Court Opinion

ID: 9765365
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:01:17.25364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:09.306348
License: Public Domain

GRANT, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the portion of this decision sending the cocaine count back for a new trial. White’s presence on a vacant lot with a number of other people is not evidence that links him to the contraband. There was no showing that White owned, rented, or controlled the place where the drugs were found on the lot; although he owned the house next door, there was a fence between it and the vacant lot; there were a number of other people on the lot at the time the police arrived; they were as close to the boat as White was; there was no showing that he was in any way jointly connected to any activities of these people as a group; the drugs were not in plain view, but were in a closed tackle box, thus there was no showing that he was aware that the drugs were there.
Without an affirmative link between White and the drugs, his presence on the lot with others is no evidence of possession of the drugs, and I would order an acquittal on the cocaine count.