Court Opinion

ID: 9591750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:07:18.8147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:11.605090
License: Public Domain

Judge Becton
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority’s statements that “the record is void of any evidence tending to show that defendant may be guilty of a lesser included offense” and that “[t]here is not a scintilla of evidence from which the jury could conclude that defendant possessed cocaine in an amount less than 28 grams.” Ante p. 2. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
All of the approximately 11 ounces of cocaine involved in this case was found in a car driven by co-defendant, Luke Caudle. No cocaine was found in the car in which defendant Siler had been a passenger. The only testimony regarding defendant’s knowledge and intent to traffic in cocaine was the testimony of the State’s witness, co-defendant Luke Caudle.
The following facts are undisputed. Approximately four ounces of cocaine was found under the driver’s seat, the remainder of the cocaine was found in the trunk of Caudle’s car. Of the approximately four ounces found under the driver’s seat, over three ounces was found in a blue bank bag, and the remainder was found in a small separate plastic baggie. Defendant, himself, testified that after he got in Caudle’s car, he snorted cocaine that Caudle gave him from the small plastic baggie.
Significantly, defendant testified that he knew nothing about the cocaine in the blue bank bag under the driver’s seat nor the *169cocaine in the trunk of the car. He testified that the cocaine he snorted was the only cocaine he knew about. There was no evidence offered as to the amount of cocaine in the small bag; indeed, the substance in the small bag was not analyzed.
Like the majority, I find Caudle’s testimony clearly sufficient to support the charges of trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. However, I cannot, as the majority must have done, and as a jury is free to do, reject as untrue, defendant’s testimony that he only knew about the small amount of cocaine in the plastic baggie. As significant as the fact that the State had the burden of proving the nature of the substance and its weight is the testimony of Caudle suggesting that the small amount of cocaine in the plastic baggie was for his personal use, not for “trafficking.”
The evidence, in my view, supports the submission to the jury of the lesser included charges of felony possession of cocaine or misdemeanor possession of cocaine. When there is evidence from which the jury can find that a crime of a lesser degree has been committed, then the trial court must instruct the jury as to the lesser included crime or crimes. State v. Hicks, 241 N.C. 156, 84 S.E. 2d 545 (1954). Defendant presented evidence that the only cocaine he was aware of was the small amount in the plastic baggie and that he knew nothing of the approximately 11 ounces found elsewhere in Caudle’s car. “The presence of such evidence is the determinative factor,” and compels this dissent. Id. at 159, 84 S.E. 2d at 547. I vote for a
New trial.