Jordan v. State, 88-1893
| Decision Date | 23 August 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-1893,88-1893 |
| Parties | 14 Fla. L. Weekly 1987 Kenneth JORDAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Sheldon R. Schwartz of Entin, Schwartz, Margules & Schwartz, Miami, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee and Joni B. Braunstein, Asst. Atty. Gen., Miami, for appellee.
Kenneth Jordan, the defendant/appellant, appeals his convictions for trafficking in cocaine and possession of marijuana. There was evidence that Jordan's girlfriend had obtained a rental car through her aunt. Jordan borrowed the car and while driving on the turnpike was stopped by a state trooper for a traffic violation. Jordan's friend, Terrence Rolle, was a passenger in the car. At the trooper's request Jordan removed the rental agreement from the glove box. The trooper became suspicious because Jordan's license was in a different name than that of person named in the rental agreement. The trooper noticed the smell of marijuana on Jordan's person and asked him if he had been smoking marijuana. The trooper testified that Jordan said, "yes"; Jordan testified that he denied smoking marijuana. The trooper asked if he could "look into" Jordan's car and Jordan consented. Inside the glove box an officer discovered a plastic bag with a small amount of marijuana and a small amount of cocaine. Jordan and Rolle were arrested. The state troopers subsequently conducted an inventory search of the entire vehicle and in the trunk found a brown purse with three large packages of cocaine inside. Jordan was charged with trafficking in cocaine and possession of cannabis. Jordan filed a motion to suppress and a motion for judgment of acquittal. Both were denied. This appeal follows. We affirm.
Although the appellant raises several issues we find only one issue merits discussion. Constructive possession exists where the accused without physical possession of the controlled substance knows of its presence on or about his premises and has the ability to maintain control over said controlled substance. To establish constructive possession, the state must show that the accused had dominion and control over the contraband, knew the contraband was within his presence, and knew of the illicit nature of the contraband. If the premises where contraband is found is in joint, rather than exclusive possession of a defendant, however, knowledge of the contraband's presence and the ability to control it will not be inferred from the ownership but must be established by independent proof. Brown v. State, 428 So.2d 250 (Fla.1983); Murphy v. State, 511 So.2d 397 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); Hively v. State, 336 So.2d 127 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976).
As to the drugs found in the glove box, because of the presence of the passenger in the car the glove box was within the joint possession of both Jordan and Rolle. Therefore the state had to establish that Jordan had knowledge and control of those drugs. The record shows that there was evidence to establish that Jordan knew of the presence of the drugs in the glove box because Jordan opened that compartment to get the rental agreement and must have seen the drugs. Further, the evidence of the smell of marijuana on Jordan's person and the evidence that Jordan...
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Sharpe v. State
...find no error in the trial court's denial of appellant's motion for judgment of acquittal or motion for new trial. See Jordan v. State, 548 So.2d 737 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989). We do find imposition of the three-year mandatory minimum to be in error, as the State concedes, because the statutory a......