Court Opinion

ID: 9684601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:03:16.833623+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:57.688165
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
TOM G. DAVIS, Judge.
Appeal is taken from an order revoking probation.
On November 21, 1979, appellant pled guilty to possession of marijuana of a quantity in excess of four ounces. Punishment was assessed at ten years, probated. On March 19, 1980, appellant’s probation was revoked after the court found that he had on December 9, 1979 violated the conditions of his probation by “unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally possesspng] a usable quantity of marijuana of more than four ounces.”
Appellant contends the court abused its discretion in revoking his probation. Specifically, he urges that the trial court improperly rejected his defense of entrapment (V.T.C.A.Penal Code, Sec. 8.06), and further that appellant’s judicial admissions to possession of marijuana cannot be used as proof of violation of the terms of probation.1 On original submission, a panel of the court concluded that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in revoking probation.
*856Criminal Investigator Robert L. Young-blood of the Young County District Attorney’s Office testified he received information on December 7, 1979 from an Olney police officer that an informant in Olney had recently purchased marijuana from the appellant. Youngblood contacted the informant who was being held in the Olney Jail and arranged a phone call by the informant to the appellant for the purpose of buying marijuana. The informant was then released from jail, taken home, and allowed to borrow an automobile. Youngblood, Chief of Police Charles Boyd, and District Attorney Boyd Richie then followed the informant in a separate car to the location of appellant’s mobile home. Prior to allowing the informant to go into appellant’s residence he was strip searched and his car was thoroughly searched for contraband. Youngblood observed the informant remain inside appellant’s home for approximately fifteen minutes before exiting and returning with a baggy of marijuana to where Youngblood, Boyd and Richie were conducting their surveillance. The informant was again searched before being returned to incarceration after which Young-blood, Boyd and Richie proceeded to a magistrate to obtain a search warrant. The subsequent search pursuant to a warrant executed December 9, 1979 resulted in the seizure of over nine ounces of marijuana from the wall of appellant’s bedroom.
In 1974, the Texas Penal Code was revised to include under Chapter 8 statutorily recognized General Defenses to Criminal Responsibility. Within this chapter is included the defense of entrapment (Sec. 8.06, supra), which reads in pertinent part:
“(a) It is a defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in the conduct charged because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement agent using persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense. Conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.”
In order for appellant to raise a claim of entrapment he must initially establish a prima facie showing of such a defense. Garcia v. State, 528 S.W.2d 604; see U.S. v. Gonzales, 606 F.2d 70 (5th Cir. 1979); Gonzales v. State, 571 S.W.2d 11. There is an absence of testimony or evidence proffered by appellant to support prima facie a claim of entrapment to the offense of possession of marijuana in excess of four ounces. The record does include, inter alia, testimony by the appellant which indicates an informant sent by the State did purchase marijuana from him. However, the motion to revoke was not for delivery of marijuana, see Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., Art. 4476-15, Sec. 1.02(8), rather the alleged violation of probation was for the possession of marijuana, see Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., Art. 4476-15, Sec. 1.02(23). The elements of this offense include: knowingly, intentionally and unlawfully possessing marijuana in excess of four ounces.
In order to effectuate a claim of entrapment to a possessory offense it must be shown that he was persuaded or induced by law enforcement officers to take care, custody, control, or management of the contraband. Gonzales v. State, 571 S.W.2d 11; Bonsall v. State, 502 S.W.2d 813; Brewer v. State, 500 S.W.2d 504. See also United States v. Bueno, 447 F.2d 903 (5th Cir. 1971), appeal after remand 470 F.2d 154, cert. denied 411 U.S. 949, 93 S.Ct. 1931, 36 L.Ed.2d 411. Insofar as the record reflects appellant was not induced to possess the marijuana.
Appellant further complains that the evidence seized in the search of his home was admitted in error at the revocation hearing because it was obtained pursuant to an unlawful search warrant based upon a defective affidavit. Two particularized issues are raised by appellant in support of his contention that the affidavit was deficient. First, in that an affidavit can support a finding of probable cause only if it permits the magistrate to credit the affiant’s statement that the substance obtained from the appellant’s residence was marijuana; and secondly, that the affiant’s statement under oath that the substance bought by the informant constitutes marijuana is merely *857conclusory and insufficient to support a finding of probable cause.
As appellant conceded in his supplemental brief, the issue of sufficient identification of a controlled substance by an affiant has been decided by this Court in previous appeals. In Torres v. State, 552 S.W.2d 821, this Court responded to a similar argument by stating “appellant’s argument that the affidavit is insufficient in that it does not allege the informer was familiar with heroin in order to identify it is without merit. In Pecina v. State, 516 S.W.2d 401, we held that an affidavit need not state an informer’s qualifications to identify heroin.” Id. at 823-24.
Appellant’s attempt to distinguish his case from those already decided is not convincing. An affiant is not required to delineate his drug identification expertise within the four corners of the affidavit in order to provide a magistrate with sufficient probable cause to support the issuance of a search warrant. Palmer v. State, 614 S.W.2d 831; Torres v. State, 552 S.W.2d 821; Pecina v. State, 516 S.W.2d 401. Contrary to appellant’s arguments, the affiant clearly swore that he was an eyewitness to the events immediately preceding and antecedent to the informant’s purchase of marijuana at appellant’s home. Likewise, at the time Officer Youngblood swore to the facts in the affidavit he had in his possession a baggy containing a leafy green plant substance procured from appellant’s home by the informant. These facts provided adequate probable cause to authorize issuance of a warrant. In order to establish probable cause to search, a law enforcement officer does not have to conduct a chemical field test of the contraband or establish proof positive that a leafy green plant substance is in fact marijuana. Cf. Houlihan v. State, 551 S.W.2d 719; Jordon v. State, 486 S.W.2d 784; Boothe v. State, 474 S.W.2d 219. Thus, no error is shown in the trial court’s admission of nine ounces of marijuana seized pursuant to the search warrant.
The record reflects that the marijuana was recovered from appellant’s mobile home on December 9, 1979. We find that the evidence supports the court’s finding that appellant violated a condition of his probation by possessing a usable quantity of marijuana over four ounces.
No abuse of discretion is shown in the revocation of appellant’s probation.
The appellant’s motion for rehearing is denied.

. We find it unnecessary to reach the question of whether appellant’s judicial admission could be used to support the court’s finding.