Kimberly Ann Whitehead v. State of Mississippi

187 So. 3d 1091, 2016 WL 1314569, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 182
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 5, 2016
Docket2014-KA-00697-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 187 So. 3d 1091 (Kimberly Ann Whitehead v. State of Mississippi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kimberly Ann Whitehead v. State of Mississippi, 187 So. 3d 1091, 2016 WL 1314569, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 182 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

ISHEE, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. A jury sitting before the Warren County Circuit Court found Kimberly Ann Whitehead guilty of possession of pseu-doephedrine and ammonium nitrate with the intent to manufacture a controlled substance, and possession of .1 gram or more, but less than two' grams, of methamphetamine. Whitehead appeals and raises four issues: (1) there was insufficient evidence to find her guilty of either charge; (2) the jury’s verdicts were contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence; (3) the evidence that led to her convictions was *1094 seized without a valid consent to search; and (4) two of the jury instructions, were inadequate because they failed to list the precursors that she was charged with possessing. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. At approximately 8:30 p.m. on October 4, 2012, Investigators Mike Traxler and Stacey Rollison of the Warren County Sheriffs Department responded to a tip that-Whitehead was manufacturing methamphetamine at the address where she lived with her eighty-year-old grandmother, Ruby Mills. Investigator Traxler knocked on the front door while Investigator Rollison watched the back of the mobile home. Investigator Rollison also watched a shed that was between fifteen and thirty feet from the back door of the mobile home.

¶ 3. After Investigator Traxler knocked on the front door, Investigator Rollison heard movement inside the mobile home. According to Investigator Rollison, Whitehead then “opened the back door, and she loudly whispered” something inaudible. Less than a minute later, Whitehead “exited the back door[, and she was] carrying a black, square box in her hands.” Whitehead opened the door to the shed and gave the black box to her boyfriend, Shane Hu-lett. .Hulett took the black box into the shed, and Whitehead went back inside the mobile home.

¶ 4. Meanwhile, Mills had answered the front door. According to Investigator Traxler, there was a strong odor of ammonia emanating from the mobile home. Investigator Traxler asked to speak to Whitehead, who appeared at the front door a short time later. Whitehead denied that anyone was manufacturing drugs at the house. She later led Investigator Traxler to her and Hulett’s bedroom, where Investigator Traxler found “a coffee filter in a box by a nightstand” 1 and a glass pipe.

¶ 5. When Investigator Traxler came out of the back door with Whitehead and Mills, Investigator Rollison. told him that'Hulett was in the shed. Whitehead said she did not own the shed. Hulett also denied that he owned the shed, and he said that he had “just stopped by.” However, Mills signed a consent form and gave the investigators permission to search the shed.

¶ 6. The black box that Investigator Rol-lison saw Whitehead carrying was hidden behind a section of pegboard mounted inside the shed. Among other things such as spoons, a clear plastic bag, a string level, and a bottle wrapped with.electrical tape, the black box contained scales -disguised as a cell phone, “a coffee filter containing a white powder[y] substance,” and a “small, white package” of a substance Investigator Traxler believed to be methamphetamine. Another plastic bag containing a white powdered substance was on a table in the shed. The shed also contained lithium batteries and a bucket of opened blister packs of pseudoephedrine tablets. Hidden behind a part of a wall, Investigator Traxler found a can of Drano and two cans pf Coleman fuel., Next to the shed, the investigators found a blue pitcher under a paddle boat. Inside the pitcher, there was a glass jar containing a substance that was later identified as “a mixture of methamphetamine, ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, ammonium sulfate, and ... urea.”

¶ 7. Whitehead and Hulett were arrested and subsequently charged with possession *1095 of pseudoephedrine and ammonium nitrate with the intent to manufacture a controlled substance in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 41 — 29—313(1) (a) (ii) (Rev. 2013). They were also charged with possession of .1 gram or more but less than two grams of methamphetamine in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 41-29-139(c)(l)(b) (Rev.2013). On August 27, 2013, Hulett pled guilty to both charges. 2

¶ 8. On March 28, 2014, Whitehead filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized from the shed. She claimed’ that “the items seized were pursuant to an illegal search and seizure and should therefore be excluded at trial.” Whitehead further argued that “the two written consents to search were not valid.” On March 31, 2014, the circuit court conducted a hearing on Whitehead’s motion. Mills testified that she did not tell Investigator Traxler that she owned the shed, and she thought that she was only consenting to a search of the mobile home. She also stated that Hulett owned the shed behind her home. However, the circuit court ultimately denied Whitehead’s request to suppress .the evidence seized from the shed.

¶ 9. Whitehead’s trial began after the suppression hearing. The prosecution called Investigator Rollison and Investigator Traxler, who testified regarding their involvement. Archie Nichols, a forensic scientist employed by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, testified that the white powder found on a table inside the shed was ammonium' nitrate. Nichols also testified that the white package and coffee filter inside the black box contained 1.1 grams and less than .1 of a gram of methamphetamine, respectively. Finally, Nichols testified, that the glass jar inside the blue pitcher contained methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine, and ammonium sulfate. The prosecution’s final witness was Jeff Nester, who testified as an expert witness in latent fingerprint examination. Nester, an employee of the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, testified that one of Whitehead’s fingerprints was recovered from a can of Coleman fuel;

¶10. After the prosecution rested its case-in-chief, Whitehead called Hulett as a witness. According to Hulett, Mills and Whitehead were sick on the day that he had cooked the methamphetamine, and they had been asleep for most of the day. He said Mills and Whitehead had not known that he and. Whitehead’s cousin cooked the methamphetamine in the shed. Hulett testified that he owned all of the methamphetamine, paraphernalia, and precursors that were discovered in the mobile home and the shed. He went on to say that he accidentally left the coffee filter in the bedroom that he shared with Whitehead, and the glass, pipe on the bed belonged to him. Hulett claimed that Investigator Rollison had merely seen Whitehead go outside to tell him that she had put dinner in the oven, and she later brought him a wooden box that contained drill bits and items that he needed to fix a telescope. He said that Whitehead had not brought him the black box that was discovered behind the. pegboard in .the shed. Whitehead also chose to testify. She corroborated Hulett’s claim that she knew nothing about the methamphetamine or precursors that the investigators found.

*1096 ¶ 11. The prosecution finally rested without calling any rebuttal witnesses. Notwithstanding Hulett’s and Whitehead’s testimonies, the jury found Whitehead guilty of both charges.

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Bluebook (online)
187 So. 3d 1091, 2016 WL 1314569, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimberly-ann-whitehead-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2016.