Jeffers v. State

485 N.E.2d 81, 1985 Ind. LEXIS 1026
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1985
Docket1183S426
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 485 N.E.2d 81 (Jeffers v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jeffers v. State, 485 N.E.2d 81, 1985 Ind. LEXIS 1026 (Ind. 1985).

Opinion

SHEPARD, Justice.

The appellant, Leroy Jeffers, was con-viected by a jury of two counts of Dealing in Cocaine, Ind.Code § 85-48-4-1(1) (Burns 1985 Repl.), both class B felonies, and one count of Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Deliver, Ind.Code § 85-48-4-1(2) (Burns 1985 Repl.), a class B felony, and was sentenced to two concurrent terms of twenty years of imprisonment and a third term of twenty years to be served consecutively to the others. In this direct appeal, the following issues are raised:

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions;
2. Whether the State proved an adequate chain of custody of the cocaine;
3. Whether the court erred in denying appellant's pro se motion for a change of venue from the judge;
4. Whether appellant was denied effective assistance of counsel; and,
5. Whether the sentence imposed was excessive. 1

The facts which tend to support the judgment of conviction are as follows. The Gary police department received an anony *84 mous tip that narcotics were being sold from the rear apartment of a multi-unit dwelling. The police set up surveillance for three days. After observing what they believed to be narcotics traffic at the address, an undercover purchase was planned.

Officer Richardson testified that she knocked on the door of the rear apartment, and it was answered by appellant's fourteen-year-old son, Becelone. She told him she wanted "two dimes." He told her to move to a window where she gave him police department money. She saw him go to a refrigerator, then back to the window where he handed her two small white packets.

The officer returned to the police station, opened the packets, and saw they contained a white powdery substance. She marked the packets with her initials, the date, and the time, placed them in an envelope, sealed it, and dropped it in the property vault.

The next day, she took the envelope from the vault to the toxicology laboratory where the substance was analyzed. Later, she took the envelope back to the property vault. On the day of trial she took the envelope from the vault. She testified it was in the same condition then as it was when she had last put it in the vault.

The toxicologist for the State testified that he received the sealed envelope in his laboratory where it was assigned a laboratory number and, in the presence of the officer, placed in the laboratory vault. He testified that the normal procedure was followed, which is for the chemist to retrieve the envelope from the vault, not its sealed condition, then open it and perform the analysis. After analysis, the remaining evidence was returned to the vault. When the officer returned to the laboratory, she was present as the evidence clerk removed the envelope from the vault. The officer was then presented with the toxicologist's letter of analysis. The toxicologist testified that the white powder brought to him by Officer Richardson was cocaine.

Precisely the same testimony was presented as to a second purchase of cocaine by Officer Richardson at the same residence. Becelone answered the door, took her order and money for "two dimes," and handed her two packets through the window. Officer Richardson and the toxicologist testified the same procedures were used for sealing and securing the evidence, and the toxicologist found it to be cocaine.

A few days later, the police procured a warrant to search the rear apartment. After they announced themselves at the door, they heard shuffling inside and decided to force their entry. Inside they discovered appellant, his wife, Becelone, and the other six children huddled in the bathroom with a shotgun. A vial of cocaine was taken from the refrigerator. The remains of some marijuana cigarettes and a syringe with cocaine residue were taken from atop the kitchen table.

Later, Becelone made a statement to the police. He told them that both his parents knew he was selling the drugs from the house and that he did it because his father, the appellant, had told him to. He had not told his father he did not want to sell the drugs because he was afraid his father would hit him. Becelone told the police his father taught him that the packets cost ten dollars, and that he should first take the money, then go to the refrigerator and get the drugs.

Becelone told the police that he was never left alone to sell the drugs, which he had been doing for almost one year. His father sometimes was in the apartment during the sales, and sometimes his mother was present. Becelone did not know how the drugs came into the apartment, but he turned the money from the transactions over to the appellant.

Becelone's statement was introduced at trial after it was substantially contradicted by his direct testimony. On direct examination, Becelone testified he did not know if he had sold drugs on the two dates of the police undercover purchases, but he did admit that at times during that month he had sold drugs at the direction of his fa *85 ther. Then he stated, "Well, really, my father didn't tell me to sell them. My mother told me." He said his statement he gave the police was not truthful and that his mother had told him to implicate his father. Then he testified his father was sometimes present when he sold the drugs and that he gave the money to his father because the drugs belonged to his father.

I

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. He claims he was not shown to have had sufficient control and interest in the premises to have been convicted for aiding and abetting his son's dealing in cocaine or to have been convicted for possession with intent to deal the cocaine found in the refrigerator. We will neither reweigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of the witnesses. Loyd v. State (1980), 272 Ind. 404, 398 N.E.2d 1260, cert. denied, 449 U.S. 881, 101 S.Ct. 231, 66 L.Ed.2d 105. We will look only to the evidence most favorable to the State to determine whether the crimes were proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

Apparently, appellant had set up official residence in the apartment above the rear apartment. His wife, Becelone, and the other children resided in the rear apart ment where the drug traffic occurred. An employee of the utility which supplied natural gas service to the apartment testified that approximately three months before appellant's arrest, he began service for the upstairs apartment and his wife began service for the rear apartment.

Whether or not appellant had set up household separate from the apartment where the criminal activity took place, the evidence nonetheless sufficed to prove his guilt. The jury was entitled to believe Becelone's original statement that the criminal enterprise was controlled by appellant. He stated his father directed him in the sales, controlled the profits, and sometimes was present.

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Bluebook (online)
485 N.E.2d 81, 1985 Ind. LEXIS 1026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jeffers-v-state-ind-1985.