Opinion
No. 07-923.
Filed 20 May 2008.
Forsyth County No. 06CRS61596.
Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 20 March 2007 by Judge R. Stuart Albright in Forsyth County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 16 January 2008.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Anne M. Middleton, for the State. Robin E. Strickland for defendant appellant.
Defendant appeals from a judgment entered against him after a jury verdict of guilty of indecent exposure. We determine there was no prejudicial error.
FACTS
The State presented evidence at trial which tended to show the following: Tremos Lamont Williams ("defendant") is an inmate on the eighth floor of a disciplinary dorm in the Forsyth County Detention Center ("detention center"). The detention center is sometimes toured by private citizens who are allowed to observe certain parts of the facility. One of the areas toured by the public is the control-room area, from which an occupant can view the walkway in front of defendant's cell. The public cannot access this hallway, however, because the area of the detention center where defendant is detained is secured from the general public and can only be accessed by prisoners and detention workers. In this area of the detention center, each cell is occupied by only one inmate. The entrance to defendant's cell is secured by a steel door, which has both a window and a slot for administering food and medications ("food slot"). The food slot is about waist high.
On 3 October 2006, two nurses, Angela Logan and Bobbie Cockrell, were distributing medications to the inmates. When the two women approached defendant's cell door, defendant put his penis on the food slot, told one of the nurses to touch it, and then proceeded to touch it himself. At the time defendant exposed his genitalia, one of the other inmates was outside of his cell. After witnessing defendant's actions, Ms. Logan alerted Officer Elster Johnson of what she had seen. Although he was standing nearby, Officer Johnson did not see defendant's genitalia.
On 19 March 2007, defendant was tried before a jury for indecent exposure in Forsyth County Superior Court, the Honorable R. Stuart Albright presiding. At the close of the State's evidence and again at the close of all the evidence, defendant moved for a dismissal. Judge Albright denied these motions, and the jury found defendant guilty. On 20 March 2007, defendant filed notice of appeal.
I.
Defendant argues the State presented insufficient evidence to convict him of indecent exposure. Specifically, defendant argue she was not in a public place for the purposes of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-190.9. We disagree.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-190.9 (2007) provides:
(a) Unless the conduct is punishable under subsection (a1) of this section, any person who shall willfully expose the private parts of his or her person in any public place and in the presence of any other person or persons, except for those places designated for a public purpose where the same sex exposure is incidental to a permitted activity, or aids or abets in any such act, or who procures another to perform such act; or any person, who as owner, manager, lessee, director, promoter or agent, or in any other capacity knowingly hires, leases or permits the land, building, or premises of which he is owner, lessee or tenant, or over which he has control, to be used for purposes of any such act, shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
In interpreting this statute, our Supreme Court has defined "public place" as follows:
"[A] place which in point of fact is public as distinguished from private, but not necessarily a place devoted solely to the uses of the public, a place that is visited by many persons and to which the neighboring public may have resort, a place which is accessible to the public and visited by many persons."
State v. King, 268 N.C. 711, 711, 151 S.E.2d 566, 567 (1966) ( per curiam) (quoting State v. Fenner, 263 N.C. 694, 698, 140 S.E.2d 349, 352 (1965)); see State v. Fusco, 136 N.C. App. 268, 270-71, 523 S.E.2d 741, 742 (1999). We have previously noted that "if a place is open to the public for access, it is also open to the public's view." Fusco, 136 N.C. App. at 271, 523 S.E.2d at 743.
Here, defendant willfully exposed his genitalia to two nurses who were standing outside his cell. In order to do so, defendantplaced his genitalia on a food slot visible from the outside walkway. This walkway was visible from the control-room area, an area that is sometimes open to public access and has been toured by the public on various occasions. Thus, a reasonable probability existed that members of the general public, while touring the control room, might have witnessed defendant expose himself. We therefore hold that the walkway outside defendant's cell, although physically unaccessible to the public, constituted a public place for the purposes of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-190.9. See Fusco, 136 N.C. App. at 271, 523 S.E.2d at 743 (upholding a jury instruction defining a public place as "a place which is viewable from any location open to the view of the public at large"). Defendant's assignment of error is overruled.
No error.
Judges ELMORE and ARROWOOD concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).