State v. Alvarez

818 S.E.2d 178, 260 N.C. App. 571
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedAugust 7, 2018
DocketCOA17-945
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 818 S.E.2d 178 (State v. Alvarez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alvarez, 818 S.E.2d 178, 260 N.C. App. 571 (N.C. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinions

CALABRIA, Judge.

*572Samuel Calleros Alvarez ("defendant") appeals from a judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of felony maintaining a vehicle for keeping or selling controlled substances pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-108(a)(7) (2017). After careful review, we conclude that defendant received a fair trial, free from error.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

In January 2015, the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office ("LCSO") planned a controlled "buy-bust" after a confidential source informed Detective Sergeant Jovani Villagra that Miguel Goicochea-Medina was trying to sell a kilogram of cocaine. The informant placed a recorded phone call to Goicochea-Medina, who agreed to sell the informant one kilogram of cocaine for $41,500.00. The parties agreed to meet in the parking lot of a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina, on 23 January 2015 to conduct the transaction.

On 23 January 2015, Sergeant Villagra and the confidential informant drove separately to the Walmart parking lot and waited for Goicochea-Medina to arrive. At approximately 4:00 p.m., Goicochea-Medina and defendant arrived together in a white Nissan pickup truck. Although Goicochea-Medina was driving, the vehicle was registered to defendant's wife, and defendant used the truck in his work as a carpenter. Upon their arrival, both men exited the truck. After Sergeant Villagra repeatedly requested to see "the product," Goicochea-Medina deferred to defendant, who informed him that "it was in the back of the pickup truck in a compartment." Sergeant Villagra continued to press the men to produce the cocaine. He told the men that he had the $41,500.00 and showed them a cooler full of cash. Defendant responded that they needed "to go to the house" in order to unload the truck and access the cocaine, because he did not want to do it in the Walmart parking lot. Sergeant Villagra instructed the men to follow him, and then exited the parking lot in his vehicle. Goicochea-Medina followed Sergeant Villagra in the pickup truck, and defendant opted to ride with the confidential informant.

While the men were en route to "the house," LCSO officers stopped the pickup truck and placed defendant and Goicochea-Medina under arrest. When a canine unit alerted to the presence of drugs, officers searched the bed of the truck. The truck contained a large quantity of tools and was outfitted with wooden flooring, drawers, compartments, and paneling. Underneath the tools, the officers discovered a small, covered compartment in the far left corner of the floor, near the cab. After uncovering the compartment's false bottom, the officers discovered one kilogram of cocaine wrapped in plastic and oil.

*573Defendant was subsequently indicted for trafficking in cocaine by possession of 400 grams or more; trafficking in cocaine by delivery; trafficking in cocaine by transportation; conspiracy to traffic by possessing, transporting, selling, or delivering more than 400 grams of cocaine; and felony maintaining a vehicle for keeping or selling controlled substances. On 9 January 2017, a jury trial commenced in Lenoir County Superior Court. Defendant moved to dismiss all charges at the close of the State's evidence, and he renewed the motion following his own presentation of evidence. The trial court denied defendant's motions to dismiss, but ruled that trafficking in cocaine by delivery would be submitted to the jury as an attempt charge. On 13 January 2017, the jury found defendant guilty of all charges except attempted trafficking in cocaine by delivery. The trial court sentenced defendant to 175 to 222 months in the custody of the North *181Carolina Division of Adult Correction and ordered him to pay a $250,000.00 fine.

Defendant appeals.

II. Motion to Dismiss

Defendant's sole argument on appeal is that the trial court erred by denying his motion to dismiss the charge of felony maintaining a vehicle for keeping or selling controlled substances pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-108(a)(7). Specifically, defendant contends that the State presented insufficient evidence that he kept or maintained his pickup truck "over a duration of time" for the purpose of keeping or selling cocaine. We disagree.

A. Standard of Review

In reviewing a criminal defendant's motion to dismiss, the question for the trial court "is whether there is substantial evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged, or of a lesser offense included therein, and (2) of defendant's being the perpetrator of such offense. If so, the motion is properly denied." State v. Fritsch , 351 N.C. 373, 378, 526 S.E.2d 451, 455 (citation omitted), cert. denied , 531 U.S. 890, 121 S.Ct. 213, 148 L.Ed. 2d 150 (2000). "Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." State v. Smith , 300 N.C. 71, 78-79, 265 S.E.2d 164, 169 (1980). "[T]he trial court must consider all evidence admitted, whether competent or incompetent, in the light most favorable to the State, giving the State the benefit of every reasonable inference and resolving any contradictions in its favor." State v. Rose , 339 N.C. 172, 192, 451 S.E.2d 211, 223 (1994), cert. denied , 515 U.S. 1135, 115 S.Ct. 2565, 132 L.Ed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
818 S.E.2d 178, 260 N.C. App. 571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alvarez-ncctapp-2018.