State v. Stank

2005 WI App 236, 708 N.W.2d 43, 288 Wis. 2d 414, 2005 Wisc. App. LEXIS 939
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedOctober 26, 2005
Docket2004AP1162-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 2005 WI App 236 (State v. Stank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Stank, 2005 WI App 236, 708 N.W.2d 43, 288 Wis. 2d 414, 2005 Wisc. App. LEXIS 939 (Wis. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

BROWN, J.

¶ 1. Sheldon C. Stank appeals from judgments of conviction and an order denying his motion for postconviction relief. He raises a variety of contentions. He first claims that the physical evidence seized during a search warrant should have been suppressed because the witness who testified against him at the warrant application hearing was biased against him and possessed information too stale to support probable cause. Stank also claims that the court plainly erred by allowing the State to present bad character evidence in the form of weapons and publications. Finally, he states that the trial evidence did not support two elements of the count charging him with possession with intent to deliver Oxycontin while armed. He insists that no evidence exists to support such an intent to distribute the Oxycontin and that the forensic scientist's failure to test both samples of suspected Oxycontin made it impossible for the jury to determine the identity of the drug recovered. We disagree with all of these contentions and affirm. The court issuing the warrant found the witness credible and that his knowledge of ongoing large-scale drug trafficking supported a present finding of probable cause. Moreover, the weapons and reading material were highly relevant for reasons other than casting Stank in a bad light, such that any error in admitting the evidence is not obvious. Finally, we determine that the record supports the possession with intent to deliver charge. The jury had enough evidence to determine the identity of the Oxy *420 contin from two experts' use of the Physician's Desk Reference as a presumptive, pharmaceutical identification, subsequent confirmatory testing of a pill in one of the samples, and other circumstantial evidence. We also find ample circumstantial evidence of intent to deliver the Oxycontin.

¶ 2. John Oehler and Stank met eleven or twelve years ago, and the two men became personal friends roughly four years ago. Oehler would see Stank on a weekly basis. In addition to being Oehler's friend, Stank also became a regular supplier of marijuana for Oehler. 1 Oehler kept a ledger of his weekly purchases, which recorded transactions spanning from January to November of 2001. Often, Oehler would make his purchases at Stank's residence.

¶ 3. On November 14, the Milwaukee Police Department received an anonymous complaint. The complaint implicated Stank in possible drug trafficking, so an officer went to Stank's house to follow up. When nobody answered the door, the police left and apparently did not attempt to investigate further.

¶ 4. Some time in the fall of 2001, Stank invited Oehler to help him with a roofing job in Racine county, and Oehler accepted. The two men eventually had a falling out because of a dispute over whether Stank had fully paid Oehler for his assistance. Oehler began leaving numerous voice mail messages for Stank, some of them threatening.

¶ 5. The bad blood between the two men led to two police complaints against Oehler. First, Stank called the Milwaukee Police Department and reported a *421 burglary of his home. This call prompted a detective to go out to Fond du Lac to question Oehler, which further angered Oehler. The second complaint, which the department received on December 14, regarded the harassing phone calls. This complaint ultimately led to Oehler's arrest later that day for unlawful use of a telephone.

¶ 6. Following the arrest, Oehler spoke with Detective Heck. Oehler brought up at that meeting the subject of Stank's drug trafficking. Detective Heck advised Oehler to contact Detective Glidewell on the department's vice squad about the matter and gave him a phone number to call. On January 6, Oehler did call the detective, and the two arranged to meet in person the following day. At that meeting, Oehler told Detective Glidewell about Stank's illicit activities and showed the detective his ledger of purchases. The following day, Detective Glidewell sought a search warrant and brought Oehler to court to testify about his knowledge of Stank's illegal activity.

¶ 7. At the warrant application proceeding, Oe-hler testified as follows: (1) he had been buying marijuana from Stank for ten to eleven years; (2) he had been to Stank's residence over five hundred times and purchased approximately $50 of marijuana from Stank on a weekly basis; (3) Stank kept the marijuana in the freezer compartment of a kitchen refrigerator and in an old garage freezer bound shut with bungie cords; (4) every time he went to the residence, he would see the same group of people there to buy drugs; (5) he had seen a firearm Stank kept at the house; and (6) he was upset with Stank over the payment dispute and for falsely accusing him of stealing his drugs and reporting him for the burglary and harassing phone calls. His anger prompted him to contact Detective Glidewell to report *422 the drug activity. He admitted that the State had granted him use immunity in return for his testimony at the warrant application hearing.

¶ 8. Detective Glidewell also testified. He verified that he had seen Oehler's ledger of purchases and further mentioned the November 14 anonymous complaint he received. Additionally, he testified that in his experience, someone trafficking in controlled substances like marijuana for at least four-and-one-half to five years does not suddenly shut down operations.

¶ 9. The court granted the State's request for a warrant, and several members of the department's vice squad executed the warrant. The search turned up several drugs, weapons, and drug paraphernalia, including approximately three pounds of marijuana, Oxycontin, two marijuana pipes, grow lights, a scale, and eighteen firearms. Along with the guns, the police recovered ammunition, a flash suppressor for a gun, and a bulletproof vest. They also found several books on munitions. The titles of these books included, among others, (1) The Department of the Army Field Manual, Explosives and Demolitions; (2) A Full Auto Modification Manual, (3) Home Workshop Silencers; (4) The Anarchist's Black Book of Improvised Munitions; (5) Secret to Component High Explosive Mixtures and Improvised Shape Charges, Semi-Auto MAC-10 Modification Manual; and (6) How to Make Disposable Silencers, Complete Guide. The search also uncovered a High Times magazine.

¶ 10. Detective Glidewell uncovered the Oxycontin. While searching the upstairs, which Stank used as a bedroom, Detective Glidewell eventually noticed a black garbage can at the top of the stairs. When he looked inside the can, instead of seeing refuse, he found a paper grocery bag. He opened the bag to ascertain its *423 contents and found some freezer Ziplock bags of different sizes containing marijuana. It also contained a loaded pistol and an unmarked prescription-style bottle of pills. The bottle contained thirty-seven pills, all of which were green, white, or yellow and had "OC" stamped on one side. The other side of each contained a number. The six green pills contained the number eighty, the twenty-nine yellow ones were marked with the number forty, and the two white pills had the number ten.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2005 WI App 236, 708 N.W.2d 43, 288 Wis. 2d 414, 2005 Wisc. App. LEXIS 939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stank-wisctapp-2005.