Alvarez-Maldonado v. State
| Decision Date | 19 May 2021 |
| Docket Number | A21A0463 |
| Citation | 859 S.E.2d 481,359 Ga.App. 500 |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
| Parties | ALVAREZ-MALDONADO v. The STATE. |
Clarke & Towne, David Edward Clark, for Appellant.
Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Brandon Mark Delfunt, Assistant District Attorney, for Appellee.
Following trial, a jury convicted Reynaldo Alvarez-Maldonado on one count each of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of a false identification document, and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer. On appeal, Alvarez-Maldonado challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his trafficking conviction and further argues that the trial court erred in denying his claim that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to file a motion to suppress evidence. For the reasons set forth infra , we affirm.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict,1 the record shows that on the afternoon of April 29, 2017, a Gwinnett County police officer initiated a traffic stop on a white Infiniti because the registration-expiration decal on the vehicle's license tag was obstructed. Then, after the vehicle pulled into the parking lot of a motel, the officer approached and observed that there were two occupants—a female driver and a male in the front passenger seat. The officer requested the female driver's license, which identified her as Patrice Sprayberry. Upon a similar request to the passenger, he handed the officer a North Carolina license, which identified him as Edwin Rodriguez. But based on the license's blurry photograph and notation that Rodriguez resided in "Linton-Salem," North Carolina, the officer suspected the license was fake. And after returning to his patrol vehicle and checking the license, this suspicion was confirmed.
At this point, the officer asked Sprayberry to exit her vehicle so he could speak with her alone. She complied, but appeared jumpy. And when the officer asked Sprayberry how long she had known the passenger, she indicated that she only met him 20 minutes ago at bar a few blocks away called Corona's. But Sprayberry later clarified her statement, advising that she had known the man's brother, Jose, for about six months, and had known the passenger for about the same amount of time but not well. So, after speaking with Sprayberry for several minutes, observing her nervousness, listening to her inconsistent responses, and viewing the passenger's fake driver's license, the officer requested consent to search the vehicle. Sprayberry agreed, and the officer then instructed the passenger to exit the vehicle. After he complied, the officer asked the passenger for his name, and he responded with the same name indicated on his license. But when the officer informed him that Sprayberry claimed his name was Jose (even though she had not done so), the passenger identified himself as Alvarez-Maldonado.
By that time, two more officers arrived on the scene, and the officer who initiated the traffic stop began searching Sprayberry's vehicle. Almost immediately, the officer found a sunglasses case in the compartment on the passenger-side door, inside of which was a plastic bag containing a white, powdery substance that appeared to be cocaine. Next, on the floorboard behind the front passenger-side seat, the officer recovered a red Tupperware container, inside of which was a crystal substance the officer believed was methamphetamine. Then, behind the driver's seat, the officer found a small rolling briefcase, inside of which were two more Tupperware containers, one blue and one yellow, also containing what the officer suspected were larger quantities of methamphetamine. And when asked if the rolling briefcase was hers, Sprayberry initially said it was but, upon discovery of the methamphetamine, claimed it belonged to Alvarez-Maldonado. In addition to the drugs, the officer found digital scales and a small blue bag containing over $8,000 in cash in the back seat of the vehicle.
Subsequently, the officer arrested both Sprayberry and Alvarez-Maldonado. In his search incident to Sprayberry's arrest, the officer recovered a cell phone; and in his similar search of Alvarez-Maldonado, he recovered two cell phones and $1,980 in cash. Thereafter, they were placed in separate patrol vehicles, at which point Sprayberry spontaneously told the officer that she had just picked up Alvarez-Maldonado at Corona's in order to deliver methamphetamine to a nearby location and that if the officer let her complete the delivery, he could make additional arrests. A few minutes later, as the officer was driving Sprayberry to the precinct, she repeated her offer. But as the officer was not prepared to initiate an undercover operation, he declined.
The State jointly charged Sprayberry and Alvarez-Maldonado with one count each of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, and possession of drug-related objects. And in the same indictment, the State also charged Alvarez-Maldonado with possession of a false identification document and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer. But prior to trial, Sprayberry—who had a previous conviction on drug-related charges—agreed to plead guilty to trafficking in methamphetamine and testify against Alvarez-Maldonado. Under that agreement, Sprayberry explained that she frequently purchased methamphetamine from a dealer she knew as Jose. On April 27, 2017, she contacted Jose, via cell phone, and arranged to purchase a large amount of methamphetamine. That same day, after texting Jose and his wife that she could not find the address where she was supposed to make the purchase, Jose's wife told her to wait at a nearby pharmacy. There, Alvarez-Maldonado approached her and directed that she follow his vehicle to the purchase location, which she did. The next day, Sprayberry contacted Jose again to inform him that the meth she purchased was bad quality and ask if she could exchange it. Jose agreed, and thus, on April 29, 2019, she went with one of Jose's associates to Corona's where she met Alvarez-Maldonado, who told her that he would ride with her to the address for the exchange. But within minutes of leaving the bar, the officer stopped her vehicle. Sprayberry further asserted that, although the red container, rolling briefcase, and a bag of meth under the seat that the officers never discovered were hers, she had never seen the blue and yellow Tupperware containers found in the briefcase.
The case against Alvarez-Maldonado then proceeded to trial, during which the State presented the foregoing evidence, including Sprayberry's detailed account of the transaction leading up to the April 29 traffic stop. The State also introduced numerous text messages recovered from Sprayberry's cell phone, as well as testimony from the investigating officer who recovered that information, which corroborated the account of her communications with Jose and his wife regarding the drug purchase. Additionally, the State introduced a Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic-chemist report determining that the substance recovered from the Tupperware containers found in the rolling briefcase constituted 296 grams of methamphetamine. Alvarez-Maldonado chose not to testify in his defense. And at the conclusion of the trial, the jury found him guilty on the charges of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of a false identification document, and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.2
Alvarez-Maldonado later obtained new counsel and filed a motion for new trial, arguing, inter alia , that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. The trial court ultimately held a hearing on the matter, during which Alvarez-Maldonado's trial counsel testified regarding his representation. And a few months after the hearing, the trial court denied Alvarez-Maldonado's motion. This appeal follows.
1. Alvarez-Maldonado contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction on the charge of trafficking in methamphetamine. We disagree.
When a criminal conviction is appealed, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence.3 And, of course, in evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence, we "do not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility, but only determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt."4 The jury's verdict will be upheld, then, so "long as there is some competent evidence, even though contradicted, to support each fact necessary to make out the State's case."5 Bearing these guiding principles in mind, we turn to Alvarez-Maldonado's specific challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence.
OCGA § 16-13-31 (e) provides:
Except as authorized by this article, any person who sells, delivers, or brings into this state or has possession of 28 grams or more of methamphetamine, amphetamine, or any mixture containing either methamphetamine or amphetamine, as described in Schedule II, in violation of this article commits the felony offense of trafficking in methamphetamine or amphetamine[.]
And the indictment in this matter charged Alvarez-Maldonado with trafficking in methamphetamine by alleging that he "on the 29th day of April, 2017, did then and there unlawfully possess 200 grams or more of a mixture containing methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance, in violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act...." So, to establish the crime of trafficking in methamphetamine, the State was required to show only that Alvarez-Maldonado "possessed 28 or more grams of methamphetamine."6
Under Georgia law, possession can be "actual or constructive."7 And a person has actual possession of a thing if he "knowingly has direct physical control of it at a given time."8 In addition, a person who—though not in actual possession—"knowingly has both the power and intention at a given time to exercise...
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