Issue

Possession of stolen gun—knowledge or reasonable grounds to believe gun was stolen—sufficiency of evidence

Summary

In a prosecution for multiple offenses, the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the charge of possession of a stolen firearm where the State presented substantial evidence from which a rational juror could infer that defendant knew or had reasonable grounds to know that the gun discovered by law enforcement in his car was stolen, including that: defendant fled from officers in an extended high-speed car chase and then, after crashing his car, continued to flee on foot; defendant lied to police about having a gun when asked; the gun was found hidden in an empty space behind a plastic panel under the steering wheel of defendant's car; and the gun was hidden in his car even though defendant left a gun holster in plain view. Even if the evidence could also support other inferences, the State was not required to eliminate alternative hypotheses in order to overcome defendant's motion.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →