Culbertson v. State

792 N.E.2d 573, 2003 Ind. App. LEXIS 1364, 2003 WL 21757295
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 31, 2003
Docket63A01-0209-CR-347
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 792 N.E.2d 573 (Culbertson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Culbertson v. State, 792 N.E.2d 573, 2003 Ind. App. LEXIS 1364, 2003 WL 21757295 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION

KIRSCH, Judge.

After a jury trial, Thomas R. Culbertson was convicted of two counts of dealing methamphetamine,1 Class B felonies, and maintaining a common nuisance,2 a Class D felony. He now appeals, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support each of his convictions.

We affirm in part and reverse in part.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In February 2001, Tracy Kinley offered to work as a confidential informant for the Pike County Sheriffs Department. They agreed that he would try to make a controlled drug purchase from Culbertson by trading Culbertson anhydrous ammonia, which is used to make methamphetamine, for methamphetamine.

Officers searched Kinley and his vehicle arid equipped him with a recording device. Kinley went to the trailer where Culbertson and his wife lived and offered to make the trade. Culbertson agreed to the deal, but was unable to locate any methamphetamine among his belongings. He asked Heather Wilson, a friend who was also present, to give Kinley some of hers, which she did. Culbertson told Kinley to come back later, and he would have some more. Afterwards, when Kinley met with the officers, he produced a baggie containing a white powder and a tape recording of his conversation with Culbertson.

Based on this evidence, officers obtained and executed a search warrant on Culbertson’s property, which was used as a junkyard. During their search, police recovered seven cans of starting fluid with no spray nozzles, six lithium batteries, nine packages of twenty-four tablets each of pseudoephedrine ■ nasal decongestant, a plastic bottle, and plastic tubing from a vehicle parked on the property. Near the trailer, they found a length of hose with a metal fitting and numerous battery parts and a burnt can of starting fluid. Near a cave on the property, they found an empty can of starting fluid,' coffee filters, plastic tubing, and punched and burned metal cans. Elsewhere they found hypodermic needles. In the trailer, they found an electronic scale, muriatic acid, metal spoons with residue, a razor blade, a pair of wire cutting pliers, and respirators. In a school bus parked on the property, they found hypodermic needles, metal spoons, a glass baking dish with residue, a portable [576]*576scale, a light bulb containing residue, table salt, and a plastic bag containing white powder.

Culbertson was charged with deahng in a schedule II controlled substance by manufacturing methamphetamine, deahng in a schedule II controlled substance by possessing with the intent to deliver methamphetamine, and possession of precursors. Later, the State added charges of deahng in a schedule II controlled substance by delivering methamphetamine, maintaining a common nuisance, and deahng in a schedule II controlled substance by delivering methamphetamine to Wilson. The jury returned guilty verdicts as to the first five charges and the trial court entered convictions on those verdicts. The trial court sentenced Culbertson to twenty years’ imprisonment on Count I, twenty years’ imprisonment on Count IV, and three years’ imprisonment on Count V and ordered all of the sentences to be served concurrently. The trial court did not enter a sentence on Counts II or III.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

Culbertson challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting each of his convictions. In reviewing an appellate claim that the evidence was insufficient, we will not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of witnesses. Bradley v. State, 765 N.E.2d 204, 211 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). We examine the evidence most favorable to the judgment and all reasonable inferences that may be drawn therefrom. Id. We will sustain a conviction only when each material element of the charge is supported by evidence in the record from which a rational trier of fact could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

I. Dealing in Methamphetamine: Manufacturing

Culbertson was charged in February 2001 with violating IC 35-48-4-2, dealing in a schedule II controlled substance, by manufacturing methamphetamine. That statute provides that a person who knowingly or intentionally manufactures or possesses with intent to manufacture a controlled substance classified in schedule II commits dealing in a schedule II controlled substance, a Class B felony. At the time Culbertson was charged, IC 35-48-1-18 provided that “manufacturing” was the production or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly. The statute contained a number of exceptions, including one for the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for his or her personal use.3

We discussed this exception in Bradley, 765 N.E.2d at 210-11. In that case, we rejected the reasoning of Hatcher v. State, 762 N.E.2d 170 (Ind.Ct.App.2002), trans. denied, in which a panel of this court refused to recognize the exception because it concluded that such a result could not have been the intent of the legislature. Instead, we applied the clear language of the statute and concluded that to obtain a conviction for dealing by manufacturing, the State must prove that the intent to manufacture was not for a defendant’s personal use. Bradley, 765 N.E.2d at 210-11.

Ultimately, in Bradley, we found that the State had carried its burden and proved that the defendant’s production was not solely for his personal use. The quantity of methamphetamine manufacturing ingredients found in the defendant’s car far exceeded a quantity associated with manufacturing for personal use: sixty-four blister packs of pseudoephedrine pills, each containing twenty-four pills, a pill bottle containing over one thousand pills, forty-nine lithium batteries, and other necessary equipment for manufacturing. We concluded that the evidence permitted the reasonable inference that the defendant did not intend to manufacture methamphetamine solely for his own use. Id.

Here, it may be reasonably inferred from the evidence that Culbertson was manufacturing methamphetamine. Ser[577]*577geant James Dotson, Jr. of the Indiana State Police testified about the lithium ammonia process used to manufacture methamphetamine, which he explained uses tubing, bottles, coffee filters, over-the-counter cold medicine, starting fluid or alcohol, anhydrous ammonia, lithium batteries, and hydrogen chloride gas made from sulfuric acid and table salt. Dotson testified that Culbertson’s property contained all of these items except anhydrous ammonia and also included a pit for burning items used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, which is also a common feature of drug manufacturing sites.

However, as in Bradley, the State was required to prove that Culbertson’s manufacturing was not done for his personal use. In contrast to Bradley, here, Dotson testified that officers recovered only nine packages of cold medicine and six lithium batteries, which could have produced nine grams of methamphetamine. We are not persuaded that this amount indicates that Culbertson was manufacturing methamphetamine for the use of others.

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Culbertson v. State
792 N.E.2d 573 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
792 N.E.2d 573, 2003 Ind. App. LEXIS 1364, 2003 WL 21757295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/culbertson-v-state-indctapp-2003.