Armand v. State, 64592
| Decision Date | 26 October 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 64592,64592 |
| Parties | ARMAND v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Roman A. DeVille, Atlanta, for appellant.
Robert E. Wilson, Dist. Atty., Michael M. Sheffield, Susan Brooks, Asst. Dist. Attys., Decatur, for appellee.
Albert Armand appeals from his conviction by jury for trafficking in drugs, and mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years without eligibility for parole and $250,000 fine. The sole issue raised on appeal is the denial of his motion for directed verdict of acquittal on the ground that an unbroken chain of decisions holds the factual situation presented here to warrant acquittal as a matter of law.
The testimony of appellant and his wife established the following facts. Appellant's wife was a flight attendant for Eastern Air Lines. On or about August 9, 1981, her former roommate and longtime friend, Nancy Stone, came to enlist her aid in helping a friend of Stone's who was in trouble. Stone told appellant and his wife that her friend, Robbie Helms, had a sister who was in jail on a drug charge. Helms was a paid police informant working for several police departments who, according to Stone, needed a new face to help trap a big drug dealer named Eric in order to get his sister a more lenient sentence. Helms told appellant he needed someone who was "not involved with the police on the one hand [or] with drugs on the other hand" and "didn't even look the part."
At that time appellant was employed at the Georgia Radio Reading Service, a Christian reading service for the blind, while also working as a recording engineer and studio manager at ADC Recording Studio, which records religious, gospel and inspirational music. Prior to that he had worked as a researcher, interviewer and programmer at Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters, an independent production company broadcasting religious programs. According to appellant's statement, his sole experience with drugs of any kind had been to smoke marijuana once while in high school. This resulted in a three-day migraine headache, and he never tried it again.
Appellant contends he was reluctant to become involved in Helms' scheme but he agreed to talk to Eric, whom he found to be so arrogant and offensive that he decided to cooperate with the police to catch him. Helms introduced appellant to Eric on August 18 or 19, and they set up the first "buy," which was to be a sample of a pound of cocaine that appellant was to sell him for $26,000. Helms supplied appellant with both the sample and the main portion of the cocaine, which appellant thought was going to be a "sham" substance. Eric, however, turned out to be an undercover police investigator from DeKalb County Police Department, and at the time the drugs and money were exchanged it was appellant who was arrested.
The investigator testified that Helms had worked for him in the past as a confidential informant, that he had paid Helms $200 for the information leading to appellant's arrest and that Helms' sister was released from jail after serving only ten days when he "informed the Assistant District Attorney of the contribution of the brother." After the initial "sample" sale, the investigator dealt directly with appellant, with negotiations including numerous telephone conversations taking almost a month until the final sale was accomplished on September 15, 1981. Two tape recordings made by the investigator of conversations with appellant were played for the jury. The investigator had no prior knowledge of appellant and all he knew about him was information received from Helms that appellant had access to and would be willing to sell large amounts of cocaine. Appellant had no criminal record.
The evidence showed that the 452 grams of substance seized was only 25% pure cocaine, which was below average for this quantity. A quarter pound of pure cocaine could be purchased for $5,000 to $8,000 by anyone with the right connections and 3/4 pound of sugar, the cutting agent used here, for $.75. Both Helms and his sister were familiar with the drug scene and would have been able to set up the sale to secure her release from jail. However, the investigator testified that Helms had nothing to do with his setting up the sale and, in fact "did not know when the thing was going down."
While the police investigator testified that Helms said appellant was a long-time drug dealer, Helms was not called by the state as a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Goolsby v. State, 74789
...sufficient to raise a jury question as to whether [defendant] was entrapped into the commission of the crime." Armand v. State, 164 Ga.App. 350, 352, 296 S.E.2d 734 (1982) (where, as in the case at hand, there was evidence that after the initial sale of drugs, which had been arranged by the......
- Mathis v. State
-
Wright v. State
...the state did present evidence rebutting Wright's defense, no grounds for reversal have been presented here. See Armand v. State, 164 Ga.App. 350, 352, 296 S.E.2d 734 (1982). 2. Wright contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for new trial because the indictment alleged he ......