State v. Koch, 55939
| Decision Date | 16 January 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 55939,55939 |
| Citation | 214 N.W.2d 202 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Robert Allen KOCH, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Keith A. Beekley, Sioux City, for appellant.
Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., Raymond W. Sullins, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Zigmund Chwirka, Woodbury County, Atty., for appellee.
Heard before MOORE, C.J., and MASON, REES, UHLENHOPP, and HARRIS, JJ.
This appeal is from a conviction of possession of methamphetamine, a controlled substance. The evidence is conflicting on some points. The jury could find the following from the evidence.
Mrs. Raymond Harris owned a Studebaker car. At about 9:30 o'clock on the night in question, near Sioux City, Iowa, defendant Robert Allen Koch was riding as a passenger in the car on the right side of the front seat. Raymond Harris was riding in the middle of the front seat, another man was driving, and two other men were riding in the back seat.
An Iowa Highway patrolman stopped the car because its taillights were defective. After telling the driver that the lights were out of order, the patrolman returned to his car to make out a repair card. The partolman testified:
'At this time I noticed an arm come out of the right front door of the passenger side of the vehicle I had stopped. This arm was from where the defendant was sitting. Door went back closed and the arm went back in and then about one minute later the defendant opened the door, got out of the vehicle and as he got out he looked at me, walked over to the shoulder of the road where the concrete ends and the grass begins and turned his back to me and then turned and got back in the vehicle. I can't say for sure I saw him do anything while he was over by the grass.
The patrolman went to the right side of the car and directed his flashlight under the car and also toward the grass. He had the driver sign the repair card and directed his flashlight into the car. He saw a radio lying halfway under the front seat. He testified:
I asked the driver where the radio had come from and he said it came from a Dodge car sitting somewhere in Sioux City. I asked if they would let me look at it and they got out of the vehicle. (He later testified he said, "Would you get out please,' something to that effect.') The left side front and back doors were tied together and they got out the right side. I walked to the right side and stuck my head in the car. I picked up the radio and could smell the burning odor of marijuana in the vehicle. I then saw the ash tray of the vehicle and a pack of Camel cigarettes.
The patrolman picked up the ash tray and the pack of cigarettes. Two cigarettes in the pack were handrolled.
Thereupon the patrolman placed the five men under arrest and called for assistance. Other officers arrived, and one of them found two tin boxes in the grass off the passenger-side of the car. One was an Anacin box and the other was white in color. The boxes were dry although the grass was damp. They contained white powder.
The patrolman obtained a warrant to search the car. Behind the back seat he found a tin aspirin box also containing white powder. The officers also found a syringe and a spoon, but the record is unclear about that.
Subsequent tests showed that the two handrolled cigarettes contained marijuana and the three tin boxes contained methamphetamine. The syringe and spoon themselves contained nothing that tests revealed.
The county attorney charged the five men with possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine. Four of them pleaded guilty. Defendant did not formally enter a plea, but he did stand trial and make defense.
Before trial, defendant moved to suppress the objects found in and beside the car. The motion was overruled on August 10, 1972.
Trial began October 31, 1972. The State introduced evidence of the matters we have recited. One witness testified that methamphetamine powder is normally injected with a syringe. When evidence was adduced about the objects found, defendant made no objection. The objects were marked and offered into evidence as exhibits ABC, and D. The prosecutor stated he offered exhibit B, the pack of cigarettes, for the limited purpose of corroboration. Defendant through his then counsel made this objection I will object to it for the reason that the same is irrelevant, immaterial. It was presented without proper foundation particularly in regard to B. I will also object to that which is the spoon and syringe, D, in that the testimony indicated that there was no chemical analysis of it for lack of a substance to analyze, and therefore does not tend to prove anything.
The court overruled the objection.
As a witness at the trial, Raymond Harris sought to take responsibility for possession of the methamphetamine. He testified that it was he rather than defendant who had the items and threw the tin boxes into the grass.
The jury found defendant Koch guilty and the court sentenced him. He appealed.
In his appeal, defendant assigns four errors but they amount to three...
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...trial the physical evidence was produced, identified, and offered. This situation comes within the general rule illustrated by State v. Koch, 214 N.W.2d 202 (Iowa); State v. Salazar, 213 N.W.2d 490 (Iowa); and State v. Hinsey, 200 N.W.2d 810 (Iowa). To preserve error, defendant had to objec......
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