State of Tennessee v. Gayle Thomas Crawford

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 7, 2009
DocketW2009-00263-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Gayle Thomas Crawford (State of Tennessee v. Gayle Thomas Crawford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Tennessee v. Gayle Thomas Crawford, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT JACKSON September 1, 2009 Session

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. GAYLE THOMAS CRAWFORD

Direct Appeal from the Circuit Court for Gibson County No. 8310 Clayburn L. Peeples, Judge

No. W2009-00263-CCA-R3-CD - Filed October 7, 2009

The defendant, Gayle Thomas Crawford, was convicted by a Gibson County jury of possession of .5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, a Class B felony; possession of marijuana with the intent to sell or deliver, a Class E felony; and possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced by the trial court as a Range II, multiple offender to an effective sentence of twenty years at thirty-five percent in the Department of Correction. In a timely appeal to this court, he raises essentially five issues: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions; (2) whether the rule of sequestration was violated; (3) whether the trial court erred by allowing a police officer to offer his opinion on the street value of the drugs; (4) whether the trial court erred by allowing an officer to testify that an unknown black male listed in the warrant was the defendant; and (5) whether the search warrant was invalid. Based on our review, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions for possession of cocaine and marijuana, the rule of sequestration was not violated, the trial court did not err in allowing the officer’s testimony with respect to the street value of drugs and the identity of the unknown black male, and that the defendant has waived the issues with respect to the validity of the search warrant. We further conclude, however, that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia. Accordingly, we affirm the defendant’s convictions for possession of .5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell or deliver and reverse and dismiss the conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed in Part, Reversed and Dismissed in Part

ALAN E. GLENN , J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAVID H. WELLES and CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN , JJ., joined.

Harold R. Gunn, Humboldt, Tennessee, for the appellant, Gayle Thomas Crawford.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Cameron L. Hyder, Assistant Attorney General; Garry G. Brown, District Attorney General; and Edward L. Hardister and Harold E. (Hal) Dorsey, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION

FACTS

On August 17, 2006, officers of the Twenty-Eighth Judicial District Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at 950 Gibson Wells Road in Humboldt, where the defendant was living with his girlfriend. Their search uncovered 23.3 grams of crack cocaine, 134.7 grams of marijuana, $1117 in cash, two marijuana “roaches” and a walking stick with a concealed dagger in the handle. The defendant admitted that the cash was his and claimed that he had earned it mowing lawns but was unable to provide the officers with the names of any of his customers. He denied that the drugs found at the residence were his but admitted that he had sold both cocaine and fake cocaine following his recent release from prison. He was subsequently indicted for possession of .5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, possession of marijuana with the intent to sell or deliver, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

At trial, Agent Danny Lewis of the Humboldt Police Department, a supervisor with the Twenty-Eighth Judicial District Drug Task Force, testified that he executed a search warrant at approximately 6:23 a.m. on August 17, 2006, for 950 Gibson Wells Road, where the defendant was residing with his girlfriend, Pauline Tims. When he entered the residence behind the entry team, Tims was still in bed and the defendant, wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, was emerging from the front bedroom in which the couple had been sleeping. He and his fellow officers learned that Tims had just gotten out of the hospital the previous day following heart bypass surgery and therefore called an EMS Team to the scene to take care of her before proceeding with their search.

The search ultimately uncovered the following items: one large and two smaller rocks of crack cocaine in a plastic bag buried in the ground beneath a decorative rock beside the front porch; marijuana in a plastic bag located between two cardboard boxes outside the bathroom; $17 in cash in the top drawer of the chest of drawers in the front bedroom; two bundles of cash totaling $940 and $160 in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the front bedroom; a plastic bag of marijuana underneath a pile of clothes in a clothes basket in the front bedroom; a large plastic bag of marijuana on top of a kitchen cabinet; a walking stick with a dagger or small sword hidden in the handle, which was located in the front bedroom between the dresser and the chest of drawers; a marijuana “roach” in an ashtray in the second bedroom; and a second marijuana “roach” in a drawer in the front bedroom. Agent Lewis testified that a drug dog employed during the search “alerted” on the cash found in the residence, indicating an odor of narcotics on the money. He said he later transported the drugs recovered from the residence to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”) Laboratory for analysis.

Agent Lewis testified that the defendant asked to speak to him while at the residence and, when he agreed, began talking about how he could help the officers on other cases. Lewis said he stopped the defendant, telling him that he wanted to know about the cocaine found at the residence. In response, the defendant told him that he had sold some cocaine and fake cocaine in May of that year, but had since stopped and “was more of a user than anything else.” The defendant also told him that he had earned the cash by mowing yards, but he was unable to provide the names of the individuals for whom he had worked. In an interview that took place at the police department later

-2- that same day, the defendant gave essentially the same story, telling Agent Lewis that he lived at the residence with Tims half the time and that he started selling cocaine when he was first released in March 2006 and had sold some “dummies” or fake cocaine, but the “dope” found at the residence had been planted by someone else in an effort to get him locked up. The defendant said he had $600 that he had earned by mowing yards but was again unable to provide the names of the individuals for whom he had worked. He offered no explanation for why the drug dog had altered the officers to the odor of narcotics on the money.

Agent Lewis testified that the street value of the 23.3 grams of crack cocaine found at the residence, which was in a rock of the size typically purchased by a mid-level dealer for resale, was anywhere from $700 to $1100. However, if broken up and sold individually on the street in the smaller amounts purchased by the typical user, the street value would be over $4000. He estimated the street value of the marijuana found at the residence, which totaled over 100 grams, as approximately $500. He said that marijuana is usually sold in either a “dime bag” for $10 or a “20 sack” for $20, with a “dime bag” containing seven or eight grams of marijuana and a “20 sack” approximately double that amount, or anywhere from ten to fifteen grams.

Agent Lewis testified that he had attempted to locate Tims for the trial but had been unsuccessful. On cross-examination, he testified that the officers found two marijuana “roaches” in the residence -- one in an ashtray in the second bedroom and one in a drawer in the front bedroom.

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Bluebook (online)
State of Tennessee v. Gayle Thomas Crawford, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-gayle-thomas-crawford-tenncrimapp-2009.