Wesley Jerome Wright v. State

401 S.W.3d 813, 2013 WL 1908932, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 5705
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 9, 2013·No. 14-12-00285-CR·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinions

MAJORITY OPINION

KEM THOMPSON FROST, Justice.

Appellant Wesley Jerome Wright appeals his conviction for possession of marijuana, asserting that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction and that probable cause did not support the issuance of the search warrant that led to the discovery of the hydroponic marijuana plants that are the basis of the charged offense. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

Appellant was charged by indictment with the offense of possession of marijuana, in a quantity weighing more than five pounds and less than fifty pounds, following law enforcement officers’ execution of a search warrant at a specific address in Harris County, Texas. In their search of the premises, officers recovered 155 live marijuana plants growing hydroponically inside the home along with marijuana that had been processed and dried; the total weight of the recovered contraband was just over fourteen pounds. Appellant pleaded “not guilty” to the charged offense.

Appellant filed a motion to suppress evidence, asserting that the search warrant was issued without probable cause and that any evidence recovered by the officers pursuant to the search warrant was unlawfully seized and should be suppressed for trial. Attached to the motion was the affidavit in support of probable cause for issuance of the search warrant, which appellant challenged as failing to articulate probable cause.

The evidence at trial included the testimony of Sergeant Robert Clark, a certified peace office for thirty-four years who, at the time of trial, was working on a federal narcotics task force conducting hundreds of narcotics investigations. This background equipped him with training and experience in investigations of hydroponic marijuana, which is a type of contraband typically grown inside a highly controlled environment and requires a high level of care.

Sergeant Clark initiated an investigation of an alleged “grow house” at a specific address in December 2010, after receiving an anonymous tip on the first of that month, that hydroponic marijuana was being grown at that location. He drove by the location to determine whether typical indicators of a grow house were present. He observed a vehicle registered to appellant arrive at the home, but he did not see anyone exit the vehicle. At the address, he observed the windows were tightly covered; the yard was a little unkempt; and even though two vehicles were in the driveway, the home appeared vacant, all of which are typical indicators of a grow house. He traveled to the home several more times that week in a “drive-by surveillance,” and on each of these occasions, he observed other indicators typical of a grow house, such as exterior lights on during the daytime hours and no vehicles on the premises. On one of these occasions, he saw another vehicle, registered to appellant, leaving the home.

Sergeant Clark learned that the home belonged to appellant’s ex-wife. He executed a subpoena on Centerpoint Energy and learned that the electrical usage at the home was unusually high, substantially higher than other area homes of the same size, which indicated the possibility that the home served as a grow house. According to the record, electrical usage in the home increased significantly from March 2010 to December 2010. The record also reflects that prior to March 2010, [816] the home’s electrical usage was particularly low, which suggested that the home was vacant or that the home’s electrical meter had been bypassed as is common with grow houses. The record reflects that the meter to the home had been bypassed at one time and repaired, resulting in the large usage increase in March 2010. The Centerpoint Energy account associated with the home was in appellant’s name.

On December 6, 2010, Sergeant Clark initiated a “knock and talk” investigation at the home. When he arrived, he observed a vehicle registered to appellant in the driveway, the blinds to the home tightly closed, and the home’s exterior lights on during day-time hours. Sergeant Clark called other uniformed law enforcement officers for assistance, as well as a narcotics-detection dog. Once other officers, including Deputy James Saveli, arrived on the scene, they approached the home in raid gear and prepared to raid the home. The officers knocked several times without any response. They heard music inside the home. At the front door, they detected the odor of “skunk weed,” a strong-smelling type of marijuana. Once the officers detected that odor, and after knocking again at the door with no response, the narcotics-detection dog was asked to conduct an “open air sniff’ of the exterior of the front door; the dog alerted to the presence of marijuana. Deputy Saveli then left the premises, sought and obtained a search warrant of the home, and returned to the scene.

Armed with a search warrant, the officers again approached' the home in raid gear, knocked on the door and received no response. They entered and once inside, officers detected the strong odor of marijuana and saw that a bedroom and garage had been converted to hydroponic grow rooms containing in total 155 live marijuana plants, with an estimated value of $188,000. Another room contained marijuana that already had been dried and harvested. Officers observed equipment and supplies associated with hydroponic marijuana cultivation and packaging. The rooms of the home were insulated and carefully controlled with lighting, ventilation, and temperature apparatuses. Two of appellant’s separate fingerprints were identified and lifted from a metal halide light shroud in one of the growing rooms. The kitchen had no food and very few typical kitchen items. The home contained little furniture and no clothing, and appeared as if no one had lived in the home recently. There was one bed, but it did not appear as if anyone had slept there because it was covered with other items. Inside the home, officers found documents, some of which were dated over one year old, belonging to several other individuals. According to officers who executed the search warrant, although a single person could tend to a hydroponic operation of this complex scale, that person would need to be at the home at least every one to two days.

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Wesley Jerome Wright v. State, 401 S.W.3d 813, 2013 WL 1908932, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 5705 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

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