-five feet away from the daycare, and allowed a female passenger to exit his vehicle. In other words, the evidence at trial was insufficient to prove that defendant was in violation of
subsection (a)(1)
of
*776 Accordingly, where the evidence was insufficient to prove that defendant's presence as a sex offender in the parking lot shared by the daycare and other businesses was a location governed by N.C.G.S. § 14-208(a)(1), the trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to dismiss, and we reverse the judgment of the trial court as to his conviction in 14 CRS 50721.
II. Petition for Writ of Certiorari
The remaining issues in defendant's brief and petition of writ of certiorari address the validity and enforceability of defendant's plea agreement. We first review defendant's petition for writ of certiorari.
The writ of certiorari may be issued in appropriate circumstances by either appellate court to permit review of the judgments and orders of trial tribunals when the right to prosecute an appeal has been lost by failure to take timely action, or when no right of appeal from an interlocutory order exists, or for review pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-1422(c)(3) of an order of the trial court ruling on a motion for appropriate relief.
N.C. R. App. P. 21(a)(1) (2017). However, "Appellate Rule 21 does not address guilty pleas.... It does not provide a procedural avenue for a party to seek appellate review by certiorari of an issue pertaining to the entry of a guilty plea."
State v. Biddix
, --- N.C.App. ----, ----,
Under Appellate Rule 2, our appellate courts have the discretion to suspend the Rules of Appellate Procedure to prevent manifest injustice to a party. N.C. R. App. P. 2 ;
Biddix
, --- N.C.App. at ----,
In the instant case, "an independent determination of ... the specific circumstances of defendant's case" reveals that this case is one of the rare " 'instances' appropriate for Rule 2 review" in that defendant's "substantial rights are ... affected."
See
As a further threshold matter, we also address the State's "Motion to Strike Issues II-VI Raised in Defendant's Brief," filed 16 November 2016, and subsequent "Motion to File Substitute Brief and Substitute Response to Petition for Writ of Certiorari," filed 6 March 2017. In the State's substitute brief, the State acknowledges the Fourth Circuit's opinion in
Doe III
, which affirmed the judgment of the lower court, holding
_________________________
Having granted defendant's petition for writ of certiorari, we now review the following issues raised by defendant: (III) whether defendant's conviction following his guilty plea to unlawfully being within
*778
300 feet of a daycare can be vacated due to a federal court ruling the statute ( N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(2) ) unconstitutional,
see
Doe III
, 842 F.3d at 838, 847-48 ;
Doe II
,
III-VI
Defendant contends his conviction following his guilty plea to unlawfully being within 300 feet of a daycare must be vacated due to the Fourth Circuit's opinion ruling
In Doe II , the federal district court concluded as follows:
Subsection (a)(2) punishes a wide range of First Amendment activity for a significant number of individuals compared to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep.... [T]he plainly legitimate sweep consists of subsection (a)(2)'s application to minor-victim *198 offenders.... [ 5 ] Subsection (a)(2) greatly interferes with restricted sex offenders' ability to be present at public parks, libraries, movie theaters, and houses of worship, among other places associated with significant First Amendment activity. Furthermore, restricted sex offenders may be unable to enter some governmental buildings at all ... because they lie inside (a)(2) buffer zones.
....
*779 Here ... restricted sex offenders are prohibited from even being present at a wide variety of places closely associated with First Amendment activities. Hence, while the law is not specifically addressed to speech, its reach is so vast as to encompass a wide range of First Amendment activity.... Mem. Op. & Order [Doc. # 71], at 15-16 ("[R]estricted sex offenders may have very legitimate reasons for being on properties that include smaller portions dedicated to minors. Such reasons might include shopping, eating, exercising, attending religious services, or any of the other myriad activities in which humans engage."). Therefore, holding subsection (a)(2) to be overbroad in this instance, even though the law is not specifically targeted at speech, is still appropriate.
For the foregoing reasons, the Court holds thatN.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-208.18 (a)(2) is unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment.
Subsection (a)(2) burdens the First Amendment rights of all restricted sex offenders "by inhibiting the[ir] ability ... to go to a wide variety of places associated with First Amendment activity." For example, subsection (a)(2) potentially impedes the ability of restricted sex offenders to access public streets, parks, and other public facilities.
....
While all parties agree North Carolina has a substantial interest in protecting minors from sexual crimes, it was incumbent upon the State to prove subsection (a)(2) was appropriately tailored to further that interest.
Doe III , 842 F.3d at 845, 847 (alteration in original) (citations omitted).
In the instant case, defendant was indicted and pled guilty in 14 CRS 50703 to violating N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(2), which prohibits certain persons from being within 300 feet a location intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors, when such places are located in malls, shopping centers, and other properties open to the general public. Accordingly, where defendant was indicted and convicted based on a statute deemed to be "unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the
*780
First Amendment,"
Doe II
,
VII
Defendant argues that judgment on all of his guilty pleas should be vacated should any one conviction be reversed. Specifically, defendant contends that because the plea agreement between defendant and the State expressly contemplated a complete disposition of all pending substantive charges *199 against defendant, should any of those convictions be vacated or reversed, then "essential and fundamental terms of the plea agreement" will become "unfulfillable." We agree.
If "essential and fundamental terms of the plea agreement [are] unfulfillable," then "[t]he entire plea agreement must be set aside[.]"
State v. Rico
,
In the instant case, defendant pled guilty based on a negotiated plea arrangement to being a sex offender unlawfully within 300 feet of a daycare (14 CRS 50703, see Section III-VI, supra ), failure to report a new address pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 14-208.11 (15 CRS 50072), and three counts of attaining habitual felon status (15 CRS 250-52), after the jury convicted him of being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare (14 CRS 50721).
Having determined that defendant's guilty plea with regard to violating N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(2) (14 CRS 50703) must be vacated, it is apparent that the "essential and fundamental terms of the plea agreement" have become "unfulfillable."
See
Rico
,
*781 The conviction in 14 CRS 50721 is reversed, and the conviction in 14 CRS 50703 is vacated. The remaining convictions entered pursuant to the plea agreement-failure to report a new address (15 CRS 50072), and three counts of obtaining habitual felon status (15 CRS 250-52) are set aside and remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
VACATED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED.
Judges STROUD and INMAN concur.
For ease of reading and to distinguish the primary offenses, we hereinafter refer to 14 CRS 50703 as "being a sex offender within 300 feet of a daycare" and 14 CRS 50721 as "being a sex offender on the premises of a daycare." We use the term "daycare" as the only location or premises "intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors" in the instant case is, in fact, a child daycare center.
The indictments in file nos. 14 CRS 50703 and 50721 each described the indicted offense as "in violation of 14-208.18[ (a) ]," but neither indictment listed under which subsection -(1), (2), or (3)-of G.S. § 14-208.18(a) defendant was specifically indicted. However, because the indictment in file no. 14 CRS 50721 tracks the language of subsection (1) and the indictment in file no. 14 CRS 50703 tracks the language of subsection (2), it can be presumed that the indictments were related to those respective subsections.
The current (2016) version of N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18 amended subsection (3) and added a subsection (4) to read as follows:
(3) At any place where minors frequently congregate, including, but not limited to, libraries, arcades, amusement parks, recreation parks, and swimming pools, when minors are present.
(4) On the State Fairgrounds during the period of time each year that the State Fair is conducted, on the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center grounds during the period of time each year that the North Carolina Mountain State Fair is conducted, and on any other fairgrounds during the period of time that an agricultural fair is being conducted.
N.C.G.S. § 14-208.18(a)(3)-(4) (2016).
The Session Laws provided that the 2016 amendments would be repealed and the original 2011 statute would go back into effect if the orders of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina finding subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3) unconstitutional were stayed or overturned by a higher court on appeal). N.C. Sess. Laws 2016-102, § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 2016;
see
Does v. Cooper
,
On 30 November 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided
Doe v. Cooper
,
Doe I
determined that subsection (a)(2) was not unconstitutionally vague but left open for determination at trial whether (a)(2) was unconstitutionally overbroad.
See
id.
at 481, 492, 505 ("[S]ubsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) provide sufficient notice to those subject to the law regarding where they are prohibited to go. The existence of a few marginal cases where the precise reach of the law is unclear does not make subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) vague.");
see also
Doe III
,
Regarding the statute's "plainly legitimate sweep," the court in Doe II began its analysis as follows:
The fact that subsection (a)(2) is not narrowly tailored with respect to adult-victim offenders, however, does not end the analysis. Before the Court can hold subsection (a)(2) to be unconstitutionally overbroad, it must determine if subsection (a)(2) punishes a substantial amount of protected free speech, judged in relation to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep . For the reasons discussed below, the Court concludes that subsection (a)(2) is unconstitutionally overbroad.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.