COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Judges Coleman, Willis and Bray 

Argued at Norfolk, Virginia 

KESTER ANSEL MARCUS 

v. Record No. 1307-94-1 MEMORANDUM OPINION*

 BY JUDGE SAM W. COLEMAN III 

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA JULY 5, 1995 

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF HAMPTON 

John D. Gray, Judge 

 Terry N. Grinnalds for appellant. 

 Robert B. Beasley, Jr., Assistant Attorney General 

 (James S. Gilmore, III, Attorney General, on brief), 

 for appellee. 

 Kester Ansel Marcus appeals his conviction for distribution 

of cocaine. The sole issue on appeal is whether the evidence is 

sufficient to support the conviction. For the reasons that 

follow, we affirm the conviction. 

 Police officers executed a search warrant at the home of 

James Jordan for evidence from a robbery. After knocking and 

receiving no answer, the officers entered the house. They 

observed Kester Ansel Marcus, the appellant, running toward a 

back room. He ran into a bathroom and slammed the door shut. 

Detective Lawrence Nisley followed Marcus, kicked open the door, 

and found Marcus standing against a bathroom window clutching to 

his chest an open aspirin bottle that contained cocaine residue. 

 Detective Nisley found nine packs of United States currency on 

 

 * Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not 

designated for publication. 
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Marcus, including eight packs containing $100 and one pack 

containing $65. In the front room, the officers found James 

Jordan seated with a "plate" of cocaine on his lap. A bottle cap 

that fit the aspirin bottle which Marcus held was on the floor 

beside Jordan. 

 At trial, Jordan testified that when the police entered the 

room, Marcus "threw" the plate of cocaine onto Jordan's lap and 

ran for the bathroom. Jordan testified that Marcus had made at 

least three sales of cocaine from the house on that day. Jordan 

testified that he allowed Marcus to sell cocaine from his home 

because he (Jordan) owed money to one of Marcus' "partners" and 

felt like he had no choice. 

 Patsy Griggs, an "acquaintance" of Marcus, testified that 

she had purchased $50 worth of cocaine from Marcus at Jordan's 

house earlier that day and that there were nine or ten people in 

the house "just selling and buying cocaine." 

 On appeal we view the evidence in the light most favorable 

to the Commonwealth and grant to it "all reasonable inferences 

fairly deducible therefrom." Higginbotham v. Commonwealth, 216 

Va. 349, 352, 218 S.E.2d 534, 537 (1975). In reviewing the 

sufficiency of the evidence, we discard all evidence of the 

accused that conflicts with that of the Commonwealth and we 

regard as true all credible evidence favorable to the 

Commonwealth. Lea v. Commonwealth, 16 Va. App. 300, 303, 429 

S.E.2d 477, 479 (1993). The credibility of the witnesses and the 
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weight assigned to their testimony are matters exclusively for 

the fact finder. Cappola v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 243, 252, 257 

S.E.2d 797, 803 (1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1103 (1980); 

Swanson v. Commonwealth, 8 Va. App. 376, 379, 382 S.E.2d 258, 259 

(1989). 

 Jordan testified that Marcus made at least three cocaine 

sales on the day he was arrested. Griggs testified that she 

personally purchased cocaine for $50 from Marcus. When the 

officers entered the dwelling, Marcus took flight, entered a 

bathroom, and closed himself in. In his possession was a bottle 

containing cocaine residue and $865 in packaged bills. The 

evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Marcus distributed 

cocaine. 

Affirmed.