Satchell v. State

321 S.W.3d 127, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4370, 2010 WL 2305923
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 10, 2010
Docket01-06-00659-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 321 S.W.3d 127 (Satchell v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Satchell v. State, 321 S.W.3d 127, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4370, 2010 WL 2305923 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

TERRY JENNINGS, Justice.

A jury found appellant, Shamika Yvonne Satehell, guilty of the offense of possession of Phencyclidine (“PCP”) weighing at least 400 grams by aggregate weight, 1 and the *130 trial court assessed her punishment at confinement for 10 years, suspended the sentence, and placed appellant on community supervision for 10 years. In three points of error, appellant contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support her conviction and the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it could find appellant guilty of the offense of possession of PCP as a lesser-included offense of the offense of possession with intent to deliver PCP. 2

We affirm.

Background

Houston Police Department (“HPD”) Narcotics Investigator A. Vanderberry testified that a confidential informant, whom he knew from past experience to be “reliable and credible,” had informed him that “an assault rifle and narcotics were being kept” at appellant’s apartment and PCP was being sold from there. Vanderberry began surveillance of the apartment and set up a “controlled buy,” in which the informant would buy PCP from appellant’s boyfriend, Taj Smith, at the apartment. During surveillance of the controlled buy, Vanderberry saw a black female enter the apartment and remain there while the informant made the buy, but he could not identify the woman as appellant. Vander-berry obtained a combination search warrant for the apartment and arrest warrant for Smith. When Vanderberry’s team later began surveillance on the apartment in preparation for executing the warrants, he saw Smith driving appellant’s car, with appellant and two children as his passengers. Shortly after they had arrived at appellant’s apartment at 11:00 p.m., Van-derberry and his team detained appellant, arrested Smith, and executed the search warrant.

When the officers entered to search the apartment, “the smell of PCP was so strong” that they had “problems breathing, their eyes were tearing up.” Vander-berry explained that PCP has “a very distinct odor” and a “very harsh chemical smell.” In a closed cabinet under the kitchen sink, officers found a Pine-Sol bottle and two Gatorade bottles containing PCP liquid, between 100 and 200 vials used to distribute PCP, a steel marijuana grinder, latex gloves for handling PCP, and a “baby bottle” with trace amounts of codeine. On the kitchen countertop, officers found “loose-leaf’ marijuana, a “Delaware Punch” bottle containing codeine, and a receipt for the purchase of ten vanilla extract bottles, which are commonly used to distribute PCP. Vanderberry explained that marijuana is commonly used to distribute PCP by lacing the marijuana with PCP. In another closed kitchen cabinet, officers found two “Pyrex beakers” with cocaine residue. Stuffed inside or behind the couch in the living room, officers found an assault rifle and two ammunition clips. In the master bedroom in a closed drawer in a nightstand, officers found ecstasy and hydrocodone pills in bottles with Smith’s name on the labels, $1,360 in cash, and Smith’s identification. Vanderberry opined that the apartment was “a distribution center for narcotics.”

On cross-examination, Vanderberry conceded that Smith was “the target of the investigation” and the person that he believed to be the “drug dealer.” He did not observe appellant “handle [the] drugs” or “deal the drugs.” The confidential informant provided “no intelligence” about appellant but relayed that appellant was “not engaged in any activity other than being there when the deal was going on.” Appellant’s fingerprints were not found on any of the items of contraband because *131 none of them was “conducive” for usable prints. Vanderberry agreed that appellant did not flee, take evasive actions, get nervous, or give “shifty, inconsistent answers” when his team detained her.

HPD Narcotics Officer R. Chaison testified that over several days during his surveillance of appellant’s apartment, he observed significant “foot traffic” in and out of the apartment. As he helped to execute the search warrant, Chaison smelled “a strong musty, musty smell” coming from appellant’s apartment. He obtained consent from appellant to search her car, where he found a “marijuana cigar in the ashtray” and a “pharmaceutical” bottle of codeine under the driver’s seat. On cross-examination, Chaison admitted that he did not see appellant handle or sell narcotics. He confirmed that Smith was the target of the investigation, and appellant was not “on the radar screen.” He could provide no “direct” evidence that appellant solicited, assisted, aided, or encouraged Smith’s dealing narcotics.

HPD Narcotics Officer D. De Blanc testified that when the warrants were served, he detained appellant outside of her apartment and informed her of her legal rights. After arresting appellant, De Blanc videotaped an interview of her regarding the narcotics. During the interview, appellant stated that she did not “know anything about PCP,” the narcotics were “not hers,” and she had never used or sold narcotics.

Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agent M. Daughtery testified that she later interviewed appellant regarding a federal investigation of Smith. Daughtery explained that after appellant “initially denied knowing anything” about the narcotics found in her apartment, she “acknowledged that she did know about the narcotics” and she “knew [Smith] was dealing drugs,” but she denied that she was involved with or used the narcotics. Appellant also admitted that she and the children went to another room whenever Smith’s friends “came over to smoke,” Smith had no job but “had a lot of money” and helped her with the rent, Smith carried a firearm or had one nearby when he “dealt dope,” she had seen an assault-rifle type firearm at their prior residence, and Smith had once left a handgun in her car.

Kreshelle Dixon, a co-worker of appellant, testified that appellant orally subleased the apartment from her. Appellant initially moved into the apartment with her daughter, and Smith moved in a “short time” later and had been at the apartment about eight months at the time the officers executed the warrant.

HPD Crime Lab Chemist R. Rodriguez testified that the PCP recovered from appellant’s apartment weighed 1.44 kilograms, or a little over 1,400 grams, and the codeine weighed 977.5 grams. Rodriguez agreed that PCP has a “strong odor,” which she described as “an ether-type of smell.”

Appellant testified that when Officer De Blanc initially detained her, she had responded “No” when he asked if she was “Kreshelle Dixon.” She then identified herself and stated that she resided at the apartment number listed in the warrant. When De Blanc told appellant that PCP was being sold out of the apartment, she told him that she did not “know anything about what’s going on.” She explained that she was not familiar with PCP and had not seen the bottles of narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia found in the cabinet under the kitchen sink in her apartment. Appellant identified her car for De Blanc, and she gave consent for it to be searched. After she saw De Blanc remove the bottle of codeine from beneath the driver’s seat of her car, she denied that it was hers or that she had seen it before

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
321 S.W.3d 127, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4370, 2010 WL 2305923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/satchell-v-state-texapp-2010.