STATE v. HORNE (2022)

¶ 1 Defendant Wyatt Bradley Horne appeals from a judgment entered upon his Alford plea to the charge of assault by strangulation. Counsel for Defendant filed an Anders brief and a petition for writ of certiorari on Defendant's behalf. After review, we discern no error and deny Defendant's petition for writ of certiorari.

¶ 2 On 30 March 2021, Defendant entered into a plea agreement with the State whereby the State agreed to dismiss certain charges and “consent[ed] to an Intermediate Judgment in the mitigated range for sentencing.” The trial court subsequently entered a judgment upon Defendant's plea in accordance with the plea agreement.

¶ 3 Counsel for Defendant has filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), asking this Court to “conduct an independent review of the record ․ to determine whether any prejudicial error occurred in the trial proceedings.” In his brief, Defendant's counsel has raised two potential issues for our review. However, Defendant has no appeal of right with respect to either of these proposed issues following his Alford plea,¹ see N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 15A-1444(a1)-(a2) (2019), nor do the issues have any merit based on our review of the record. Accordingly, Defendant is not entitled to relief on the bases proposed by Defendant's counsel.

¶ 4 “Under our review pursuant to Anders and Kinch, we must determine from a full examination of all the proceedings whether the appeal is wholly frivolous.” State v. Frink, 177 N.C. App. 144, 145, 627 S.E.2d 472, 473 (2006) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). We have conducted a full and independent examination of the record as required by Anders and Kinch and conclude that the record contains no meritorious issue entitling Defendant to relief. The petition for writ of certiorari filed in this cause is denied.

NO ERROR.

Report per Rule 30(e).

FOOTNOTES

1.   Because Defendant received a sentence in the mitigated range, he has an appeal of right with respect to sentencing issues only. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1444(a1) (“A defendant who has been found guilty, or entered a plea of guilty or no contest to a felony, is entitled to appeal as a matter of right the issue of whether his or her sentence is supported by evidence introduced at trial and sentencing hearing only if the minimum sentence of imprisonment does not fall within the presumptive range[.]”); State v. Mabry, 217 N.C. App. 465, 470, 720 S.E.2d 697, 701 (2011) (“[A] defendant receiving a mitigated sentence must, under the plain language of the statute, have a right to appeal the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his or her sentence.”). Neither of the issues proposed by Defendant's counsel challenges Defendant's sentence, and we discern no error with respect to sentencing.

GRIFFIN, Judge.

Judges DILLON and DIETZ concur.