State v. Gardner

BRANCH, Chief Justice.

The sole question presented for our review is whether the trial court committed reversible error by prohibiting defense counsel from reading to the jury an excerpt from a Court of Appeals’ opinion during his closing argument. Defendant argues that the trial court’s ruling was improper and prejudicial because it prevented him from presenting a complete defense. The burden of showing the trial court’s error and its resulting prejudice is on defendant. N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a) (1983); State v. Loren, 302 N.C. 607, 613, 276 S.E. 2d 365, 369 (1981). We first deal with…