Pyles v. State

448 So. 2d 416, 1983 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 4697
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 16, 1983
Docket4 Div. 36
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 448 So. 2d 416 (Pyles v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pyles v. State, 448 So. 2d 416, 1983 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 4697 (Ala. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

GARDNER F. GOODWYN, Jr., Retired Circuit Judge.

The appellant, Tommy Edward Pyles, was indicted by a Pike County Grand Jury at its January 1982, term, charging that he “did knowingly sell, manufacture, deliver, or bring into this state, or was knowingly in actual or constructive possession of more than one kilo or 2.2 pounds of cannabis, in violation of 20-2-80 of the Code of Alabama.”

This section, as a part of Article 4A, became effective May 28, 1980, and defines the offense of trafficking in cannabis and sets the punishment therefor.

An arrest warrant was issued for appellant, and trial was held in the Circuit Court of Pike County, Alabama, before a jury, which returned a verdict of guilty as charged.

After a presentence hearing, the appellant was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of four years, but no fine was imposed.

The case of the State was based upon the testimony of an accomplice of the appellant, and the testimony of a police officer and an expert witness. The appellant called no witnesses in his defense.

The accomplice, Buster Griffin, testified, in substance, that he, his wife and sister, the appellant, and three other men left Pike County on September 4, 1981, in two automobiles — a blue colored Opel and a green colored Chevrolet station wagon — to go to Falls City, Nebraska, for the purpose of obtaining marijuana for later sale and distribution in Alabama.

They arrived in Falls City at approximately 5 p.m. the following day and checked into a motel. They purchased at a local grocery store a quantity of garbage bags and gloves for use in containing and picking the plant, which they harvested from 9 p.m. that evening to 3 a.m. the next morning in a wild field about three miles from town. They picked about nine bags that night, and the appellant actively participated in the operation. Further harvesting was interrupted by rain, and they left Falls City on Monday, September 7, for Maryville, Missouri, with the harvested bags. While in Falls City, the parties took several photographs of one another and their vehicles. (These were identified and introduced into evidence during the trial.)

[418]*418In Maryville, they gathered more marijuana, bringing the total to seventeen bags totaling about 350 to 400 pounds.

On Wednesday, September 9, they returned to the home of the witness near Troy, Alabama, arriving about 4:30 or 5 a.m. on Thursday the 10th. They unloaded the two vehicles and carried the bags into his house. They turned on the front porch light to aid in unloading, and the appellant and the other men carried the bags into the house. The witness and his wife remained at their home and went to bed after the unloading. All the others, including the appellant, left the area, supposedly to go to their homes. Before separating, it was agreed that they would come back the next day about 1 p.m.

The witness further testified that the appellant did not live at the home of the witness and did not have any ownership interest in the house and was not present when the officers raided his home that same Thursday and seized the marijuana.

He further testified that on the trip back to Alabama the auto in which the appellant rode carried marijuana; and this was marijuana that they had harvested and brought back to Alabama and which was seized in the raid. He did not know whether the appellant returned to the house at 1 p.m. the next day because by then the witness was in jail.

The witness testified that he had pleaded guilty to the charge against him, but no one had promised him anything.

The next witness, Grady Reeves, testified in substance that he was Assistant Chief of Police of the Troy Police Department and a criminal investigator with the department. On September 10, 1981, at 4:47 a.m., he was a stakeout in a ditch on the roadside across from the residence of Buster Griffin. At that hour a blue Opel and a 1971 green Chevrolet station wagon pulled into the front yard of Griffin’s house. Several individuals got out of the vehicles and began to carry some large, green, plastic garbage bags into the residence. He recognized these individuals as appellant, Buster Griffin, who lived there, Michael Lewis, Ronnie Robert Smith, Tommy Mount, Liz Griffin, and Vera Griffin. He knew the appellant prior to this time and saw him carrying the bags — roughly ten to thirteen in number — into the house from the cars. The bags were filled with some type of bulky material, but at that time he could not see into the bags and did not know for an absolute positive fact that they contained marijuana, but it was his opinion that he had probable cause to believe that marijuana was in the bags.

After observing this he left his stakeout position and obtained a search warrant for the residence of Buster Griffin and returned on the same day with several other officers and conducted a search under the warrant. Seventeen large, plastic bags filled with marijuana were found in the house. Photographs and measurements were taken, and labels were affixed. Total weight of the bags was 420½ pounds. A sample from each bag was delivered to Joseph Saloome of the Enterprise State Crime Laboratory. The appellant was not present when the search was conducted.

Joseph Saloome testified as a qualified expert that the samples delivered to him were marijuana, the scientific name of which-is cannabis setiva, and it is a controlled substance of the Alabama Uniform Code.

As to the legality of the ruling allowing the marijuana to be admitted into evidence, the appellant was without standing under the Fourth Amendment to raise the question in the trial court of the legality of the search of Buster Griffin’s house and the seizure of the marijuana therein.

In order to raise this question, he had to show that he possessed a legitimate expectation of privacy from governmental invasion of the area that was searched. Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980); United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980). This he did not do. He did not live at the Griffin house, nor did he have any right, title, or interest therein. He was not present when [419]*419the search was conducted, and he made no claim to any proprietary interest in the goods that were seized.

Under these facts, there was no error in denying the appellant’s motion to suppress the evidence and in overruling his objection to the admission into evidence of the seized goods. Collier v. State, 413 So.2d 396 (Ala.Cr.App.1981), aff'd, 413 So.2d 403 (Ala.1982); Davidson v. State, 48 Ala.App. 446, 265 So.2d 888 (1971), cert. denied, 289 Ala. 741, 265 So.2d 897 (1972).

Moreover, the search warrant was issued upon probable cause and was valid, as disclosed by the affidavit given by Officer Reeves in support of the warrant.

The affidavit was, in substance, that on September 5, 1981, Saturday, a confidential informant told the police department that Buster Griffin and others were en route to Nebraska to obtain a large quantity of marijuana to be brought back to Griffin’s house for storage until it could be sold. They were driving a green Chevrolet station wagon and a blue Opel.

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Related

Baker v. State
599 So. 2d 60 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1991)
Allison v. City of Birmingham
580 So. 2d 1377 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
448 So. 2d 416, 1983 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 4697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pyles-v-state-alacrimapp-1983.