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232 N.C. 118

59 S.E.2d 617

State v. Fulk

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided May 24, 1950

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1950-05-24

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the rule is, that the facts established or adduced on the hearing must be of such a nature and so connected or related as to point unerringly to the defendants' guilt and exclude any other reasonable hypothesis”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Hendrick

Relies on State v. . Minton · State v. . Harvey · State v. Coffey

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1950-05-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently March 1979

23 state decisions

120195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

WiNBORNE, J.

¶1 The assignment of error, other than formal ones, presented by defendant for consideration on this appeal brings into question only the correctness of the ruling of the trial court in denying motion for judgment as in case of nonsuit made by defendant at the close of the evidence. G.S. 15-183.

¶2 In passing upon motion for judgment as of nonsuit in a criminal prosecution under G.S. 15-183, the evidence is to be taken in the light most favorable to the State.

¶3 And in passing upon the legal sufficiency of the evidence, so taken, when the State relies upon circumstantial evidence for a conviction of a felony, as in the present case, “the rule is that the facts established or advanced on- the hearing must be of such a nature and so connected or related as to point unerringly to the defendant’s guilt and to exclude any other reasonable hypothesis.” S. v. Stiwinter, 211 N.C. 278, 189 S.E. 868; S. v. Harvey, 228 N.C. 62, 44 S.E. 2d 472; S. v. Coffey, 228 N.C. 119, 44 S.E. 2d 886; S. v. Minton, 228 N.C. 518, 46 S.E. 2d 296; S. v. Frye, 229 N.C. 581, 50 S.E. 2d 895.

¶4 Applying these principles to the present case, we are of opinion and hold that the evidence, shown in the record on this appeal, as hereinbefore stated, taken in the light most favorable to the State, is legally sufficient to take the case to the jury, and to support a verdict of guilty on the charge under which defendant stands indicted. The factual situations and circumstances here are different from those in the cases of S. v. Jones, 215 N.C. 660, 2 S.E. 2d 867, and S. v. Cromer, 222 N.C. 35, 21 S.E. 2d 811, on which defendant relies, as well as in the Harvey and Coffey and Minton cases, supra.

¶5 Hence, after careful consideration, we find in the judgment from which appeal is taken

¶6 No error.

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