Adams v. State

452 So. 2d 904, 1984 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 5154
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 12, 1984
Docket1 Div. 757
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 452 So. 2d 904 (Adams v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. State, 452 So. 2d 904, 1984 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 5154 (Ala. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

LEIGH M. CLARK, Retired Circuit Judge.

Richard Adams was found guilty by a jury “of unlawfully selling, furnishing or giving away Pentazocine, a controlled substance,” to Tommy Johnson, and was sentenced by the court to imprisonment for three years. Tommy Johnson was a Mobile County Deputy Sheriff working under cover, who testified that he bought some “drugs” from Richard Adams and placed them in a “small tinfoil package,” which he took to the Sheriff’s Department within about thirty minutes thereafter.

In some of the cross-examination of witnesses for the State, defendant’s attor[905]*905ney was able to develop information that tends to support a conclusion that there were one or more breaks in the linkage of the chain of custody between the purchase of the substance and its exhibition during the trial of the case as State’s Exhibit 1, which purported to contain some of the substance. As the actual content of State’s Exhibit 1 was never discernible by the jury, the linkage between Exhibit 1 on the trial and the content of State’s Exhibit 1 before it was brought to the trial is of no material significance. The only linkage of material significance is that which purports to constitute the linkage between the custody by Officer Johnson of the substance he purchased and the custody of Ms. Debra Sennett, the chemist who analyzed the substance and testified that it contained Pentazocine, a controlled substance, otherwise known as Talwin. Defendant’s attorney developed a weakness in that link by his cross-examination of Officer Johnson, as illustrated by the following part of Officer Johnson’s testimony on cross-examination:

“Q. So, it’s very possible that you may have bought some other Talwin from another Defendant that night; isn’t that correct?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. All right. When you got the tinfoil packet containing the tablets, did you mark them in any way at that time?
“A. No, I didn’t.
“Q. And you don’t know whether or not you had any packets other than that with you at that time, do you?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. All right. When did you mark for identification that particular packet that you got from somebody that night?
“A. When I arrived back at the Sheriff’s Department.
“Q. All right. Do you remember whether or not you had any other packets with you at that time?
“A. No, I don’t.
“Q. For all you know you could have; is that right?
“A. Possible.
“Q. Okay. More Talwin?
“A. Possible.
“Q. All right. And you put the Talwin in the vault; is that correct?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. All right. Do you recall what night of the week this was?
“A. No, I don’t.
“Q. All right. But it was June 30th, 1982, right?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. Okay. And you took it to the lab when?
“A. The following day.
“Q. All right. That would have been July the 1st.
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. All right. And who all had access to this vault in the Mobile County Sheriff’s office?
“A. Myself and about four other officers.
“Q: All right. And the next day you took it to whom?
“A. The Toxicologist Office.
“Q. And who was that?
“A. Debra Sennett.
“Q. All right. Did you hand it to her personally?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. Okay. Do you know whether or not she marked it for identification?
“A. That’s correct.”

We are of the opinion that, although the first part of the quoted testimony of Officer Johnson revealed some weakness in the chain of custody, considerable strength is to be found by the second part of the cross-examination and that the integrity of the link of the chain of custody personified by Officer Johnson is established with reasonable certainty. The integrity of the next link, personified by Ms. Debra Sennett, is to be found in the following portion of her testimony:

“Q. All right. Now, did you have occasion to receive on July 1st of 1982 any suspected controlled substances from Dep. Tommy Johnson?
[906]*906“A. I did.
“Q. What time did you receive them? “A. At 11:15.
“Q. All right. Now, what did you receive from Dep. Johnson at that time? “A. I received a manila envelope that was sealed with clear celephone [cellophane?] tape. And it was initialed ‘T.J.’ and that’s what I received.
“Q. All right. And what did you do with the envelope, ma’am?
“A. It was under my custody and control until such time that I removed a portion of the material that was contained within and performed my analysis on it.”

We are not convinced that there was any impairment of the integrity of the linkage between the link of custody of Ms. Debra Sennett and that of Officer Bochenek, who received State’s Exhibit 1 from Ms. Debra Sennett and brought it to the courtroom during the trial. However, if it had been impaired, it would not have been, as we have indicated above, an impairment of any material part of the chain of custody.

By appellant’s only other contention for reversal, he argues that the trial court “committed reversible error in allowing the State to reopen its case after the State had rested and the defendant had moved for a directed verdict of acquittal.” We fail to find in the transcript any semblance of an objection to or any protest against the court’s allowing the State to reopen its case. For us to predicate a reversal upon action by the court would be in conflict with the accepted proposition that review on appeal is limited to matters on which rulings were invoked in the trial court. Frazier v. State, 53 Ala.App. 492, 301 So.2d 256 (1974); Stinker v. State, Ala.Cr. App., 344 So.2d 1264, 1268 (1977).

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Related

Stevens v. State
506 So. 2d 373 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
452 So. 2d 904, 1984 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 5154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-state-alacrimapp-1984.