State v. Grady
| Decision Date | 18 October 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 55161,55161 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Thomas Lee GRADY, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Lester C. Johnson, Clarion, for appellant.
Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., Robert D. Jacobson, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Louis Beisser, County Atty., Fort Dodge, for appellee.
Heard before MOORE, C.J., and MASON, RAWLINGS, LeGRAND and REES, JJ.
Defendant was charged by county attorney's information with the crime of illegal sale of narcotic drugs, to-wit: marijuana in violation of section 204.2, The Code, 1971. After defendant's plea of not guilty he was tried to a jury, convicted and sentenced and now appeals. We affirm.
Specifically, defendant was accused of having sold to one Jerry Johnson, an employee of the Department of Public Safety, Division of Narcotic Drug Enforcement, a quantity of a substance represented by defendant to be marijuana. It appears that in the month of April, 1971, Johnson, in connection with his duties as an enforcement agent, was working in Fort Dodge, and became acquainted with one David Orhtman, an admitted user of narcotic drugs, and a convicted felon. Orhtman was working as an informer and put Johnson in contact with defendant.
Orhtman and Johnson first contacted defendant at a dam on the Des Moines River near Fort Dodge on June 9, 1971, at which time an arrangement was made for Grady to sell to Johnson two pounds of marijuana for $200; delivery was to be made at Orhtman's home at six o'clock that same evening. Pursuant to such pre-arrangement, defendant Grady appeared at Ohrtman's residence and delivered to Johnson a brown paperbag containing two cellophane bags each of which were filled, or partially filled, with a substance represented by defendant to be marijuana, and the defendant was thereupon paid the sum of $200 by Johnson.
Immediately after the delivery of the package, Johnson removed a small sample from one of the bags and delivered it to an agent for conducting a field test for the purpose of determining whether the substance was in fact marijuana. The test performed indicated that the substance was not marijuana. Johnson thereupon performed the same field test with the same negative results.
After the performance of the field test, Johnson returned to Fort Dodge, located defendant and attempted to get his money back, claiming he had been sold some bad marijuana, but was told by Grady that the substance was different because it had come from Mississippi, and the defendant refused to refund the money to Johnson, and also refused to exchange the substance previously delivered by him for good marijuana. The package was at all times up to the happening of the above recited events in the possession and under the control of Agent Johnson.
Later that same evening Johnson left the package in Orhtman's car, and it appears that it was on the floor of the front seat of the Orhtman automobile, but was then placed on the floor of the back seat behind the driver's seat. Orhtman picked up a passenger, one Rummel, who was seated in the passenger's side of the front seat of the automobile, and the record discloses that at no time while the substance was in the back seat of the Orhtman automobile did anyone occupy the back seat.
After affording a ride to Rummel, Orhtman drove to his own home and took the package out of the back seat, placed it in the trunk of his car and locked the trunk. The next day he removed the packages from the trunk and put them in the back seat of his car, and later the same day delivered the substance to Mr. Johnson, the agent. The package remained in Johnson's possession until it was delivered by him to the state chemist at Des Moines, who conducted exhaustive tests on the substance. His testing resulted in a determination that one of the two cellophane bags contained a substance which he identified as being entirely parsley leaves, but that the other cellophane bag contained two different types of material, some of which he identified as being marijuana. The packages remained under the control of the chemist, Mr. Chapman, until he carried it into the courtroom with him during the course of the trial of the defendant.
It appears therefore that the substance secured from defendant by Agent Johnson was at all times from and after it left defendant's possession in the possession or under the control of Agent Johnson, Orhtman, or the state chemist, Mr. Chapman. All of the witnesses...
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State v. Lunsford
...1969), and State v. Ubben, 186 N.W.2d 625, 627--628 (Iowa 1971). Marijuana is susceptible to tampering or substitution. State v. Grady, 201 N.W.2d 493 (Iowa 1972); Brewer v. United States, 353 F.2d 260, 261 (8 Cir. 1965). A more elaborate foundation to establish identification is therefore ......
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State v. Tokatlian, s. 54387
...from a challenge of sufficiency of a chain of possession of evidence necessary for admissibility is fully discussed in State v. Grady, 201 N.W.2d 493, 495--496 (Iowa 1972); State v. Ubben, 186 N.W.2d 625, 627--628 (Iowa 1971); and State v. Limerick, 169 N.W.2d 538, 541--542 (Iowa Defendant ......
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State v. Herman, 11715
...1973, Iowa, 204 N.W.2d 613; 22A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 709. Marijuana is an item which is not readily identifiable (see State v. Grady, 1972, Iowa, 201 N.W.2d 493) and, as amply displayed by the testimony in this case, subject to mistaken exchange or substitution as occurred at the prelimina......
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State v. Boose, 55365
...to defendant's novel argument, the statute makes no distinction between marijuana which is 'legal' and 'illegal.' See State v. Grady, 201 N.W.2d 493, 496 (Iowa 1972) (filed October 18, 1972). Marijuana by statutory definition includes specified parts of the plant Cannabis sativa. Defendant ......