State v. Harris

• Decision Date: 07 October 1960
• Docket Number: No. A--614,A--614
• Citation: 164 A.2d 369,63 N.J.Super. 184
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Roosevelt HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 184

63 N.J.Super. 184

164 A.2d 369

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Roosevelt HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. A--614.

Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division.

Argued Sept. 20, 1960.

Decided Oct. 7, 1960.

Sanford M. Jaffe, Asst. Pros., Newark, for plaintiff-respondent (Brendan T. Byrne, County Pros. of Essex County, Newark, attorney; Milton Diamond, Livingston, of counsel and on the brief).

Robert E. Cowen, Newark, for defendant-appellant (Schreiber, Lancaster & Demos, Newark, attorneys).

Before Judges PRICE, GAULKIN and SULLIVAN.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

SULLIVAN, J.A.D.

Defendant Roosevelt Harris, having waived trial by jury, was tried and convicted in the Essex County Court upon two indictments, one of which charged him with unlawful possession of a narcotic drug, and the other with unlawfully dispensing a narcotic drug to one Marzene Jones; both contrary to R.S. 24:18--4, N.J.S.A. He was sentenced to State Prison for a term of two to three years on each charge and fined $50, the sentences to run concurrently.

His appeal in the main relies on the following grounds. First, that his trial on the two indictments constituted double jeopardy because, on the same facts and growing out of the same circumstances, defendant had previously been tried in the municipal court on a disorderly person charge that he was a narcotics user, contrary to N.J.S. 2A:170--8, N.J.S.A., and acquitted. Second, that the record is barren of any evidence that defendant 'dispensed' narcotics. Third, that the State did not prove, nor did the trial judge find, that defendant's possession of the narcotic drug was 'the aggravated form of possession' allegedly held in State v. Reed, 62 N.J.Super. 303, 162 A.2d 873 (App.Div.1960), to be an essential element of the crime charged.

Defendant's claim of double jeopardy is invalid. The municipal court only passed upon the disorderly person charge that defendant was a narcotics user. It did not adjudicate the question whether defendant committed the indictable offenses of possessing a narcotic drug and dispensing a narcotic drug. The crime of being a narcotics user is not a component part of the crimes of possessing and dispensing narcotics. One can be a possessor or dispenser without being a user. It is obvious here that separate and distinct offenses were involved, and while they are set against the same background, different factual situations requiring separate proofs were involved. See State v. Labato, 7 N.J. 137, 80 A.2d 617 (1951).

Defendant next claims that there is no proof that he dispensed a narcotic drug. For the purposes of this point defendant admits that marijuana was in his possession, but denies that there is any evidence that he dispensed it.

On this score Marzene Jones, who appeared as a State's witness, testified that he was one of the three passengers in a car driven by defendant; that there had been talk among the occupants about marijuana; that defendant exhibited a paper bag (later shown to contain marijuana) and when the witness asked him for some, defendant showed him the bag and put it down on the car seat. Defendant then stopped the car and Jones went into a drug store and bought cigarette papers. Upon his return to the car each of the occupants with the exception of defendant rolled cigarettes, using the marijuana, and...