He testified that he participated in the pre-trip search and that he saw Officer Harrington pull the seat up. He testified that the entire back seat is removed during the process. Appellant testified and denied that the cocaine was his. So I signed the ticket, and turned around to hand Officer Follett his pen back, they both pushed me to the car and put handcuffs on me. And I was like, I just started yelling and screaming to the neigh bors, you all see them planting these drugs on me, this that and the other.
Substantial evidence is that which is of sufficient force to compel a conclusion one way or another.
It must be more than mere speculation or conjecture. Neither exclusive nor physical possession is necessary to sustain a charge if the place where the offending substance is found is under the dominion and control of the accused. Constructive possession may be inferred where the contraband is found in a place immediately and exclusively accessible to the accused and subject to his control. Crossley v. State , supra . On this evidence the circuit judge, as trier of fact, could reasonably infer that it was appellant who hid the bag of cocaineunderneath the back seat of the patrol car.