Duggar v. State

427 S.W.3d 77, 2013 Ark. App. 135, 2013 WL 703346, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 156
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 27, 2013
DocketNo. CA CR 12-521
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 427 S.W.3d 77 (Duggar v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duggar v. State, 427 S.W.3d 77, 2013 Ark. App. 135, 2013 WL 703346, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 156 (Ark. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

BRANDON J. HARRISON, Judge.

|xThe State charged Terrance Duggar with violating multiple drug-related statutes. A jury found Duggar guilty of a lesser-included offense: possessing at least four ounces but less than ten pounds of marijuana, which is a Class D felony. Ark. Code Ann. § 5 — 64—419(b)(5)(iii) (Supp. 2011). He was acquitted on all other charges. The circuit court’s final sentencing order sentenced Duggar to seventy-two months in the Arkansas Department of Correction and fined him $10,000 dollars. Duggar appeals that order on two grounds: the circuit court mistakenly admitted marijuana into evidence because there were missing links in the chain of custody, and there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. We affirm on both points.

|2I. There was Sufficient Evidence that Duggar Constructively Possessed Marijuana

We address Duggar’s insufficient-evidence argument first. Boldin v. State, 373 Ark. 295, 297, 283 S.W.3d 565, 567 (2008). We will concentrate on State’s Exhibit No. 4 because the other amounts of marijuana that the court admitted into evidence— Exhibit Nos. 1 and 7 — do not cumulatively add up to the statutory minimum weight of four ounces. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-64-419(b)(5)(iii).

In a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and consider only the evidence that supports the conviction. Cluck v. State, 365 Ark. 166, 170, 226 S.W.3d 780, 783 (2006). We must affirm the jury’s verdict if it is supported by substantial evidence, which is proof that compels or forces a reasonable mind to move past conjecture or speculation. Id. To preserve a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, Duggar must have made a specific motion for a directed verdict at the close of the State’s case that advised the circuit court of the exact element of the crime the State failed to prove. Conley v. State, 2011 Ark.App. 597, 385 S.W.3d 875; Ark. R.Crim. P. 33.1 (2012). He did so. Duggar renewed his motion again at the close of all the evidence. On appeal, Duggar again argues that the State did not present sufficient evidence that he constructively possessed contraband.

In August 2011, law enforcement converged upon a house located at 10900 Birchwood Drive in Little Rock and executed a search warrant. Duggar and another person named Larry Hatchett were in the house when police entered. Duggar was arrested and charged with violating Ark.Code Ann. §§ 5-64-436, 5-64A02, and 5-64-443 because a number of bags of marijuana, baggies, and a scale were found in the house while Duggar was [sthere. Duggar took his case to trial before a Pulaski County jury.

During the March 2012 jury trial, Little Rock Police Detective John Wesley Lott testified that when he entered the house he saw several large bags of marijuana in the corner of the dining room and kitchen area; Duggar was on the floor facing the bags. (SWAT Team members entered the house first to take control and ensure everyone’s safety.) Detective Lott did not, however, see “with [his] own eyes where [Duggar] was when the SWAT Team hit that door.” Detective Charles Weaver, also of the Little Rock Police Department, testified during the trial that the house had a “big open floor plan” and that Dug-gar was on the floor next to the kitchen table when he entered the house. According to Detective Weaver, a number of bags of marijuana were located three or four feet from the kitchen table. Detective Lott identified State’s Exhibit No. 4 as being the six bags of marijuana that were located three to five feet to the left of the table, “in plain view of the kitchen.”

The police also found letters addressed to Duggar in the northwest bedroom of the house — another letter with Duggar’s name and the Birchwood address on the return label was found elsewhere inside the house. The record is silent on who actually owned or leased the property, but Detective Lott said during the trial that “Mr. Duggar gave [me] the address of the [Birchwood Drive] house as his address.”

On appeal, Duggar contends that the State did not sufficiently prove that he constructively possessed the marijuana. To prove constructive possession, the State must establish that Duggar exercised care, control, and management over the marijuana. McKenzie v. State, 362 Ark. 257, 262-63, 208 S.W.3d 173, 175 (2005). Constructive possession may be established by circumstantial evidence. Duggar argues that the State failed to connect him to |4the marijuana because the letters addressed to him do not establish the necessary legal link. And he asserts that the other evidence the police gathered was insufficient and unreliable because there were no fingerprints or photographs taken, the police did not investigate who leased the residence, and the utility bills were in someone else’s name.1 Finally, Duggar says that defense witness James Tim’s testimony that the marijuana was his, and not Dug-gar’s, is “far more reliable than any evidence presented by the State and calls for a reversal of [Duggar’s] conviction.”

These arguments do not persuade us to reverse. The jury was responsible for weighing and crediting the evidence in this case. Tatum v. State, 2011 Ark. App. 83, at 6, 380 S.W.3d 519, 523. Substantial evidence supports the jury’s verdict because it could have reasonably inferred that Duggar constructively possessed the marijuana.

These facts are strikingly similar to a case we decided not long ago, where we upheld a drug-related conviction. Allen v. State, 2010 Ark. App. 266, 2010 WL 1233830 (the jury could reasonably infer constructive possession of a controlled substance when the substance was found in the kitchen, the defendant gave the police the address of the scene as his resident address, and defendant received mail at the address). The bottom line is that the jury was not required to speculate to find that Duggar constructively possessed contraband. That another person (Larry Hatchett) was present in the house when the police raided it does not require us to reverse. Something |smore than Duggar’s presence in the house is required to establish constructive possession — the “something more” may be the proximity to the marijuana, law enforcement’s ability to see the contraband in plain view, and whether Duggar owned the house where the marijuana was found. Id. That the marijuana was found in a common area of the house helps the State establish constructive possession of contraband. McDaniel v. State, 2011 Ark. App. 677, at 4, 2011 WL 5430112. Add this to the detectives’ testimony that the marijuana was near Dug-gar, that he told a detective that he lived in the Birchwood house, and that Duggar had some mail inside the house, and it becomes clear that the jury had sufficient evidence to find that Duggar constructively possessed contraband. Regarding Tim’s testimony, it does not require us to reverse Duggar’s conviction because the jury was free to believe or to reject Tim’s statement that he, not Duggar, owned the marijuana, Loggins v. State, 2010 Ark. 414, at 5, 372 S.W.3d 785, 790 (holding that circumstantial evidence of drug possession and witness credibility are issues for the jury and not the court).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mandy Ann Cobb v. State of Arkansas
2026 Ark. App. 109 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2026)
Heather Long v. State of Arkansas
2024 Ark. App. 98 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2024)
Harris v. State
561 S.W.3d 766 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2018)
Terry v. State
559 S.W.3d 301 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2018)
Curtis v. State
2015 Ark. App. 167 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Matlock v. State
2015 Ark. App. 65 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
427 S.W.3d 77, 2013 Ark. App. 135, 2013 WL 703346, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 156, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duggar-v-state-arkctapp-2013.