Defendant (age 40) was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl, but was acquitted of that; he was, however, convicted of three counts of "indecent liberties with children" for kissing the girl three times, under a statute that provides in relevant part,
A person is guilty of taking indecent liberties with children if, being 16 years of age or more and at least five years older than the child in question, he …[w]illfully takes or attempts to take any immoral, improper, or indecent liberties with any child of either sex under the age of 16 years for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire ….
He was therefore sentenced "to three consecutive active sentences of imprisonment for [16 to 29] months each." Here's the North Carolina Court of Appeals court's analysis, from State v. Calderon (decided Sept. 5, in an opinion by Judge Jeffery Carpenter joined by Judge Toby Hampson):
