Questions raised by assignments of error but not presented and discussed in a party’s brief are deemed abandoned. Rule 28, Rules of Appellate Procedure. In this case the record on appeal contains seven assignments of error but only Nos. 2 and 7 are discussed in defendant’s brief. Under the cited rule all other assignments are deemed abandoned.
Under the circumstances narrated above, no ruling on the pretrial motion to suppress was required. “When the State offers a witness whose testimony tends to identify the defendant as the person who committed the crime charged in the indictment, and the defendant interposes timely objection and requests a
voir dire
or asks for an opportunity to ‘qualify’ the witness, such
voir dire
should be conducted in the absence of the jury and the competency of the evidence evaluated. Upon such hearing, if the in-court identificaton by a witness is challenged on the ground it is tainted by an unlawful out-of-court photographic or corporeal identification, all relevant facts should be elicited and all factual questions determined, including those involving the defendant’s constitutional rights, pertinent to the admissibility of the proffered evidence.”
State v. Accor
and
State v. Moore,
We said in
State v. Cook,
The rule requiring timely objection to in-court identification testimony is further sustained by the following language from
State v. Vinson,
“Similarly, there is no merit to the argument that the trial court erred in admitting without a voir dire examination the testimony of this witness concerning Mrs. Ferguson’s identification of a photograph of defendant prior to trial. Mrs. Ferguson on direct examination had already made an in-court identification of defendant and on cross-examination she gave explicit testimony of the pretrial identification, all without objection or a request for a voir dire examination. Moreover, there is nothing whatever in the record suggesting this pretrial procedure was conducted in an impermissibly suggestive manner. Under these circumstances a voir dire examination was not necessary, especially since one was not requested at the time objection was made to the testimony of Detective Moore.”
It does not suffice merely to file a pretrial motion to suppress evidence which the trial judge has not heard and ordinarily will not hear until it is offered at trial. To
Even so, we have carefully examined the record to ascertain whether any pretrial identification procedure was conducted in an impermissibly suggestive manner. We find nothing prejudicial. Miss Smith described defendant to the police immediately after she was raped. She told the officers that the black man who drove into her yard on 2 November 1974 was the same man who invaded her home at 2 a.m. on 5 November 1974 and raped her. She said he was about 5 feet 8 to 9 inches tall, weighed 140 to 150 pounds, was in his early twenties, had a gap between his two front teeth, wore a white formless hat and was driving a small white car. She stated that she could definitely identify him when she saw him.
Defendant requested a lineup after he was taken into custody, and Miss Smith viewed the lineup composed of six black men, each holding a number from one to six. Defendant was permitted to choose his position in the line and to choose the number he would hold. Miss Smith immediately identified defendant as her assailant. There is nothing in the record whatsoever suggesting that the lineup was conducted in an impermissibly suggestive manner or that Miss Smith’s in-court identification of defendant was otherwise tainted by out-of-court identification procedures.
There is no merit in this assignment of error and it is overruled.
Defendant contends the trial court erred in signing and entering the judgments appearing of record. This constitutes the seventh and final assignment discussed in his brief.
An exception to the judgment must fail if the judgment is within statutory limits and no fatal defect appears on the face of the record proper.
State v. Cox,
The record discloses that the indictments are proper in form, the verdicts were properly returned and the judgments are within statutory limits. G.S. 14-21; G.S. 14-52. Moreover, we note parenthetically that the verdicts and judgments are supported by the evidence.
To warrant a conviction for burglary the State’s evidence must show that there was a breaking and entering during the nighttime of a dwelling or sleeping apartment with intent to commit a felony therein.
State v. Mumford,
A breaking may be actual or constructive. In
State v. Rodgers,
“Constructive breaking, as distinguished from actual forcible breaking, may be classed under the following heads:
“1. When entrance is obtained by threats, as if the felon threatens to set fire to the house unless the door is opened.
“2. When, in consequence of violence commenced, or threatened in order to obtain entrance, the owner, with a view more effectually to repel it, opens the door and sallies out, and the felon enters.
“3. When entrance is obtained by procuring the servants or some inmate to remove the fastening.
“4. When some process of law is fraudulently resorted to for the purpose of obtaining an entrance.
“5. When some trick is resorted to to induce the owner to remove the fastening and open the door, and the felon enters; as, if one knocks at the door, under pretense of business, or counterfeits the voice of a friend, and, the door being opened, enters.
“In all these cases, although there is no
actual breaking,
there is a breaking in law or by construction; ‘for the law will not endure to have its justice defrauded by such evasions.’ In all other cases, when no fraud or conspiracy is made use of or violence commenced or threatened
in order to obtain an entrance,
there must be an actual breach of some part of the house.”
State v. Henry,
In light of the foregoing principles, we conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support a finding that defendant did, both actually and constructively, break and enter the occupied dwelling of Reba J. Smith during the nighttime with intent to commit a felony therein.
The sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment in the rape case is beyond question and requires no discussion.
Since no error appears on the face of the record proper, the judgments will be sustained.
State v. Bumgarner,
In the trial, verdicts and judgments we find
No error.
