Court Opinion

ID: 9775155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:46:11.373331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:21.788238
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting).
When the officers entered the house to execute the search warrant, the appellant dived from a bed into a closet and hid under a pile of clothes. A deputy noticed recent puncture marks on appellant’s arm with blood coming from the wound. On the bed where the appellant and two others were sitting, a vial of heroin was found. On a nightstand nearby, the officers found narcotic paraphernalia.
The majority overlooks the rule that several people may jointly possess narcotics. In Ochoa v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 444 S.W. 2d 763, several people were in a house where there was a “lid” and a matchbox and a half of marihuana. Ochoa did not purchase the marihuana. He “puffed” on a marihuana cigarette that was handed to him and passed it to another person. The cigarette was passed around until it was “used up.” This Court held that this was sufficient evidence to show that Ochoa possessed marihuana.
The fact that appellant had fresh needle marks on his arm with the narcotic paraphernalia nearby plus his attempt to hide from the officers shows that the jury had *771sufficient evidence to conclude that he possessed, at least jointly, the heroin.
The Legislature has provided that if there is an error in an instruction to the jury “the judgment shall not be reversed unless the error appearing from the record was calculated to injure the rights of the defendant. . . .” Article 36.19, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.1 Even if there were an error, how could the jury have reached any verdict except that of guilt under the evidence in this case ?
No reversible error is shown. The judgment should be affirmed. ■

. See Ramos v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 478 S.W.2d 102, Dissenting Opinion.