Champeau v. State
| Decision Date | 15 February 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. F-82-493,F-82-493 |
| Citation | 678 P.2d 1192 |
| Parties | David Gary CHAMPEAU, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Gary David Champeau, appellant, was convicted by a jury in Pottawatomie County District Court Case No. CRF-80-290 of Unlawful Cultivation of Marijuana and Unlawful Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute. He was sentenced by the Hon. Glenn Dale Carter to ten (10) years in prison and a Twenty-Five Thousand Dollar ($25,000.00) fine, and ten (10) years in prison and a Five Thousand Dollar fine, respectively, in accordance with the verdict. On appeal, the Judgment and Sentence is AFFIRMED.
Jack L. Freeman, Edmond, for appellant.
Jan Eric Cartwright, Atty. Gen. of Oklahoma, Patrick W. Willison, Asst. Atty. Gen., Oklahoma City, for appellee.
David Gary Champeau and two co-defendants were convicted of Unlawful Cultivation of Marijuana and Possession of Marijuana With Intent to Distribute. Champeau was sentenced to two consecutive ten-year prison terms, and fines of $25,000 and $5,000, respectively.
On appeal, he contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts. The evidence at trial established the following: On the morning of October 2, 1980, lawmen acting on a tip followed one of the appellant's co-defendants from a residence in Norman, Oklahoma, to a tract of land in Pottawatomie County. A second co-defendant arrived shortly thereafter. The men were seen entering the land through what appeared to be a locked gate. Based upon information from a confidential informant, their own observations, and an aerial inspection of the property, the officers obtained a search warrant.
The officers were forced to break a key operated padlock on the gate in order to enter the fenced property and execute the warrant. In response to their command, appellant exited a house trailer on the land. The co-defendants were later seen driving past the property in a pickup truck, and were apprehended a few miles away.
The search of the house trailer revealed drying racks in the bedroom and cut marijuana. A semi-trailer eighty yards northwest of the house trailer contained additional drying racks and marijuana. Two fields of marijuana were discovered one hundred yards west of the house trailer. The fields were irrigated by means of water sprinklers elevated on poles six or seven feet above the ground, connected to water hoses controlled from a pump house near the house trailer. A total of four tons of marijuana was seized from the tract.
Bills and a piece of mail bearing appellant's name and a Norman address were found in the living room of the house trailer. The mail was propped against a wall behind two jars containing marijuana, one of which was labeled "stash." Several photographs were seized from the living room. One showed appellant seated on the couch in the living room, shirtless and smoking a cigarette. The others depicted appellant and/or his co-defendants posing in the midst of tall plants identified as marijuana.
Under the facts of this case,
[w]here a person is present in premises where marijuana is found, but does not have exclusive access, use, or possession of the premises, it may not be inferred that he had knowledge of the presence of marihuana and had control of it unless there are additional independent factors showing his knowledge and control.
Brown v. State, 481 P.2d 475 (Okl.Cr.1971), Syllabus 3. We find sufficient additional factors beyond appellant's mere presence on the premises to indicate his knowledge and at least joint control of the contraband. He was within a locked compound containing fields of growing marijuana and structures with processing facilities. At the time of the raid he was the sole occupant of the house trailer. Personal papers, including the three week old letter, were in the living room of the trailer. Photographic evidence depicted appellant and the co-defendants in a field of growing marijuana plants. Moreover, the sheer quantity of drug seized, coupled with a large quantity of small plastic bags found in the house trailer and scales in the semi-trailer, support a finding of intent to distribute.
The evidence was also sufficient to establish that appellant unlawfully cultivated marijuana on land under his control, 63 O.S.1981, § 2-509(1), or aided and abetted such activity, 21 O.S.1981, § 172. A cultivation operation was clearly underway on the tract, including irrigation, and appellant's connection with the operation was sufficiently shown. Especially significant in this regard are the photographs, one of which depicts appellant apparently measuring the length of a branch of one plant with his forearm.
Appellant challenges the admission of the evidence against him. He argues that the photographs were not sufficiently connected with the property in question. He states that he was clean shaven in the photographs but heavily bearded at the time of arrest, indicating a substantial length of time between the photos and the events in question. It is sufficient to point out that the photographs actually show that appellant was at least partially bearded at the time they were taken. State's Exhibits Nos. 36, 37, 38 and 39.
Appellant also argues that the photographs were not proven to depict the land in question. The probative value of photographs depends upon their accuracy, and they must be shown by extrinsic evidence to be faithful representations of the place or subject as it existed at the time involved in the controversy. Shockey v. State, 524 P.2d 33 (Okl.Cr.1974). However, preliminary questions concerning the admissibility of evidence shall be determined by the trial court, subject to the provision that when the relevancy of evidence depends upon the fulfillment of a condition of fact, the judge shall admit it upon, or subject to, the introduction of evidence sufficient to support a finding of the fulfillment of the condition. 12 O.S.1981, § 2105(A) and (B).
We find sufficient evidence to support the admission of the photographs. In the background of one of the pictures is a device atop a pole several feet above the ground similar to the elevated irrigation devices found on the land in question. Compare State's Exhibit No. 36 with State's Exhibits Nos. 7, 8 and 13. Moreover, that the photographs depict the same three men amid growing marijuana as were arrested on or near the land in question, and that the photographs were found on the premises, are highly significant.
Finally, appellant argues that all the evidence seized pursuant to the search warrant should have been suppressed due to the unconstitutionality of the search. We find it unnecessary to consider his arguments in this regard, since he has failed to show that his personal rights were violated in any manner.
With regard to appellant's Fourth Amendment contentions, whether the appellant had standing to bring a Fourth Amendment challenge must first be determined before inquiry can be made concerning violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Meeks v. State, 637 P.2d...
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