Opinion ID: 1782331
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Presumption of Constructive Possession Due to Ownership of Premises

Text: ¶ 12. This rule concerning the presumption of constructive possession due to ownership of the premises has been stated by this Court as follows: one who is the owner in possession of the premises, or the vehicle in which contraband is kept or transported, is presumed to be in constructive possession of the articles found in or on the property possessed. The presumption of a constructive possession, however, is a rebuttable presumption and must give way to the facts proven. Moreover, the rebuttable presumption of constructive possession does not relieve the State of the burden to establish defendant's guilt as required by law and the defendant is presumed to be innocent until this is done. Hamburg v. State, 248 So.2d 430, 432 (Miss.1971) (internal citations omitted). See Roberson v. State, 595 So.2d 1310, 1319 (Miss.1992) (applying this presumption and finding constructive possession where the defendant lived in the apartment; calls were made to the apartment requesting the defendant by name while police were there; the police found the defendant sleeping in a bed in the apartment and a passport in a closet with his name on it; and drugs, money and firearms were found in the apartment). See also Curry v. State, 249 So.2d 414, 416 (Miss.1971) (finding constructive possession when the defendant owned the automobile where the controlled substance was found, rode in the front passenger seat through multiple states in the car in close proximity to where the substance was found, and made a suspicious downward motion after he observed the police about to stop the car). ¶ 13. The relevant facts connecting Ford to the six and a half grams Dixon actually possessed include: (1) Ford owned the car he was driving when the police stopped the defendants, (2) Dixon was a passenger in the car with Ford when Ford was pulled over in a traffic stop, and (3) the arresting officer identified Dixon as being in actual possession of six and a half grams of cocaine at the time of the traffic stop. This evidence is akin to that in Hamburg, 248 So.2d 430. The defendant, Rodney Hamburg, was the owner and operator of the vehicle where the drugs were found. Id. at 430. After stopping the car, a search by police officers led to the discovery of pills of LSD on Hamburg's brother, who occupied the front passenger seat. Id. at 430-31. This Court reversed the conviction of Hamburg for possession, finding that [i]n the instant case the State not only failed to connect the driver with the possession of the contraband (except by the presumption of constructive possession), but the witness for the State identified the person in possession of the LSD to be Gary Hamburg and not Rodney Hamburg, the driver. Thus, the State denied the presumption of constructive possession by showing facts of actual possession to be in another other than the owner and operator of the vehicle. The motion for a directed verdict as to Rodney Hamburg should have been sustained when made at the close of the State's testimony. Hamburg v. State, 248 So.2d 430, 432-33 (Miss.1971). ¶ 14. As in Hamburg, this Court finds that the evidence is insufficient to show that Ford had dominion and control over the drugs actually possessed by his passenger. Thus, Ford was not in constructive possession of the cocaine actually possessed by Dixon, and the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been sustained with regard to Ford's possession conviction beyond the thirteen and a half grams he actually possessed.