Court Opinion

ID: 9463253
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:01:55.936368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:00.402760
License: Public Domain

WINTER, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
While I agree with the majority that there was sufficient evidence to convict Dolan of the charge alleged in Count Six of the indictment in No. 74-72-CH, I think it legally insufficient to support his convictions on Counts One and Five of that indictment and on the single count of the indictment in No. 74-116-CH. To that extent, I respectfully dissent.
I.
In Count One of indictment No. 74-72-CH, Dolan and others were charged with travel to obtain “LSD” in the Spring of 1972 in Ohio. Bob Burgess testified that two unidentified individuals sold to him, the defendant, and others, what was represented by the sellers to be LSD. Burgess was *1225asked, “What did you get?” He responded, “Two hundred hits of LSD.” This is his only testimony about what drug was purchased.
Randall Crank testified to the same transaction. His testimony was as follows:
Q. What happened after you arrived in Dayton, Ohio?
A. We copped some LSD.
Q. How much LSD did you cop?
A. 300 hits.
Q. By copping LSD, you mean buying it or getting it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What kind of LSD was it?
A. Orange barrels.
Q. Orange barrels?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What are orange barrels?
A. LSD.
Q. What do they look like?
A. They are just little orange pills.
Q. Orange pills?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Orange pills. Is that the term you use for them?
A. We just called it sunshine.
Q. Sunshine. Orange sunshine.
A. Yes.
Q. Did you use any of it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who did?
A. All of us.
Later, on cross-examination, the defense asked Crank if he had any personal knowledge that Dolan had received any of the LSD. He answered:
A. Yes, he was tripping.
Q. How do you know that?
A. You can tell anytime anybody is on LSD.
Q. Did you see anyone give him any LSD?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you all take LSD over there? Did you?
A. No sir. We didn’t eat ours till we got back in West Virginia.
Later, on redirect:
Q. What do you mean by tripping?
A. Tripping is the hallucinations and such that you go through when you take LSD.
This is all the evidence showing that the orange pills were LSD. I think it is legally insufficient to support that conclusion. All it shows is (1) the sellers said it was LSD; (2) it was in the form of orange pills; (3) based on the above information, two lay witnesses thought it was LSD; (4) one lay witness observed Dolan after the transaction in a state he thought was induced by a hallucinogenic drug; and (5) the witnesses used the substance when they got back to West Virginia. Completely lacking was any evidence that either of the witnesses took the drug and themselves experienced effects which they deemed to be those of LSD, and any evidence showing that either witness had any background of drug experience so that his conclusion that the substance ingested was LSD should be credited. Crank’s testimony that Dolan was “tripping” fails to supply these omissions because (1) no showing was made why Crank had any reason to believe Dolan’s behavior was drug-induced, i. e., there was no showing that Crank was experienced in dealing with those who were on “trips,” (2) no showing was made as to any basis for Crank’s belief that Dolan was “tripping” on LSD as opposed to some other drug, possibly a legal one, and (3) no showing was made (other than Crank’s conjecture) that Dolan had taken one of the orange pills they had bought in Dayton, and that therefore his “tripping” should be attributed to the pills.
II.
In Count Five of indictment No. 74-72-CH, Dolan and others were charged with interstate travel in January, 1974, to carry on a business enterprise in “phencyclidine, commonly known as ‘PCP’ or ‘THC’.” Phencyclidine is listed in the controlled substances schedule. PCP and THC are not *1226listed as such. Far from being a common name for phencyclidine, TCH is tetrahydrocannabinols, the active ingredient in marijuana. The record does not establish the nature of PCP, but it is reputedly hallucinogenic, whereas phencyclidine is listed in the controlled substances schedule as a depressant.
The record is absolutely silent as to whether or not PCP and THC are common names for phencyclidine. ^¡¡Even the most convincing testimony showing that the defendant dealt in “PCP” and “THC” would thus be unavailing to prove Dolan dealt in phencyclidine.
The testimony tending to support this count is as follows: Steven Ware testified that he, Dolan and others, bought one ounce of what he described as THC in Detroit. Joseph Bizek testified to the same transaction. He first stated that the purpose of the trip had been to buy some THC. He continued:
Q. What happened after you got over to the house?
A. We waited and finally the THC got there.
Q. What did he do with the THC when he brought it?
A. Handed it to Dewayne [Dolan] and Mike tried it.
Q. How did Mike try it?
A. He snorted it.
Q. Mike snorted it?
A. Yes.
Q. What did Mike say about it?
A. He just laid back and said it was good.
Q. You said he handed it to Dewayne. Could you see what it was that he handed to Dewayne?
A. It was a bag—
Q. Go ahead.
A. It was a baggie with white powder crystals in it. It was almost half full, the baggie was.
Mike Brisendine testified to the same transaction. He stated that he, the defendant and others purchased “an ounce of crystal THC.”
Keith Bailey testified that on a different trip to Detroit, he and the defendant attempted unsuccessfully to obtain some PCP. His testimony was apparently the source of the government’s confusion of PCP, THC and phencyclidine:
Q. What is PCP to your knowledge?
A. THC. What is it? Hallucinogenic drug.
Q. Hallucinogen?
A. Yes.
Q. Similar to LSD?
A. Somewhat, yes, sir.
Q. How is it used?
A. You can inject it with a needle or snort it, smoke it.
Q. How do you snort it?
A. You roll up a bill or something of that nature.
Q. What?
A. A dollar bill or something like that and inhale through your nose.
Q. Or you can smoke it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And by smoke it what do you mean?
A. Say you put some PCP on a ball of marijuana and you smoke the marijuana and the substance is burned up through the marijuana.
Q. And by injecting it, what do you mean by that?
A. Use of a needle.
Q. In the arm or somewhere else?
A. A vein.
Q. Tell the jury what happened when you got to Detroit.
A. We couldn’t obtain an ounce of PCP.
The only other reference in the transcript to PCP, THC or phencyclidine is found in the testimony of Harold Robinson who described another transaction in Detroit in which the defendant and others supposedly obtained “some heroin or THC, what I thought was THC with a heroin base.” This transaction involving heroin took place in February 1974 and was the subject of Count Six. It is clearly a separate incident *1227from the alleged dealing in THC-PCP, etc., in Count Five.
The evidence thus establishes only that (1) the substance involved in the allegedly illicit transactions was represented by the sellers and believed by the buyers to be something called “THC”; (2) the substance was a white crystalline powder; and (3) one witness “snorted” it and said it was “good.” Bailey’s testimony establishes at best that there is a drug known as “PCP” which can be snorted, smoked or injected. His single reference to “THC” is apparently inadvertent. Totally lacking is any showing that any witness ingested the white crystalline powder and experienced effects he had reason to believe were similar to those of “THC.” Even had such testimony been supplied, it would not have proved that THC is the same thing as the controlled substance phencyclidine, which was mentioned by no witness.
III.
Indictment No. 74-116-CH charged interstate travel in December, 1973, to carry on an unlawful controlled substance business enterprise in lysergic acid diethylamide and marijuana. The evidence to support conviction of this charge follows:
Gary Riddle testified that he went with Dolan to Detroit to “purchase narcotics or dope or whatever it was.” He continued:
Q. What kind of drugs were they?
A. Just orange pills. I don’t know what kind it was.
Q. Did anyone take any of them?
A. Mr. Dolan took one or two.
Q. Did he say anything after he took them?
A. He said they were good.
Q. Did they affect him in any way?
A. He said he got high off of them, but I don’t know whether he did or not.
Q. Do you know how many of those little orange pills there were?
A. Around a thousand or 2,000 of them.
Q. During the day before you secured these pills what kind of drugs had been discussed?
A. THC, I believe it was.
Q. Do you know whether that stuff you got there was THC or not?
A. I don’t know what kind it was, just little orange pills. Someone said it was LSD. I’m not for sure.
Riddle then testified that he, the defendant and their companions purchased four ounces of marijuana while in Detroit. His only testimony as to what happened to this marijuana was that they all used it.
Mike Brisendine testified to the same transaction as Riddle involving the orange pills:
Q. Were you able to get some drugs?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What kind of drugs?
A. Mescaline, microdot, orange microdot.
Q. Orange microdot and mescaline?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How many?
A. Three thousand hits.
Terry Fink also testified to this transaction, describing the substance obtained as mescaline.
The evidence thus shows that the defendant and his friends obtained 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 orange pills which one witness heard someone say was LSD, which another described as mescaline and/or orange microdot, and which, so far as the record shows, no witness tested. Prior to obtaining the orange pills, THC had “been discussed.” Manifestly, this testimony is not sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the orange pills contained LSD, as charged in the indictment.
The indictment also charged dealing in marijuana. There is no evidence, other than witness Riddle’s lay opinion, without articulated basis, that the substance purchased was in fact marijuana. I would nevertheless be inclined to call this evidence sufficient, on the theory that it is easier to tell that a grass-like substance is marijuana by looking at it and smoking it than it is to tell that orange pills are LSD or THC or PCP, etc., by looking at them and seeing somebody else “trip.” On the other hand, *1228there is absolutely no evidence that the defendant or his accomplices did or intended to do anything with the marijuana other than smoke it themselves. There was apparently no plan to resell it, and four ounces is not a sufficient quantity to raise a presumption of such an intent. There is no testimony that they took it back to West Virginia. Thus, I do not think that the marijuana episode alone can support conviction on this count. To my mind, the statute on which the indictment is based requires some criminal intent to sell or distribute contraband, and not merely to purchase it for personal use.