Articles Tagged with North Carolina Criminal Law

Carrying a concealed weapon in North Carolina without a concealed carry permit (or in violation of a CCW permit) can result in a criminal conviction and the associated consequences of a criminal record. In State v. Simpson, COA24-1092, filed July 15, 2026, the North Carolina Court of Appeals holds that two firearms carried during the same instance of conduct supported only one punishable violation of the applicable concealed weapon statute.

Carry Concealed Weapon Charges in North Carolina

North Carolina law regulates when someone may carry a concealed pistol, gun, or other weapon. The facts of the encounter, the type of weapon, where and how it was carried, and whether a statutory exception applies can affect both the charge and the permissible judgment.

The 2026 decision in State v. Simpson is interesting for reasons that extend well beyond carrying a concealed weapon, with or without a concealed carry permit.

At its core, Simpson asks, “Who decides how many crimes a defendant has committed when one course of conduct involves multiple prohibited items?” Is it enough for the State to count the objects and charge one crime for each? Can a court enter multiple convictions but avoid the problem by consolidating them into a single judgment? What happens when the criminal statute itself does not clearly answer the question?

The Court of Appeals returned to a principle that runs through North Carolina criminal law. The General Assembly defines criminal offenses and determines the allowable unit of prosecution. When the legislature has not clearly authorized multiple punishments, courts cannot create them through statutory interpretation.

The opinion also addresses two significant sentencing questions. The Court considered the extent to which a judge may discuss conduct associated with charges on which a jury returned not-guilty verdicts. It also held that a trial court cannot impose a longer misdemeanor probationary period than ordinarily authorized by statute without making the findings the General Assembly requires.

The result was unusual. The Court of Appeals vacated the entire consolidated judgment and sent the case back to Superior Court, even while acknowledging that one of the sentencing issues may already have become moot.

Concealed Weapon Convictions

Whether a criminal defendant can receive multiple carrying a concealed weapon convictions in North Carolina depends on more than the number of firearms involved.

The defendant in State v. Simpson was convicted of two counts of carrying a concealed firearm under N.C.G.S. § 14-269. The two charges arose from two firearms found during the same encounter. The trial court consolidated both convictions into one judgment and imposed a suspended sentence with twenty-four months of probation.

On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial court should have arrested judgment on one of the two convictions.

The Court of Appeals agreed.

N.C.G.S. § 14-269 makes it unlawful for anyone to willfully and intentionally carry concealed about his or her person “any pistol or gun,” subject to statutory exceptions.

The question was whether the General Assembly’s use of the phrase “any pistol or gun” created a separate criminal offense for every firearm involved.

The Court concluded that it did not clearly do so.

That does not establish a blanket rule that multiple firearms can never result in multiple concealed weapon convictions. Distinct acts occurring at different times or under materially different circumstances may present a different legal question.

But when multiple firearms are involved in a single instance of carrying, the State cannot simply count the firearms and assume that each one constitutes another separately punishable violation of the statute.

To understand why, it is necessary to distinguish the number of prohibited objects from the number of crimes the legislature created.

One Criminal Act, Multiple Convictions

A “unit of prosecution” identifies the conduct the General Assembly has made separately punishable under the NC criminal laws.

The distinction matters when a single course of conduct involves more than one prohibited object. The presence of multiple firearms at the same time, for example, does not by itself establish that the legislature authorized a separate judgment and punishment for each firearm.

The legal analysis begins with the statute itself.

In State v. Conley, the North Carolina Supreme Court described the decision to authorize one punishment or multiple punishments as a quintessential example of a policy decision reserved for a legislative body. That principle also drives the analysis in State v. Simpson.

The General Assembly decides what conduct constitutes a separately punishable offense. Prosecutors may bring charges based on the facts and their interpretation of the law, and juries may return guilty verdicts on those charges. But the trial court may enter judgment and impose punishment only to the extent authorized by the statute.

That is where the unit of prosecution becomes important.

When a North Carolina criminal statute does not clearly establish whether multiple prohibited items involved in one instance of conduct create one offense or several, the court (the trial court judge) must determine the allowable unit of prosecution from the statutory text and controlling precedent. If genuine ambiguity remains, the rule of lenity prevents the court from allowing multiple convictions, judgments, or punishments beyond what the General Assembly clearly authorized.

The question is therefore not simply how many firearms or other prohibited items were involved. The question becomes how many separately punishable offenses the General Assembly created.

In Simpson, the Court of Appeals concluded that N.C.G.S. § 14-269 did not clearly establish a separate unit of prosecution for each concealed firearm carried during the same instance of conduct. The existence of two firearms therefore did not authorize the trial court to enter judgment and impose punishment on two separate counts merely because two guns were involved.

Consolidating Two Convictions | Still Judicial Error

One of the more interesting aspects of Simpson concerns what happened after the jury returned its verdicts.

The trial court consolidated the two carrying a concealed weapon convictions into a single judgment.

At first glance, that might appear to eliminate any multiple-punishment concern. The defendant did not receive two consecutive sentences. They were sentenced to one consolidated sentence consistent with the Felony Punishment Chart in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Supreme Court previously rejected the premise that consolidation necessarily resolves the constitutional problem.

As the Court recognized in State v. Etheridge, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 19 of the NC State Constitution prohibit multiple punishments for the same offense absent clear legislative intent to the contrary.

The existence of two convictions can matter even if the convictions produce only one consolidated sentence.

A criminal conviction is itself a legal consequence.

As Etheridge sets forth, separate convictions may create adverse collateral consequences. For that reason, putting two convictions into one judgment does not necessarily eliminate a double jeopardy or multiple-punishment problem.

The Court of Appeals therefore did not simply leave both convictions in place and correct the probationary sentence.

It vacated the consolidated judgment.

On remand, the trial court must arrest judgment on one of the two carrying a concealed weapon convictions.

Unconstitutional means Unconstitutional

This may be the most interesting part of Simpson from an appellate and policy perspective.

The Court concluded that two judgments could not properly be entered. At the same time, it openly acknowledged that the practical harm caused by the second conviction was “a challenge to articulate.”

That is unusual language in an appellate opinion.

The Court examined whether the additional conviction could affect the defendant’s prior record level in a future criminal case.

Under North Carolina’s Structured Sentencing Act, when a defendant receives more than one conviction in a single superior court during one calendar week, only the conviction with the highest point total generally counts when calculating the defendant’s prior record level.

The two convictions in Simpson therefore did not appear likely to increase the defendant’s prior record level in a future case.

The Court wrote that it “struggle[d] to envision adverse collateral consequences under these circumstances.”

Yet it still declined to leave the additional conviction in place.

Why?

Because the issue potentially implicated the constitutional prohibition against multiple punishments for the same offense.

The Court recognized that an unauthorized criminal conviction is still unconstitutional, even if it creates no meaningful harm simply because a particular collateral consequence is not immediately apparent.

The constitutional question also affects the applicable prejudice analysis. A violation of a defendant’s federal constitutional rights is prejudicial unless the appellate court determines that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, with the State bearing the burden of demonstrating harmlessness.

The Court ultimately declined to resolve the problem by declaring the additional conviction harmless.

Instead, it vacated the consolidated judgment, ordered one judgment arrested, and expressly invited the North Carolina Supreme Court to provide additional guidance.

That invitation deserves attention.

The opinion exposes a difficult question about the legal status of an unauthorized conviction. If the conviction does not increase the immediate sentence and apparently will not affect a future prior record level, is the mere existence of the additional conviction itself sufficient prejudice?

Simpson does not provide a final answer to that broader question.

It does make clear that a court should not casually leave an unauthorized conviction on a defendant’s record simply because identifying its future consequences requires some speculation.

Arrest Judgment | Setting Aside Conviction as a matter of law

The remedy ordered in Simpson also illustrates the difference between an erroneous sentence and an unauthorized conviction.

To arrest judgment means that the Court (the sentencing judges) does not enter judgment on a conviction because a legal defect prevents judgment from being imposed.

In Simpson, the problem was not necessarily that the jury lacked evidence that two firearms existed.

Two guns were involved.

The problem was that the applicable statute did not authorize two separately punishable offenses merely because two firearms were carried during the same instance of conduct.

If a jury returns multiple guilty verdicts but the governing statute authorizes only one unit of prosecution, consolidating the verdicts for sentencing does not cure the problem. The court may need to arrest judgment on the duplicative conviction.

That is exactly what the Court of Appeals ordered in Simpson.

Can a Judge Consider Something the Jury Found NOT GUILTY?

The concealed weapon issue was not the only interesting part of the opinion.

The jury in Simpson acquitted the defendant of the remaining charges, including the marijuana-related offenses.

At sentencing, however, the trial judge referred to the amount of money, the guns, and a vacuum-sealed item found during the investigation. The judge said they could not ignore those circumstances.

That raises an uncomfortable but important question.

What does an acquittal mean at sentencing?

A jury’s not-guilty verdict means the State did not prove the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. It does not necessarily constitute an affirmative finding that every fact associated with the charge was false.

Sentencing courts may consider a broad range of information concerning the defendant and the circumstances surrounding the offense. That authority, however, does not permit a judge to punish a defendant for a crime the jury did not find beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Simpson, the Court of Appeals concluded that the trial judge did not cross that line. The judge expressly questioned whether the disputed items even belonged to the defendant and focused instead on the defendant’s proximity to those circumstances and the people with whom she associated. Even so, the Court cautioned against discussing acquitted conduct during sentencing.

Put simply, the Court’s authority has limits.

A sentencing judge cannot punish a defendant for exercising the right to a trial by rejecting a plea offer. North Carolina appellate decisions have also identified improper reliance on certain considerations involving finances, religion, and alleged criminal conduct.

The difficult question arises when a judge discusses evidence associated with a charge that resulted in an acquittal.

There is a meaningful difference between considering the circumstances surrounding a convicted offense and effectively punishing someone for another offense that the jury did not find beyond a reasonable doubt.

Determining where one ends and the other begins can be difficult.

How Long Can Misdemeanor Probation Last in North Carolina?

The probation issue in Simpson involved a more direct statutory error.

The defendant had no prior convictions and qualified as a Level I offender for misdemeanor sentencing.

The trial court imposed twenty-four months of probation.

Under N.C.G.S. § 15A-1343.2(d), the original period of probation for a misdemeanant receiving community punishment generally must fall between six and eighteen months.

A trial court has authority to impose a longer or shorter period.

But the statute requires specific findings that the different period is necessary.

The trial court in Simpson did not make those findings.

The judge indicated that twenty-four months was being imposed as part of community punishment, but that did not satisfy the statutory requirement.

The Court of Appeals therefore held that the probationary sentence was erroneous.

The point is not that a North Carolina judge can never impose twenty-four months of probation for a misdemeanor, but instead the authority to exceed the ordinary statutory range comes with a statutory condition.

The court must make the required specific findings.

Judicial discretion does not include authority to disregard the procedure the General Assembly established for exercising that discretion.

The slow nature of appeals in North Carolina

By the time the Court of Appeals decided the Simpson case, another problem had developed.

Time.

The trial court entered judgment in February 2024 and imposed twenty-four months of probation. The Court of Appeals filed the opinion at issue in July 2026.

The defendant’s probation therefore may already have ended.

If the defendant successfully completed probation, there may be no remaining probationary sentence to correct. North Carolina appellate decisions recognize that a sentencing challenge may become moot after the defendant has fully served the challenged sentence.

The appellate record did not establish what had happened to the defendant’s probation in the meantime.

The probation could have been completed. It could have been extended or modified. It could have been revoked.

The Court of Appeals therefore did not assume facts outside the record.

Instead, it vacated the consolidated judgment and sent the case back with instructions that account for either possibility.

The trial court must arrest judgment on one carrying a concealed weapon conviction.

If the probation issue has become moot, the trial court must enter judgment on the remaining count.

If the sentencing issue remains live, the trial court must resentence the defendant.

The procedural result is unusual, but it reflects the different errors the Court identified. It also speaks volumes about how long the appellate process can take in North Carolina.

One conviction cannot legally remain as a separately punishable offense. The sentencing error, by contrast, may or may not still require a remedy depending on what happened while the appeal remained pending.

Multiple Carrying a Concealed Weapon Charges Require Careful Legal Analysis

State v. Simpson provides a useful reminder that the number of charges filed does not always determine the number of convictions, judgments, or punishments North Carolina law ultimately permits.

In cases involving multiple firearms or other prohibited items, the analysis may depend on the specific wording of the criminal statute, the allowable unit of prosecution, controlling appellate decisions, and whether the General Assembly clearly authorized separate punishment for each alleged offense.

The same care applies at sentencing. Trial courts have broad discretion to consider relevant information, but that discretion remains subject to statutory requirements and constitutional limitations. A sentencing court must also follow the procedures required by law when imposing probation outside the ordinary statutory range.

For defendants and lawyers, Simpson is another example of why criminal cases cannot always be evaluated simply by counting charges, objects, or verdicts. The legal question may be more fundamental. The court must determine what conduct the General Assembly actually made separately punishable.

Bill Powers has represented clients in North Carolina criminal courts since 1992 and has devoted much of his professional career to criminal law, evidence, trial advocacy, and the education of other lawyers. He is a former President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, a recipient of the North Carolina State Bar’s John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award, and a regular instructor and chair of continuing legal education programs involving criminal law and trial strategy.

Powers Law Firm handles DWI and criminal cases in Charlotte and the surrounding area and may be available to assist with select serious criminal matters elsewhere in North Carolina. Call 704-342-4357 to discuss whether the firm may be available to help.