COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Chief Judge Fitzpatrick, Judges Bumgardner and Felton 

Argued at Salem, Virginia 

TONY DEWAYNE PATTERSON 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY 

v. Record No. 0355-02-3 JUDGE RUDOLPH BUMGARDNER, III 

 NOVEMBER 5, 2002 

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA 

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF LYNCHBURG 

Mosby G. Perrow, III, Judge 

 David E. Wright, Assistant Public Defender, 

for appellant. 

 Jennifer R. Franklin, Assistant Attorney 

General (Jerry W. Kilgore, Attorney General, 

on brief), for appellee. 

 The trial court convicted Tony Dewayne Patterson of 

possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He contends 

the evidence failed to prove he possessed the cocaine. Finding 

the evidence sufficient, we affirm. 

 We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences 

therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth. 

Commonwealth v. Taylor, 256 Va. 514, 516, 506 S.E.2d 312, 313 

(1998). An undercover police officer was working an unrelated 

assignment at a convenience store. The defendant approached him 

and offered to sell $20 worth of cocaine. The officer needed 

 

* Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not 

designated for publication.
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backup assistance so he told the defendant he had to go back 

inside the store. The defendant said to hurry up because he was 

leaving, but he sat on the sidewalk and waited for the officer 

to return. 

 After other officers arrived, the undercover officer 

arrested the defendant. An officer found four individually 

wrapped rocks of cocaine. They were between an air hose and the 

wall of the building approximately eighteen inches from where 

the defendant sat. The undercover officer saw no other person 

in the immediate area where the defendant was seated. Testimony 

showed that drug dealers often "stash" their supplies of drugs 

away from their persons. That technique prevents a purchaser 

from snatching the supply during a transaction and prevents 

police from finding a large quantity of drugs if they arrested 

the dealer during a sale. 

 The defendant agreed with the officer's testimony except he 

denied saying "crack" or to hurry up because he was leaving. 

The defendant denied possessing the drugs or knowing they were 

behind the air hose. He testified he offered to sell the 

officer drugs as a ruse to steal money from him. The defendant 

did not have any drugs on his person. 

 The defendant offered to sell cocaine and then waited, 

although he claimed to be in a hurry. The individually wrapped 

rocks of cocaine were eighteen inches from where he waited. No 

one came near the defendant. The trial court could conclude the 
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defendant was waiting to conclude the sale he negotiated. The 

cocaine near him was his "stash" from which he planned to 

fulfill his part of the agreement. 

 The trial court disbelieved the defendant's testimony that 

the offer to sell cocaine was a ruse to steal money. "In its 

role of judging witness credibility, the fact finder is entitled 

to disbelieve the self-serving testimony of the accused and to 

conclude that the accused is lying to conceal his guilt." 

Marable v. Commonwealth, 27 Va. App. 505, 509-10, 500 S.E.2d 

233, 235 (1998) (citation omitted). The trial court could also 

infer reasonably that the cocaine had sufficient value not to be 

abandoned or left carelessly in the area where found. See

Collins v. Commonwealth, 13 Va. App. 177, 180, 409 S.E.2d 175, 

176 (1991). 

 The evidence permitted the finding that the defendant 

possessed cocaine. Accordingly, we affirm. 

 Affirmed.