Court Opinion

ID: 9561033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:01:33.113697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:29.526970
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent with respect to Division 1 (b), which reverses the conviction of Garland Tard for the crime of theft by receiving stolen property.
As the majority acknowledges, there was evidence that defendants were involved in a joint enterprise for the distribution of cocaine and that stolen merchandise is often traded for illegal drugs. There was no doubt that the still-tagged new clothing, four various-sized sport jackets and a suit of yet another size hanging in the closet, was stolen merchandise. Tard had rented the residence about nine months earlier and had, at least at the beginning, lived there with Joe Owens and paid the rent. Because of Tard’s financial condition, the landlord required Owens to co-sign the lease.
When the residence was raided, Tard, Owens, and a number of others were present and the officers found crack cocaine all over, as described by the majority opinion. Tard had a dozen pieces of crack in a match box in the pocket of his jacket which, since he was not wearing it at the time, he denied owning. He exhibited ownership as well as guilty knowledge of the presence of the crack in it by pushing the head of the woman who identified the jacket as his “to get her not to say anything else,” in the words of the officer.
A large amount of money, over $5,200 in large denominations, was being handled in Tard’s presence when the raid commenced. It could be inferred that the money was proceeds of drug sales. Likewise, it could reasonably be inferred the stolen clothing was also pro*343ceeds of drug trafficking, that is to say, a fruit of the criminal enterprise so that he shared in its receipt, disposition, or retention. OCGA § 16-8-7 (a). The clothing bore the same nexus to the crime as did the cash. Tard was no more relieved of guilty connection with the stolen clothing hanging in the closet of the bedroom apparently occupied by Joe Owens than he was relieved of guilty connection with the cash being held in a paper bag by Willie Owens when the officers entered the residence. Both were part of the operation of the crack house in which he was engaged.
Decided July 14, 1989.
Althea L. Buafo, for appellant (case no A89A0600).
Alvin C. McDougald, for appellants (case nos. A89A0599, A89A0598).
Willis B. Sparks III, District Attorney, Vernon R. Beinke, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
In connection with the count of theft by receiving stolen property, the court charged on aiding and abetting and participating in that criminal endeavor. Considering the entire body of evidence and the illegal business Tard was properly convicted of being a party to, the jury was authorized to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of being “concerned in the commission of” that crime as well, as governed by OCGA § 16-2-20.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen, Presiding Judge Banke, and Judge Pope join in this dissent.