State v. Moore
State v. Moore
Opinion of the Court
Eric Moore ("Defendant") appeals from an order requiring him to enroll in satellite-based monitoring ("SBM") for the remainder of his natural life. We reverse.
I. Factual and Procedural History
On 24 January 2006, Defendant pled guilty to attempted second degree sexual offense, and the trial court sentenced him to 117 to 150 months of imprisonment. On 27 October 2015, Defendant appeared before the trial court for an SBM determination hearing, pursuant to
Defendant appealed to this Court, which vacated and remanded the SBM order. State v. Moore , --- N.C. App. ----, ----,
On 7 February 2017, the trial court conducted a second SBM hearing, pursuant to
II. Standard of Review
Review of a trial court's determination regarding whether imposition of SBM is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment is a question of law, which is reviewed de novo . State v. Martin ,
III. Analysis
Defendant argues the trial court erred by ordering him to enroll in lifetime SBM because the State failed to establish that the imposition of lifetime SBM was a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. Defendant asks this Court to reverse the SBM order. The State concedes the trial court erred, but argues the appropriate remedy is to remand for additional evidence.
The United States Supreme Court held North Carolina's SBM program constitutes a Fourth Amendment search, which must, therefore, be reasonable, based on the totality of the circumstances. Grady v. North Carolina , --- U.S. ----,
In State v. Greene , --- N.C. App. ----,
In this case, Defendant's counsel argued, inter alia , the imposition of lifetime SBM was an unreasonable search under the totality of the circumstances. He concluded his argument as follows:
The Court obviously has to consider State versus Blue , the Court has to consider the search['s] purpose and reasonable expectation of privacy of [Defendant]. Your Honor, I would submit under the, under the circumstances that requir[ing] him to submit to satellite-based monitoring is not reasonable, uhm, under the Fourth Amendment and would ask the Court to not order satellite-based monitoring.
The trial court then provided the State with an opportunity to respond to defense counsel's arguments, and the assistant district attorney responded:
Just very briefly, Judge, with regard to his argument as to the uhm, length of time between convictions, it occurs to me that what he's arguing would also apply to structured sentencing and that in the incubation prior to structured sentencing taking place would not count for structured sentencing and that certainly has not been the case, Judge. Uhm, unfortunately [Defendant] has earned, earned this privilege and I believe he deserves it.
Thus, here, as in Blue -which Defendant specifically referenced at the SBM hearing-Morris , and Greene , the State failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that ordering Defendant to enroll in lifetime SBM was a reasonable search. Since, as in Greene , the State had the benefit of Blue and Morris at the time of the SBM hearing, the appropriate remedy is to reverse the trial court's order without remanding for a new evidentiary hearing. Greene , --- N.C. App. at ----, 806 S.E.2d at ----; see also In re Civil Penalty ,
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the trial court's SBM order.
REVERSED.
Report per Rule 30(e).
Judges BRYANT and INMAN concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.