State v. Huntley

60 So. 3d 644, 10 La.App. 5 Cir. 406, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 227948
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 25, 2011
DocketNo. 10-KA-406
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 60 So. 3d 644 (State v. Huntley) 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. Huntley, 60 So. 3d 644, 10 La.App. 5 Cir. 406, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 227948 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

FREDERICKA HOMBERG WICKER, Judge.

| ?Defendant/Appellant, Teddy M. Huntley, appeals his conviction of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, a violation of La.R.S. 40:966(A), and his enhanced 30-year hard labor sentence. Mr. Huntley assigns as errors insufficient evidence to convict him and the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence. For the reasons that follow, we find no merit to the assignments and affirm the conviction and sentence.

Procedural History

Mr. Huntley was charged by bill of information with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He filed various pretrial motions, including a motion to suppress the evidence. The trial judge denied the motion and the defendant was tried by a 12-person jury which found the defendant guilty as charged. Mr. Huntley filed a motion in arrest of judgment or alternatively for new trial. He asserted that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of the charged offense. The trial judge denied the motion. Approximately one month later, the trial judge |ssentenced Mr. Huntley to 20 years at hard labor. Mr. Huntley thereafter filed a timely motion for appeal which the trial court granted. Shortly thereafter, on November 25, 2009, the state filed a habitual offender bill of information alleging that Mr. Huntley was a third felony offender. The trial judge heard and denied Mr. Huntley’s motion to reconsider sentence.1 Also, Mr. Huntley was arraigned on the habitual offender bill and Mr. Huntley denied the allegations. A few months later, the trial court conducted a habitual offender hearing. The state withdrew the allegation as to the other predicate. The trial court found Mr. Huntley to be a second felony offender. The court thereafter vacated Mr. Huntley’s original sentence and [647]*647imposed an enhanced sentence of 30 years at hard labor, without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence. Mr. Huntley timely orally re-urged his motion for appeal.2 Mr. Huntley thereafter filed a motion to reconsider the sentence, which was denied.

The Trial

On May 19, 2009, Detective Justin Brown arrested Mr. Huntley for possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He based the charge on the packaging of the marijuana, and the fact that Mr. Huntley did not possess any paraphernalia that would indicate personal use. At the time, Mr. Huntley had in his possession one plastic bag containing 10 smaller bags of marijuana. Raven Barrios, an expert in the field of forensic science, testified that she tested the green vegetable matter from four of the 10 small baggies, and that the tests were positive for marijuana. She further testified that the gross weight of the evidence was 14.81 grams.

14Lieutenant Daniel Jewell, a nine-year veteran with the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office and a seven-and-one-half year veteran with the narcotics section, testified as an expert in the use, packaging, distribution, and value of narcotics in the Jefferson Parish area. He stated that he participated in about 240 hours of specialized narcotics training. Lieutenant Jewell testified he took part in thousands of narcotics arrests.

Lieutenant Jewell stated that the three main factors that distinguish possession of narcotics from possession with intent to distribute are the value of the drugs, the packaging, and the quantity. Secondary evidence of distribution in narcotics investigations includes digital scales, paperwork, and packaging materials. Paraphernalia commonly found on a person who uses marijuana includes rolling papers, hollowed out cigars, and pipes.

In the instant ease, the lieutenant stated, the fact that the marijuana was packaged in 10 individual baggies was indicative of intent to distribute. The bags would sell for about $10.00 each on the street, bringing in a total of $100.00 to $120.00. Lieutenant Jewell explained that it would not be rational for a heavy user to buy this much marijuana packaged as it was in this case. To buy this much marijuana at retail prices is more expensive than buying the same quantity wholesale. Lieutenant Jewell further testified that someone who is planning to use marijuana generally has in his possession some sort of device with which to smoke it.

Detective Brown testified that Mr. Huntley did not have any drug paraphernalia on him such as papers, cigars, pipes, or scales. On the other hand, Mr. Huntley testified that he also possessed a cigarette lighter, a cellular telephone, and two cigars.

|fiMr. Huntley testified that on May 19, 2009, between 3:30 and 4:00 PM, he was walking down the canal bank on his way to a friend’s house, when police officers grabbed him and searched him. He denied that the canal bank was used to avoid the police. He possessed about 10 bags of marijuana, all of which he planned to smoke. He had no money or scales on his person. He usually smokes two small bags of marijuana in a sitting. Mr. Huntley stated he bought all of the bags from a narcotics dealer for $40.00. He uses hollowed out cigars to smoke marijuana. In three to five hours he and his friends could smoke the entire bag of marijuana that the officers seized. Mr. Huntley testified that [648]*648he does not sell marijuana. He has two prior convictions for possession of cocaine and one conviction for possession of stolen things.

Analysis

Sufficiency

Mr. Huntley complains that the evidence at trial was not sufficient to support his conviction of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He concedes that the state proved the element of possession, but he argues the state failed to prove the marijuana was intended for sale rather than for an addict’s personal use. The state disagrees.

The constitutional standard for sufficiency of the evidence is whether, upon viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could find that the state proved all of the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The rule as to circumstantial evidence is: assuming every fact to be proved that the evidence tends to prove, in order to convict, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. La.R.S. 15:438. The reviewing court “does not determine whether another possible hypothesis suggested by a defendant |ficould afford an exculpatory explanation of the events” but rather must evaluate the evidence in a light most favorable to the state and determine whether the possible alternative hypothesis is sufficiently reasonable that a rational juror could not have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Davis, 92-1623 (La.5/23/94), 637 So.2d 1012, 1020, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 975, 115 S.Ct. 450, 130 L.Ed.2d 359 (1994).

The crime of possession with intent to distribute marijuana requires proof that the defendant knowingly and intentionally possessed the drug and that he did so with the specific intent to distribute it. La.R.S. 40:966(A); State v. Kelly, 01-321, p. 4 (La.App. 5 Cir. 10/17/01), 800 So.2d 978, 982, writ denied, 01-3266 (La.11/1/02), 828 So.2d 565. As noted above, Mr. Huntley does not challenge the finding that he was in possession of marijuana; only the determination that he had specific intent to distribute marijuana.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 So. 3d 644, 10 La.App. 5 Cir. 406, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 227948, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-huntley-lactapp-2011.