Bosarge v. State

594 So. 2d 1143, 1991 WL 285760
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1991
Docket89-KA-0247
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 594 So. 2d 1143 (Bosarge v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bosarge v. State, 594 So. 2d 1143, 1991 WL 285760 (Mich. 1991).

Opinion

594 So.2d 1143 (1991)

Ansel BOSARGE, Jr., and Eddie Steve Ellis
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 89-KA-0247.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 31, 1991.
Rehearing Denied April 1, 1992.

George S. Shaddock, Pascagoula, for appellant.

Mike C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Wayne Snuggs, Asst. Atty., Patricia W. Sproat, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. Jackson, for appellee.

Before DAN M. LEE, P.J., and ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

Today two Jackson County residents appeal their controlled substance convictions arising from their substantial marijuana distribution operations. They present familiar and perennially troublesome questions regarding the accuseds' access to the prosecution's paid confidential informant and the defense of entrapment. We have reviewed the points with care and find no error requiring reversal.

*1144 II.

A.

Ansel Bosarge, Jr., born September 20, 1952, and Eddie Steve Ellis, born January 20, 1955, are not new to the drug business. Their present problems appear to have begun at some time in 1987, when the then incarcerated Bosarge made the jailhouse acquaintance of Duane Melvin Marks. It seems that Marks had been convicted of felony shoplifting in February of 1987 and was housed with Bosarge in the Pascagoula Restitution Center.

A year later, in February of 1988, Marks approached officers of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) and suggested that he might be of assistance in undercover drug operations. Marks said he knew people who would be willing to sell him marijuana. MBN, acting through Agent Roy J. Sandefer, struck a deal with Marks whereunder Marks would act as a paid confidential informant for the Bureau.

At some point shortly thereafter, Marks rented a house — a "little gray, shotgun house" — in the Bayou Cumbest area in Jackson County, a somewhat secluded site with "woods or brush ... on either side." This house was a little over a mile from property occupied by Eddie Steve Ellis. Marks had introduced Agent Sandefer to Bosarge, representing that Sandefer was his cousin from Kentucky. Marks began supplying information to Sandefer, who made marijuana buys from Bosarge on February 26 and March 4, 1988. Based on these two buys, MBN agents having carefully watched Bosarge's movements on each occasion, plus information Marks had supplied, MBN officials obtained a search warrant for the Ellis property.

Sandefer then began telephone negotiations with Bosarge for a much larger purchase — this time twenty-five pounds of marijuana. The deal was set for March 16, 1988, at Marks' house in a rural area off Orange Grove Road. At daybreak, MBN agents and other law enforcement officers had staked out the Marks house and the Ellis property as well, and had noticed Bosarge on the Ellis property. Later that morning, Bosarge met with Marks and Sandefer, who was still undercover, in Marks' house. MBN Agent Sammy Evans was nearby in the woods, monitoring via radio and recording what transpired and generally serving in a surveillance capacity. Sandefer showed Bosarge $21,050.00, with which he planned to purchase the twenty-five pounds of marijuana. Sandefer said that he wanted to inspect a sample of the marijuana but that he did not want to leave the Marks house with such a large amount of money. He asked Bosarge to leave and get him a sample. By this point, Marks had stepped outside of the house. Bosarge agreed, and Sandefer gave Bosarge $400.00 — an earnest money deposit, if you will. Bosarge then got in his truck and left, apparently on his way to Ellis' property. While Bosarge was gone, Marks came back inside the house, and Sandefer told him, "Yeah, everything is slick." Before Bosarge returned, however, Marks left the property.

A few minutes later, Bosarge returned, carrying the marijuana sample in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. Sandefer took the marijuana, inspected it, approved it, and put it in his car. Sandefer and Bosarge then went to Ellis' truck and got in, whereupon Sandefer, with the assistance of other law enforcement officers who suddenly appeared, placed Bosarge under arrest and took his walkie-talkie. The group then transported Bosarge in a sheriff's car to the Ellis property and recovered the $400.00 Sandefer had given Bosarge a short while earlier.

The Ellis property was well equipped as a base for illegal drug operations. It lay in a secluded, marshy area in southeast Jackson County. It was protected by a security system of infra-red sensors that set off buzzers when automobiles approached. There was a thirty to forty-foot lookout watch tower. The house contained a trap door, facilitating escape. There was a base unit CB in the trailer. Officers subsequently discovered that the CB in a truck on Ellis' property, Bosarge's hand-held walkie-talkie, and the base unit in the trailer were all on the same channel. Armed with a search warrant, the officers entered *1145 the property and found a bag of marijuana containing 451.6 grams of marijuana, a bag with 10,848.1 grams of marijuana (23.91 pounds), a canister with 61.4 grams of marijuana seeds, a bag with 2.98 pounds of marijuana, and a package of 3.6 pounds of marijuana. The police eventually apprehended Ellis, who had disappeared into the woods. Ellis was armed with an AR-15, ammunition, tear gas, a gas mask, and was dressed in full camouflage.

B.

On April 20, 1988, a Jackson County grand jury returned a two-count indictment jointly charging Bosarge and Ellis, first, with delivery of a controlled substance, to-wit, marijuana, to Agent Sandefer and, second, with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.[1] The grand jury charged Bosarge and Ellis, first, as repeat offenders within the Controlled Substances Act, see Miss. Code Ann. § 41-29-147 (1988), and, second, as habitual offenders. Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-81 (Supp. 1988).

The case was originally set for trial in July of 1988. On July 6, 1988, the defense moved for an order requiring that the name and address of the confidential informant be disclosed. At the same time, the defense moved for a continuance. It appears that shortly after Bosarge and Ellis were taken into custody, the Circuit Court placed Marks on unsupervised probation and that he left town. In any event, on July 11, 1988, the Circuit Court granted Bosarge and Ellis a continuance because of Marks' absence.

The Circuit Court reset the case for trial some six months later, and on the eve of this new trial, on January 17, 1989, to be exact, Bosarge and Ellis moved for an order that the prosecution produce Confidential Informant Marks on grounds he was a material witness and, failing that, to disclose his whereabouts. The Court denied the motion but, during trial, the Defendants renewed it. The Court denied the motion again but directed the prosecution to lend its assistance to the defense in locating Marks. The defense moved again for a continuance, and that motion was denied. At the close of their case, the Defendants renewed their motion for a continuance, and it was denied once more.

In due course, the jury found Bosarge guilty as charged on both counts, to-wit: delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and the Circuit Court sentenced him as a repeat and habitual offender to sixty years imprisonment on each conviction, the sentences to be served consecutively.

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Bluebook (online)
594 So. 2d 1143, 1991 WL 285760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bosarge-v-state-miss-1991.