Skinner v. State

355 S.E.2d 726, 182 Ga. App. 370, 1987 Ga. App. LEXIS 1706
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided March 13, 1987·No. 73707·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

Birdsong, Chief Judge.

Charles Skinner, Kembile Barnes and Russell Holbrook, were jointly indicted for conspiracy to violate the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. Barnes and Holbrook entered pleas of guilty to the indictment and Skinner brings this appeal from his conviction. Donald Augustine and Larry Sproat, Special Agents with the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration, met with Barnes and Holbrook and discussed the purchase of a kilogram of cocaine. Augustine purchased a quarter ounce of cocaine for $550 from Barnes. Barnes also gave him some marijuana and ten tablets of methaqualone. The methaqualone was analyzed and it was what it was purported to be. Augustine then asked to purchase 100,000 tablets of methaqualone, also called “Quaaludes,” for 90$ per tablet. Barnes could not deliver the entire 100,000 but agreed to deliver 15,000 Quaaludes for $18,000 at the Ramada Inn parking lot in Marietta. Sproat was to act as the “money man” and stayed in the car to prevent the drug dealers from “ripping off” the purchase money. Barnes and Holbrook were the delivery men [371] and the drug “source” stayed separate from them to “insulate” himself from the actual dealing.

At the meeting in the Ramada Inn, Barnes told Augustine that his “source” did not want to “deal” in the Ramada parking lot, but preferred to deal at the “Hunt Club” where his girl friend worked. Augustine refused to budge, saying that his “money man” wanted to deal at the Ramada. Barnes and Holbrook were driving a 1979 white Oldsmobile Cutlass and agreed to go get the drugs and return. DEA Special Agent Richard Tucker was in another car with a Marietta policeman keeping surveillance on the Ramada parking lot and followed Barnes and Holbrook when they left. Barnes and Holbrook went to the Hunt Club and entered. “[T]he door barely had had time to close, then they came back out” accompanied by defendant Skinner. The three men went to the trunk of a Lincoln Continental and bent over the trunk but did not raise the trunk lid. Thereafter, Holbrook and Barnes drove away in the Lincoln and Skinner got in the Olds Cutlass and followed them. The DEA agent followed the two cars to the Ramada Inn parking lot. Skinner parked on one side of the lot and the Lincoln parked across from it.

When Agents Augustine and Spróat returned to the Ramada parking lot, they drove up to the white Olds Cutlass Barnes and Holbrook had been driving when they left and observed defendant Skinner slumped down in the driver’s seat. Then they saw Barnes and Holbrook in the Lincoln and drove over to them. Augustine remarked to Barnes that he had seen his “source of supply, sitting across the parking area in the Oldsmobile. And [Barnes] said, Yeah. . . . We switched vehicles, and my source of supply, or my man, wanted to watch the deal go down to protect his interest.” Barnes assured Augustine that the Quaaludes would be “very, very high quality methaqualone tablets” and they would go to Florida the following day to pick up the remainder of the hundred thousand Quaaludes. Barnes and Holbrook attempted to open the trunk of the Lincoln but the key would not work. That is when “Holbrook said Charles could not open the trunk using the key, that you have to use the inside trunk release.” The inside trunk release was then used to open the trunk and Augustine observed what he thought to be Quaaludes. The tablets were scored on one side and were stamped “Lemmon 714,” which were the correct markings for Quaaludes. Augustine then gave the signal and police officers moved in and arrested all three defendants. A loaded pistol was taken from Holbrook and another loaded weapon was taken from the Lincoln. An unloaded weapon was found in the Olds Cutlass. A chemical analysis of the purported. Quaaludes showed them to be a decongestant. They were counterfeit drugs.

Skinner testified that he knew nothing about this offense. Barnes came into the Hunt Club and asked him to drive one of his cars [372] home. He said that he would but he had to return soon as he had a date with his girl friend who worked at the Hunt Club. Skinner’s girl friend, now his wife, testified that she saw Barnes come into the Hunt Club and ask Skinner to drive one of his cars home. She said that Barnes probably stayed “thirty, forty-five minutes or an hour before they left.” She knows Barnes “sat around and drank a couple of beers, but he was in there longer than that. . . .” Skinner appeals from the jury verdict of guilty and sentence entered upon the verdict. Held:

1. The appellant alleges the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal “in that the evidence presented . . . failed to prove a conspiracy to commit a substantive crime, but in the alternative proved a completed act which constituted no crime. . . .” Although it is not clear what this allegation of error encompasses, appellant argues “it was the clear intent of our legislature to make conspiracy a separate and distinct crime only in those instances where the crime conspired to be committed had not in fact been committed. . . . Once the substantive crime charged as the object of a conspiracy has in fact been completed, the charge of conspiracy is no longer applicable . . . the sale or transaction which . . . was to constitute the substantive crime . . . which was the object of the conspiracy charged in the indictment . . . the transaction set up between Barnes and Augustine did not fall through; it was consummated.”

Appellant is correct in his citation of law, but we find no foundation in fact for such an argument. The Supreme Court addressed this issue in Scott v. State, 229 Ga. 541, 544 (192 SE2d 367), and held that “[i]t is manifest from a reading of [Code Chap. 26-32; now OCGA § 16-4-8] of the Criminal Code of Georgia that it was the intent of the legislature to make conspiracy itself a separate crime only in cases where the crime conspired to be committed had not in fact been committed, that is, where the conspiracy had been, so to speak, ‘nipped in the bud.’ ” In the instant case, the criminal offense which was the object of the conspiracy was the sale and purchase of 15,000 Quaaludes. There was no sale of, delivery of, or purchase of any Quaaludes. Hence, the crime which was the object of the conspiracy was not completed and it was not error to charge the crime of conspiracy for this reason.

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Skinner v. State, 355 S.E.2d 726, 182 Ga. App. 370, 1987 Ga. App. LEXIS 1706 (Ga. Ct. App. 1987).

355 S.E.2d 726 (Skinner v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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