$7,058.84 in U.S. Currency v. State

30 S.W.3d 580, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 6630, 2000 WL 1470162
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 4, 2000
DocketNo. 06-99-00067-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 30 S.W.3d 580 ($7,058.84 in U.S. Currency v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
$7,058.84 in U.S. Currency v. State, 30 S.W.3d 580, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 6630, 2000 WL 1470162 (Tex. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

DONALD R. ROSS, Justice.

Roderick Rydell Minter appeals from a judgment forfeiting $7,058.84 to the State of Texas. The State alleged that the money is contraband because it was used or intended to be used in the commission of a drug-related felony, and/or was proceeds derived from the commission of such a felony. Trial was before the court, and after rendering judgment on behalf of the State, the court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Police stopped Minter for speeding and for driving without a seat belt. Deputy Roy Strange testified that Minter told him he was on his way from Paris, Texas, to Commerce, Texas, to see his “home boy,” whom Minter knew from school, but did not know his name. Strange also testified that he observed “a big cloud of smoke” when Minter rolled down the driver’s side window and smelled a strong odor of marihuana coming from Minter’s car.

Strange asked Minter to exit his vehicle and asked him if he had anything in his vehicle or on his person that he (Strange) should know about. Strange then conduct[583]*583ed a pat-down search for weapons. The search revealed a .25 caliber handgun. Strange placed Minter under arrest for carrying an unlicensed weapon.

During an inventory search of the car, which belonged to Minter’s mother,1 Strange discovered the money underneath the back seat. The money was wrapped in seven separate bundles and was in a brown plastic bag. Each bundle contained $1,000.00 and was held together by a rubber band.2 Strange testified that Minter told him the money was an inheritance from his mother, but later told another officer that it was an inheritance from his grandmother. Two canine units alerted on the bag of money.

Strange testified that Minter had a green leafy substance on the front of his shirt and in his mouth between his teeth, which Strange believed indicated marihuana.3 The inventory search also revealed a package of cigarette rolling papers. Strange testified that after he transported Minter to jail, a small plastic bag containing a green leafy substance, which Strange testified looked like marihuana, fell from Minter’s pocket as he stepped into the holding cell.

Minter denied that he was speeding; denied that he was not wearing a seat belt; and denied telling Strange that he was going to see his “home boy.” Instead, he maintained that he told Strange he had just taken the car to a mechanic and was on his way to see his girlfriend. He further denied smoking marihuana that day; denied that the green leafy substance found in the holding cell was his; and denied ever saying the money was an inheritance from his mother. Minter testified that he and his deceased father found $10,700.00 in his grandmother’s sewing machine after her death in 1993. He stated that he had kept the money under the linoleum in his mother’s closet, but then moved it to his mother’s car so that his nephews would not take it. He also acknowledged that he had never reported the money to the federal government and never put it in the bank.

Minter’s mother testified that she and Minter lived together in the same house, that she was retired and living on a fixed income, that Minter helped support the household with money from odd jobs, that she asked Minter to take her car to the mechanic that day, that Minter did not use her ear very often, that Minter did not have money lying around, and that there was no space under the linoleum in her closet sufficient to hide a large object.

In his first through fourth points of error, Minter challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence. In his fifth through eighth points of error, Minter complains about the trial court’s admitting the testimony of certain witnesses into evidence. These points are somewhat interrelated, and we will review Minter’s latter contentions first.

Minter contends that the trial court erred in allowing Strange to testify that the green leafy substance found in the holding cell was marihuana. He contends that the State did not designate Strange as a testifying expert during discovery4 and [584]*584did not qualify him as an expert witness under Tex.R.Evid. 702.

A careful review of the record on this point reveals no error. Strange testified as follows:

Q What appeared to be inside [the small plastic bag]?
A A green leafy substance I believed to be marihuana.
[Defense Counsel]: Your Honor, we would object to any characterization of anything in a clear plastic bag would be marihuana or appeared to him to be marihuana.
THE COURT: What says the State?
[The State]: Your Honor, I think he’s a trained officer. He knows what marihuana looks like. I think he would have ample basis on which to base an opinion as to whether or not it was marihuana..

Minter’s attorney then objected on the ground that the State had failed to disclose Strange as a testifying expert. The trial court sustained Minter’s objection, but allowed the State to rephrase the question in an effort to build a proper predicate. Strange then testified further:

Q Did you do any tests on that green leafy substance?
A No, sir.
[[Image here]]
Q Describe for us what [the green leafy substance] looked like?
A It’s a green leafy substance that has a very distinct odor to it.
Q Did you smell it?
A Oh, yeah, you could smell it.
[[Image here]]
Q Tell us what substance, what green leafy substance that you know of, that it looks like?
A It looks like marihuana.
[Defense Counsel]: Your Honor, once again he’s leading the witness.
THE COURT: Overruled.
Q Would you repeat that?
A Marihuana. That’s the only other thing that I know that it looks like.

Courts have held that an experienced police officer can offer expert testimony that a green leafy substance is marihuana. Fierro v. State, 706 S.W.2d 310, 318 (Tex.Crim.App.1986); Houlihan v. State, 551 S.W.2d 719, 724 (Tex.Crim.App.1977); Jordan v. State, 486 S.W.2d 784, 785 (Tex.Crim.App.1972); Boothe v. State, 474 S.W.2d 219, 221 (Tex.Crim.App.1971), overruled on other grounds, Leday v. State, 983 S.W.2d 713, 721 (Tex.Crim.App.1998); Satery v. State, 455 S.W.2d 294, 296 (Tex.Crim.App.1970); Miller v. State, 168 Tex.Crim. 570, 330 S.W.2d 466, 468 (1959); Hernandez v. State, 137 Tex.Crim. 343, 129 S.W.2d 301, 303 (1938).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 S.W.3d 580, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 6630, 2000 WL 1470162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/705884-in-us-currency-v-state-texapp-2000.