Court Opinion

ID: 9659833
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:55:46.359243+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:11.986264
License: Public Domain

M. F. Cavanagh, J.
(concurring in result only). I concur in the result. I conclude that reversal is required but for different reasons. The search was proper, based on the consent of Mrs. Jewel and her daughter. At the time the box was opened there was nothing to indicate to whom the box belonged. Since the unidentified box had been left in their car, the two women could consent to having it opened.
By the same token, however, there was insufficient evidence to connect defendant with the box or its contents. The only evidence linking the box to defendant — apart from the fact that the box was in the car when defendant and his passenger were stopped — was a vial which bore the name of defendant’s wife, another daughter of Mrs. Jewel, and which was found within the box. Furthermore, allowing the jury during its deliberations to have the entire contents of the box, including a substantial number of pills the possession of which was not in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, was error and reversibly prejudicial to defendant.
Reversed.