Request for a Specific Mere Presence Instruction North Carolina

In State v. Williams, 136 N.C. App. 218, 221, 523 S.E.2d 428, 431 (1999), the Court concluded the trial court had not erred because "although the court refused defendant's request for a specific mere presence instruction . . . the court provided defendant's requested instruction in substance" by instructing the jury: If you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, that on or about the alleged date, the Defendant knowingly possessed cocaine, and that the amount which he possessed was 200 grams or more but less than 400 grams of that substance, it would be your duty to return a verdict of guilty of trafficking in cocaine. However, if you do not so find or if you have a reasonable doubt as to either one or both of these things, then it would be your duty to return a verdict of not guilty. Id.