Court Opinion

ID: 9717755
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:09:55.739832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:55.100470
License: Public Domain

CONOVER, Judge,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result. Possession of a large quantity of heroin is sufficient to infer an intent to sell in some cases. Cf. Gray v. State (1967), 249 Ind. 629, 231 N.E.2d 793, 796, Thompson v. State (1980), Ind.App., 400 N.E.2d 1151, 1153. However, when this is the only evidence from which intent to sell may be inferred and it is coupled with uncontroverted testimony a user may require nearly all of it for personal use, the evidence is not sufficient to show intent to deal.
Here, however, under all the evidence in this case, 26 packets of heroin is not a sufficiently large quantity from which intent to sell may be inferred. In this regard it is uncontroverted
(a) a heroin user may require nearly all the 26 packets found in O'Grady's possession for his personal use, and
(b) heroin may be inhaled through the nose, a process which leaves no observable needle marks.
Thus, O'Grady may have been a heroin user who had in his possession only enough to satisfy his personal needs. Such evidence is clearly insufficient to support a reasonable inference of intent to sell.