Stennett v. State

340 So. 2d 60, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1623
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 20, 1976
Docket6 Div. 84
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 340 So. 2d 60 (Stennett v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stennett v. State, 340 So. 2d 60, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1623 (Ala. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

TYSON, Judge.

The indictment charged the appellant, John Stennett, with the unlawful sale of “500 mgs. of an amobarbital” to Ray Don Edwards, contrary to law. The jury found the appellant “guilty as charged in the indictment,” and the trial court entered judgment, setting sentence at five years imprisonment.

Ray Don Edwards testified that he was a Birmingham Police Officer and. had been assigned to work as an undercover narcotics agent in a seven county’ area, north of Birmingham. He testified that on January 6, 1973, he went to Blount County with Sergeant George Haze of the Birmingham Police Department in an effort to .make undercover buys. He testified that they arrived in Oneonta between 3:30 and 3:45 in the afternoon and went to the Sheriff’s Department. He testified that he left in an automobile alone, but that Sergeant Haze followed him in another automobile, and that they drove to Route 1, Sand Valley Road, to the residence of the appellant. He testified that the appellant’s wife and daughter were there. He said that there were some other persons there whom he did not know. From the record:

“Q. What did you do when you arrived there, then?
“A. I parked in the back yard, and two white males that were in the truck, they were leaving. John Stennett walked up to my car and I told him I wanted to buy some pills, and he said that he had just gotten some — well, no. He told me that he had some and that he was trying to get some more. We went — He told me to come on inside the house. We went inside the house and he stopped in the dining room and pulled the dresser out and got a white paper sack from behind the dresser. I went on in the living room and sat down. He took some capsules out of the sack and he told me that [sic] cost sixty cents a piece.
“Q. What were you looking for?
“A. What was I looking for?
“Q. What kind of pills? Did you specify what kind of pills you wanted?
“A. No, sir. I didn’t specify.
“Q. Where was his wife at that time? “A. Back in the back room.
“Q. Where was his daughter?
“A. She had came in and left back out. “Q. Was anyone in the room at the time he brought the sack with the pills in it— “A. No, sir.
“Q. —in there, besides you and he?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. Had the white people, the two white males, had they already gone?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. I believe you said they were leaving when you pulled up?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Did you buy these pills?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. How many pills were there?
“A. Twenty capsules.
“Q. How much did you pay for them? “A. He said they cost sixty cents a piece. I gave him a twenty and two ones, and he gave me ten dollars change. It was twelve dollars.
“Q. Do you know how many pills was in that sack?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. What color were the pills?
[62]*62“A. A dark blue and orange with ‘F-47’ wrote on them.
“Q. What did you do then?
“A. I left.
“Q. What time was this when you made the purchase?
“A. It was 4:05.”

Officer Edwards testified that he then drove back to the Sheriff’s office where he placed the twenty capsules in a clear plastic bag, sealed them, and then put his initials on the envelope, and that Sergeant Haze did likewise in his presence.

On cross-examination, Officer Edwards testified that he had been to Blount County on two other occasions with Sergeant Haze, that on one occasion he had been to the appellant’s home and drank beer with him prior to the date on which the purchase in question was made. He testified that on the occasion of the purchase the appellant told him that the pills were sixty cents each, and that he gave the appellant a twenty dollar bill and two one dollar bills toward the purchase price.

Sergeant George Haze testified that he was a Police Sergeant with the Birmingham Police Department. He testified that he was working in a seven county area) north of Birmingham, on a Federal grant, assisting in policing drug traffic. He testified that on January 6,1973, he, accompanied by Ray Don Edwards, drove to Oneonta and went to the Sheriff’s office. He testified that they arrived there at approximately 3:45 in the afternoon. He testified he instructed Officer Edwards to go to the home of the appellant, John Stennett, and that he followed Officer Edwards in a separate vehicle as he proceeded out Sand Valley Road. He testified that a short time later, he met Officer Edwards back at the Sheriff’s Department at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and that Officer Edwards produced twenty blue and orange capsules. He testified that he placed these capsules in an envelope at that time, and that each officer then placed his initials on the envelope. Sergeant Haze testified that he kept possession of the envelope containing the capsules until he delivered them to the office of the State Toxicologist on January 10, 1973.

On cross-examination, Sergeant Haze testified that he had used a physician’s desk book and determined that the capsules in question were Amosect tablets, manufactured by Eli Lilly Company. He testified that he had also been in Blount County on other occasions, assisting in drug investigations, that he was present on February 23, 1973, when the warrant of arrest was issued for the appellant, John Stennett, and that he was with Sheriff’s Deputies on the occasion when the appellant was arrested.

John M. Case testified that he had been with the State Department of Toxicology for a little over six years. He testified that he made approximately thirty to forty drug identifications each month. He testified that he received an envelope from Sergeant George Haze on January 10, 1973, that he examined the capsules contained in the envelope, and determined that each contained “twenty-five milligrams of amobarbital each.”. He testified that amobarbital is a controlled substance within the meaning of the Alabama Controlled Substances Act, and that these capsules were sold under the trade name of Amosect, and manufactured by Eli Lilly Company. He testified that these capsules required the prescription of a registered medical doctor.

Ray Don Edwards was recalled to the witness stand and testified that he did not have a prescription of a medical doctor when he purchased the capsules on January 6, 1973, from the appellant.

Earl Deavers took the stand and testified that in the Fall of 1972, he had carried Ray Don Edwards out to the house of the appellant, John Stennett. He testified that he had known the appellant for five or ten years.

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Related

Slinker v. State
344 So. 2d 1264 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
340 So. 2d 60, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stennett-v-state-alacrimapp-1976.