Case Name: Jerome WILLIAMS, Plaintiff in Error, v. STATE of Tennessee, Defendant in Error
Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1973-11-21
Citations: 506 S.W.2d 193
Docket Number: 
Parties: Jerome WILLIAMS, Plaintiff in Error, v. STATE of Tennessee, Defendant in Error.
Judges: WALKER, P. J., and DWYER, J., concur.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 506
Pages: 193–200

Head Matter:
Jerome WILLIAMS, Plaintiff in Error, v. STATE of Tennessee, Defendant in Error.
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee.
Nov. 21, 1973.
Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court Jan. 21, 1974.
Douglas A. Meyer, Chattanooga, for plaintiff in error.
David M. Pack, Atty. Gen., Alex B. Ship-ley, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Lawrence Young and David Rotroff, Asst. Dist. Attys. Gen., Chattanooga, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
OPINION
OLIVER, Judge.
Now indigent and represented here by an appointed attorney who represented him as retained counsel in his trial, Williams has perfected an appeal in the nature of a writ of error to this Court contesting his Hamilton County Criminal Court conviction of possessing heroin for the purpose of resale, for which he was sentenced to not less than five nor more than 10 years in the penitentiary.
Although the defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, a summary of its essential substance will facilitate understanding of the case.
On March 7, 1972 Chattanooga Policeman Dewey Gass received information from an insurance salesman that suspicious activity was occurring in an adjacent motel room and that a gray Buick Riviera with a black top appeared to be involved. Gass got the license number of that car from the motel clerk, and then, consulting records in the Police Information Center, he found that license number to be registered to a Thunderbird owned by the defendant, whom the officer knew and regarded as being a shady character.
Later the same night, the informant contacted Officer Gass and told him the owner of the suspected vehicle was checking out of the motel. On the way to investigate, Gass saw the suspected vehicle but since he was in an unmarked car he radioed the police dispatcher to have the car stopped by Officer Walden, whom he passed earlier, for violating the State motor vehicle registration law. Gass kept the car in sight and pulled up behind it as Walden stopped it. It was raining at the time.
As the defendant got out of the car and handed Officer Walden his driver's license, the door on the opposite side of his car opened and a small green paper bag was thrown out. Gass saw this and picked up the bag. It contained a small envelope containing 88 capsules of heroin. The bag also contained a marijuana cigarette and two one-dollar bills. After the defendant consented to a search of his car, one capsule of heroin was found on the floor behind the front seat and $314 in cash in the trunk.
Curtis McDonald, who was in the car with the defendant and was also charged with possession of heroin with intent to sell it, testified that when the police stopped the defendant's car the defendant placed the bag containing the heroin in between the bucket seats, got out of the car stating that he could handle it, and started walking to the officers; that when the officers threw the defendant across the car he hollered to him (McDonald) and Le-brón Smith, another passenger, to "clean up"; and that Smith opened the car door and had him (McDonald) throw the bag out.
Lebrón Smith testified that when the police stopped the car, the defendant got out, but seeing all the policemen, walked back to the car and said, "Clean up," meaning to throw the drugs out of the car, and that he opened the car door and McDonald threw the drugs out.
Both McDonald and Smith were called as defense witnesses in the hearing on defendant's motion to suppress the heroin as evidence, and both testified as prosecution witnesses before the jury. They plea-bargained their cases.
Only the heroin capsules and the small envelope and the paper bag were offered and admitted in evidence.
The defendant testified that he had no heroin and did not know any was in his car. The jury did not believe that.
By his first Assignment of Error the defendant attacks the constitutionality of T.C.A. § 52-1432 (a) (2), which provides :
"It may be inferred from the amount of controlled substances possessed by an offender, along with other relevant facts surrounding the arrest, that the controlled substance or substances were possessed with the purpose of selling or otherwise dispensing. It may be inferred from circumstances indicating a casual exchange among individuals of a small amount of controlled substances that the controlled substances so exchanged were possessed not with the purpose of selling or otherwise dispensing them in violation of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section. Such inferences shall be transmitted to the jury by the trial judge's charge and the jury will consider such inferences along with the nature of the substance possessed when affixing the penalty."
In his instructions to the jury, the trial judge quoted all of that statute except the last sentence.
The defendant cites Sharp v. Commonwealth, 213 Va. 269, 192 S.E.2d 217 in support of his contention that this statute is void because it is unconstitutionally vague and uncertain, in that it does not state what quantity is sufficient to raise an inference of intent to sell and that there is no sufficient rational connection between the possession of a quantity of the drugs and the inference that it is possessed for the purpose of resale.
The subsidiary provision of the Virginia statute (1950 Virginia Code, as amended, § 54-524.101 (a)), struck down by the Court in Sharp v. Commonwealth, provided: "A conviction for a violation of this § 54-524.-101(a) may be based solely upon evidence as to the quantity of any controlled drug or drugs unlawfully possessed." In that case the court instructed the jury:
" 'The Court instructs the jury that a conviction of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute may be based solely upon evidence as to the quantity of such marijuana unlawfully possessed.' (Emphasis added.)"
Thus, it is readily apparent that the Virginia statute which the Supreme Court of that State held to be unconstitutionally offensive differed radically and critically from the above-quoted provision of this State's drug control statute. Our statute does not contain the rigidly restrictive language found in the Virginia statute, but leaves the inferences to the jury, upon consideration of the amount of controlled substance possessed by the accused and the other facts and circumstances shown in the proof. Plainly, Sharp v. Commonwealth, supra, is inapposite and does not sustain the defendant's assault upon the constitutionality of the statute in question.
Upon this record the jury was fully justified in finding that the 88 capsules of heroin thrown out of the defendant's car upon his instruction (1) belonged to him and (2) that he had them for sale. The possession of a large quantity of narcotics, together with the defendant's conduct and the facts and circumstances surrounding the finding of the drugs and his arrest, warrants an inference that distribution was intended. United States v. Johnson, 469 F.2d 973 (5th Cir. 1972).
The defendant's next Assignment is that the trial court erred in admitting the capsules of heroin in evidence, the contention being that the officers obtained them as a result of illegally stopping and arresting the defendant.
As noted above, Police Officer Gass said he found from police records that the license plates on the Buick operated by the defendant had been issued to a Thunderbird registered in his name. Unlawfully displaying or using a license plate on a motor vehicle other than the one for which it was issued is a misdemeanor. T.C.A. § 59-516. On his way to the motel Officer Gass met the Buick, and, because he was in an unmarked car he called the police dispatcher on his walkie-talkie to have Officer Walden stop the car. Gass then turned and followed the Buick and was in sight of it when Officer Walden pulled in behind it and arrived at the scene just as Walden pulled the defendant over.
The first question raised under this Assignment is whether the defendant was committing an offense in the presence of either or both of the officers when he was stopped and arrested. Officer Walden knew only what the police dispatcher relayed to him after Gass radioed for help. Under the law the defendant's offense, if any, was not committed in Walden's presence and his stopping the defendant was, therefore, illegal.
Obviously, Officer Gass' conclusion that the defendant was committing a misdemeanor resulted from his assumption, based solely on second-hand information obtained from police records, that he was illegally using on his Buick license plates issued to a Thunderbird he owned. Defense counsel suggests that the defendant could have traded cars and had his license plates legally transferred to the Buick. T.C.A. § 59-401. The defendant did not testify or present any evidence that he made such a transfer. But the absence of such proof can neither alter or avoid the fact that Officer Gass' information was pure hearsay and, as he testified, he had no personal knowledge whether the defendant had legally transferred his license from the Thunderbird to the Buick, and hence did not know that the defendant's use of the license plates on the Buick was unlawful and that he was committing a misdemean- or.
Two other officers present at the arrest had information that the defendant was selling heroin, a felony. T.C.A. § 52-1432(a)(1)(A). But those officers arrived at the scene after the arrest, so that, obviously, the defendant was not arrested because of their information that he had committed a felony.
A crime is committed in an officer's presence when he is apprised thereof by the exercise of one or more of his five senses, and when he thus acquires direct personal knowledge of a criminal act he may lawfully arrest the person committing it. Nelson v. State, 219 Tenn. 680, 690, 413 S.W.2d 358. And an offense is not committed in the presence of an officer when its commission is communicated to him by another. Hurd v. State, 119 Tenn. 583, 108 S.W. 1064. See also: Hughes v. State, 145 Tenn. 544, 571, 238 S.W. 588; 5 Am.Jur.2d, Arrest § 31.
However, notwithstanding all the foregoing, disposition of the defendant's Assignment complaining about admission in evidence of the heroin thrown out of his car by his associates requires us to consider whether its acquisition by the officers involved an unconstitutional search and seizure. We do not believe it did. After the defendant's associates threw the package of heroin out of the defendant's car at his direction, it was simply picked up out of the mud by Officer Gass. Patently no search was involved. Nor is the "plain view" doctrine or abandoned property involved. The case is no different than if the officers had found this automobile parked on the side of the road and had pulled up behind it and had seen a package thrown out of it. In such circumstances certainly it could not be said that by picking up the package the officers searched either the driver or his automobile. Therefore, picking up the heroin in this case and its admission in evidence at the defendant's trial did not in any way trench upon his constitutional protection from unreasonable searches and seizures guaranteed by Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution of Tennessee and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Moreover, as noted, the defendant testified he did not know the heroin was in his car. In State v. Manning, Tenn., 490 S.W.2d 512, our Supreme Court said:
"Furthermore, respondent took the stand and testified he did not know the pills were in his car.
'There are many cases in this jurisdiction and others which deal with the broad principle that if a defendant testifies in substance as to evidence which has been otherwise erroneously-admitted, then his testimony clears whatever error there might have been. (Citing cases.) Thus, these cases clearly show that the rule is not limited to the situation where the defendant takes the stand and admits he committed the crime with which he was charged.' Lester v. State, 216 Tenn. 615, 393 S.W.2d 288 (1965), certiorari denied 383 U.S. 952, 86 S.Ct. 1214, 16 L.Ed.2d 214."
Finally, there is no substance in the defendant's contention the court erred in ordering his sentence in this case to be served consecutive to his earlier sentences, arguing that under T.C.A. § 40-2710 the maximum time of imprisonment for all separate offenses to be served consecutively cannot exceed his maximum term in the present case. With reference to sentences to be served consecutively, the statute expressly provides that the total term of imprisonment cannot exceed "the total of the maximum terms provided by law for such offenses''
Affirmed.
WALKER, P. J., and DWYER, J., concur.