Davis v. State

1973 OK CR 416, 514 P.2d 1195, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 652
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided October 3, 1973·No. A-18140·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinions

OPINION

BLISS, Presiding Judge:

Appellant, Billy Joe Davis, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, case number CRF-72-1750, for the offense of Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Drug With Intent to Distribute. His punishment was fixed at ten (10) years in the State Penitentiary and a fine of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00). From said judgment and sentence, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

Danny Allen O’Dell testified he was employed as a police officer for Bethany, Oklahoma. On July 24, 1972, at approximately 4:00 a. m. he observed a 1963 Ford weave from the middle lane of traffic to the right lane and then back to the middle lane four times. Officer O’Dell signaled the vehicle to pull over whereupon the vehicle crossed the three lanes of traffic to the right and stopped after bouncing off the curb. Officer O’Dell approached the vehicle and asked for a driver’s license, at which time the defendant stepped from the vehicle and produced a license. The defendant had the appearance of being intoxicated; however, there was no smell of alcoholic beverage. As the defendant stepped from the vehicle, his dome lights came on and the officer saw five pills laying on the driver’s side seat, which he identified from previous training as amphetamines. After defendant exited the vehicle, O’Dell noticed a blue bank bag lying on the front seat with the zipper open and a white powdery substance around the lip of the bag. Officer O’Dell seized the bag and upon examination found it contained two red bags and one brown bag. These bags contained several packets of amphetamines. Officer Barnes arrived as backup and after being advised of the situation he opened the passenger door and then the glove box where he removed a fountain pen. This pen was disassembled and they found several more pills of the same type inside.

Officer O’Dell then testified that they found approximately ten pills identified as amphetamines in the fountain pen that came from the glove compartment. He advised that defendant was under arrest for [1197] improper lane usage and after observing the pills, put him under arrest for possession of amphetamines. The evidence was turned over to the captain of detectives at the Bethany Police Department, after being tagged and identified by Officers Barnes and O’Dell. There was an approximate total of 1,760 pills.

George Henry Barnes testified he was employed as a Bethany police officer on July 24, 1972, when at approximately 4:00 a. m. he was assigned to back up Officer O’Dell concerning a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation. Upon arrival he observed Officer O’Dell standing at the driver’s door of defendant’s vehicle and the defendant standing to the left rear quarter panel of the same car He approached the vehicle where he observed the defendant to have the symptoms of being highly intoxicated, except there was no alcoholic odor. Officer O’Dell showed him four or five tablets he had recovered from the front seat and a bank bag which he had removed from the vehicle. Barnes then went to the passenger side of the car and opened the glove compartment. He found a glass jar containing a fountain pen, and after removing the cap from the fountain pen, found it to contain tablets thought to be amphetamines. Upon returning to the station, they inventoried the pills which totaled approximately 1,760.

Officer O’Dell was then recalled wherein he testified numerous keys were found in a brown bag which was contained inside the blue bank bag.

B. J. Schmidt then testified he was employed as captain in charge of the detective division at the Bethany Police Department. On July 24, 1972, at approximately 4:30 a. m. he received a call from Officer O’Dell requesting he come to headquarters. Upon arrival he inventoried the contents of a large blue zipper bank bag, finding three smaller zipper type bags. One the smaller bags contained six individual packages of small tablets. The packages totaled approximately 1,700 tablets ranging from slightly over fifty to approximately five hundred per package. The second red bag contained eight other packages of a white powdery substance. The third package contained a quantity of keys. Captain Schmidt testified he had training with recognition of drugs but was unable to identify the drugs until after having submitted them to the laboratory where they were identified. Captain Schmidt then testified concerning the location of Bethany Nazarene College, boys’ dormitories, downtown section, grade school, junior high and high schools in the immediate vicinity of defendant’s arrest. Defendant was transported to the Oklahoma County Jail that morning. Defendant subsequently returned to the Bethany Police Station inquiring about getting his keys back that had been seized at the time of the arrest and which were in one of the bags.

On cross-examination Captain Schmidt testified there was no proof concerning the defendant having sold anything in the City of Bethany and that there was no proof defendant had come from any educational institution prior to the arrest.

Ronald Wayne Confelter then testified he was employed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation as a forensic chemist. On July 24, 1972, he received items of evidence from the Bethany Police Department. State’s Exhibit No. 7 was identified as the evidence envelope containing several baggies of white double scored tablets. It contained individually packaged pills in units of 5, 67, 100, 500, 500, 500 and 100 respectively. The pills were analyzed and identified as containing amphetamines. The pills from the pen were also so identified.

The State then rested and defendant’s motion to suppress, motion for mistrial, demurrer and motion for directed verdict for acquittal were overruled with exceptions.

The defendant then testified that on July 23, 1972, around 6:00 p. m. he drove over to pick up Donny Lee Sanders and some other boys to look at a car and purchase a tire. He subsequently let the boys out since he was to meet his girlfriend at the [1198] Squirrel Cage Club at 8:00 p. m. They met at the club and later left and they went to her home in Yukon, Oklahoma, where he stayed until 3:30 or 4:00 a. m. He testified he did not notice a blue bag or pills in his car during this period of time, and to his knowledge had never seen the bag before. He was returning home from Yukon when the Bethany Police stopped him by using a red light. He signaled and pulled over to the curb where he stopped. Mr. Davis admitted to crossing the lane line and weaving slightly. He got out of his car and met Officer O’Dell at the rear of the automobile where he tendered his driver’s license. Another police officer arrived and he saw this officer enter the passenger side of his vehicle prior to hollering something about “white crosses.” He was subsequently taken to the police station where he agreed to sign a search waiver for the trunk of the automobile. He did not know the bag with the pills or the bottle with the fountain pen were in his car. After he got out of jail he went to the Bethany Police Department and talked to Captain Schmidt concerning releasing some keys which were inside a brief case in the back seat. He identified the keys in evidence as those that had been in his brief case.

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Davis v. State, 1973 OK CR 416, 514 P.2d 1195, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 652 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

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Davis v. State
1973 OK CR 416 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)