Court Opinion

ID: 9745793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 13:32:10.679581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:04.675601
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting and concurring.
The success of the State's case against appellant, that he possessed cocaine with the intent to deliver it, depended upon whether the jury would believe the testimony of Robert Decker. The police knew that appellant was driving his pickup truck and that Decker was seated next to him. The police knew that Decker was a drug user, that he had part of the drugs on his person, and that the remainder of the drugs was on the floor on the side of the truck where Decker sat. The police knew that appellant was aware that the drugs were present in the truck. The police did not know who possessed the drugs and intended to deliver them. The police had no case against appellant for possession with intent to deliver without the testimony of Decker that the drugs belonged to appellant, and Decker was a weak witness. It is within this framework that the inadmissibility of Jailer Coleman's testimony becomes clear. He testified:
Uh, I came back in and processed his strip search. Uh, upon strip searching him, I found, uh, in the right front pocket uh, a baggie with white powder residue.
The danger of unfair prejudice is twofold. First, it caused the jury to visualize appellant as he was stripped in the jail, and in so emphasizing the specific nature of this process aroused the jurors' emotions against appellant. It demeaned and degraded him. In placing the phrase "baggie with white powder residue" in the mouth of the policeman, it encouraged the jury to improperly infer that the police were of the opinion that the white powder residue was contraband cocaine and that in fact the bag had contained contraband cocaine. The actual bag was lost by the police before trial and the contents of it had not been chemically analyzed. This testimony had only minimal relevance, but gave a large, undue advantage to the prosecution. It provided the lone corroboration for Decker's story that it was appel*885lant who possessed the cocaine with the intent to deliver it. The testimony was inadmissible and the trial court correctly sustained appellant's objection to it. Kiefer v. State (1958), 239 Ind. 103, 153 N.E.2d 899.
"[When it is apparent that the 'sole purpose of calling the witness was to wield the evidential harpoon, deliberately calculated by counsel to prejudice the jury against the defendant and his defense,' an admonishment cannot cure the error and a mistrial should be declared." Pillow v. State (1985), Ind., 479 N.E.2d 1301, 1306 (quoting White v. State (1971), 257 Ind. 64, 76, 272 N.E.2d 312, 319) (emphasis in original). The testimony of Jailer Coleman is such a harpoon. And appellant succumbed to it. I meant what I said in Pillow, agree with the Court of Appeals in this case, and would reverse appellant's conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, and remand that charge for a new trial. I would also reverse the nuisance conviction, and order acquittal on that charge on remand.
DICKSON, J., concurs.