State v. Craft

796 So. 2d 907, 2001 WL 1164190
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 3, 2001
Docket01-248
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 796 So. 2d 907 (State v. Craft) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Craft, 796 So. 2d 907, 2001 WL 1164190 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

796 So.2d 907 (2001)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
William Jeffery CRAFT.

No. 01-248.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

October 3, 2001.

*908 Loren M. Lambert, Assistant District Attorney, Alexandria, LA, Attorney for the State of Louisiana.

*909 Edward K. Bauman, Louisiana Appellate Project, Lake Charles, LA, Attorney for the Defendant-Appellant William Jeffery Craft.

Court composed of NED E. DOUCET, JR., Chief Judge, MARC T. AMY, and OSWALD A. DECUIR, Judges.

DOUCET, Chief Judge.

The Defendant, William Jeffery Craft, seeks review of his convictions and sentences for possession of controlled dangerous substances, schedules II and IV, violations of La.R.S. 40:967(C) and 40:969(C), respectively.

On the evening of November 20, 1999, Ray Crooks saw an eighteen-wheel truck rig turn into his neighbor's driveway, go through the neighbor's yard and pasture, head toward the bayou, turn around and travel back up a ditch located between their houses. Next, the driver tried to turn south through a ditch and return to Highway 457, did not succeed, backed up and went north on Highway 457, toward LSUA Road. Mr. Crooks notified the Sheriffs office while his wife, Annette Crooks, and sister-in-law, Nancy Ardoin, followed the truck in their vehicles.

The truck turned left onto Highway 3170 and pulled off on the shoulder at a bridge, providing Mrs. Crooks the opportunity to record its license plate number. The truck left the shoulder and traveled in the same direction until it reached Highway 71. At the intersection, the truck turned south on Highway 71, without stopping at the stop sign, and went toward Lecompte. The driver turned the truck around on the highway, crossing all four lanes of traffic and the edge of the ditch, and returned north, toward Alexandria. After passing the Van Mol Store, the driver turned around again, crossing all four lanes of traffic, and headed back toward Lecompte until he reached the Dean Lee Agriculture Center. The driver turned the truck around again, crossing all four lanes of traffic. When he reached LSUA Road, he traveled on the service road and stopped at the Van Mol Store. After a few minutes, he went to the Wal-Mart warehouse where he drove around the building and parked on its north side. Deputy Randall Iles of the Rapides Parish Sheriffs Office found the parked truck there. He arrested the Defendant after finding on the console of the truck a prescription bottle bearing the name of Tanya Guidry containing two types of pills. The pills recovered were tested and determined to contain pethidine and alprazolam, which are controlled dangerous substances, schedules II and IV.

Following a trial by a district judge on December 7, 2000, the Defendant was found guilty on both counts. He waived the delay for sentencing and was sentenced to two years at hard labor on each count to run concurrently with each other but consecutive to the sentence he was serving at the time of sentencing. The court also ordered restitution of two hundred fifty dollars to be paid to Ervin Reynaud for damage to his yard and trees. The court added that if the amount is not paid upon the Defendant's eligibility for parole, then payment would be a condition of his parole.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

The Defendant argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain the convictions. In State v. Carthan, 99-512, p. 4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/8/99); 765 So.2d 357, 360, writ denied, 00-359 (La.1/12/01); 778 So.2d 547, this court stated:

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction, the critical inquiry on appeal is whether the evidence supports a finding of *910 guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. "The relevant question on appeal is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime [proved] beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Daigrepont, 560 So.2d 959, 960 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 566 So.2d 396 (La.1990) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). The Jackson standard allows an appellate court "to impinge `on the actual factfinder's discretion... only to the extent necessary to guarantee the fundamental protection of due process of law.'" State v. Juluke, 98-341, p. 4 (La.1/8/99); 725 So.2d 1291, 1293 (quoting State v. Mussall, 523 So.2d 1305, 1310 (La.1988) (alteration in original)). "Given this limited purpose, the Jackson standard does not serve as a vehicle for a reviewing court to second guess the rational credibility determinations of the factfinder at trial." Id. See also State v. Williams, 98-1146 (La.App. 5 Cir. 6/1/99); 738 So.2d 640.

To sustain the Defendant's convictions, the State needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the Defendant knowingly and intentionally possessed substances classified in schedules II and IV of La.R.S. 40:964.

Possession

The Defendant asserts that the State failed to prove he knowingly and intentionally possessed the drugs in question. He contends that his sister, Tanya Craft, received prescriptions for the drugs in 1998 and he was "simply bringing her belongings to her home, and the prescription medicine in question was in a black bag containing her belongings." Additionally, the Defendant argues that the statement in which he indicated that he took one pill from each medicine bottle should not have been considered because the pills he took were never specifically identified. He argues that there may have been more than two types of pills in the bottles before the bottles were recovered.

Deputy Randall Iles testified that a prescription bottle containing four pills was found in the console of the truck. The lab report, however, indicates that the bottle contained a total of five pills, two red capsules containing pethidine and three blue oval tablets containing alprazolam. Deputy Iles added that, in response to his inquiry about the pills, the Defendant stated that the pills belonged to him, that he had taken one of each and that the prescription bottle belonged to Tanya Guidry. The trial court ruled that this statement made by the Defendant after he was advised of his Miranda rights was free and voluntary.

Tanya Craft, testified that she is the Defendant's sister and that the pills belonged to her. She explained that the pills were in her black bag in the Defendant's truck because he was bringing them home for her while she was in the hospital having a transplant.

In its reasons for judgment, the trial court stated:

Even if the prescription was written to you and it was for you and had your name on it, you would still have that burden of proving that. And you would have to show that it was in the course of his professional practice. So we didn't have that. He had a prescription that was two (2) years old—well, not two (2) years old. It was one (1) year old, that was in your sister's name, and you were in possession of it, and you were using that while you were driving that vehicle. So there was no defense that was presented to me that is acceptable under the law. So I find that you're also guilty of possession of a Schedule II substance and a Schedule IV substance.

*911

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
796 So. 2d 907, 2001 WL 1164190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-craft-lactapp-2001.