State v. McLaurin
| Decision Date | 07 July 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 249PA86,249PA86 |
| Citation | 320 N.C. 143,357 S.E.2d 636 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Evelyn McLAURIN. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen., by Augusta B. Turner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for State.
Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Appellate Defender by Geoffrey G. Mangum, Asst. Appellate Defender, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant was tried for conspiracy to traffic in heroin, possession of cocaine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The trial court dismissed the conspiracy charge at the close of the State's evidence. The jury acquitted defendant on the possession of cocaine charge but found her guilty of possession of drug paraphernalia. The Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, found no error. We reverse for insufficiency of the evidence.
As part of an undercover investigation, agents from the State Bureau of Investigation were posted to watch a house at 106 Starhill Avenue in Fayetteville on 19 January 1984. At defendant's trial, a police officer testified that the agents had seen two men, Edward McLaurin and Horace King, enter and leave the house. These two men were later arrested for their roles in illegal drug transactions exposed by the investigation.
Pursuant to a search warrant, officers combed the Starhill Avenue house the evening of 19 January 1984. In the kitchen the officers found a set of Deering scales, which one officer testified are "often found and associated with measuring drugs for sale." The scales, a brown vial found in the pocket of a man's overcoat hanging in a closet near the living room, and a plastic baggie found on a bar between the living and dining rooms all bore traces of a white powder later tested and determined to be cocaine residue. A box containing a spoon, eighteen small tin foil squares, and a plastic bag were found in a drawer full of children's clothing in a bedroom apparently occupied by children. The officer testified that he was familiar with the use of tin foil squares to package cocaine or, more typically, heroin.
In a crawl space beneath the house, officers found three marked one hundred dollar bills from the undercover drug transaction that had occurred earlier in the day, and, in the bushes behind the house, they found a bar of mannitol, which one officer testified is sometimes used as a cutting agent in the manufacture of heroin.
In addition to the drug paraphernalia, the officers seized photographs of defendant and Edward McLaurin. The officers also seized a notice of reduction in payments of aid to dependent children and a Medicaid identification card bearing the name of "Evelyn McNeill." Upon her arrest, defendant gave her name as "Evelyn McNeill McLaurin" and her address as 106 Starhill Avenue.
Defendant presented no evidence at trial. She moved for dismissal at the close of the State's evidence. As indicated above, the trial court granted defendant's motion only as to the charge of conspiracy to traffic in heroin, and defendant was acquitted of a charge of possession of cocaine. She was convicted of misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia and sentenced to two years imprisonment.
The Court of Appeals held that the trial court had properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the charge of possessing drug paraphernalia, since the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find that defendant had constructive possession of the seized paraphernalia. It also held that guns seized pursuant to the same warrant were properly admitted because they were relevant to the dismissed charge of conspiracy to traffic in heroin. We reverse as to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the charge of possession of drug paraphernalia; we thus need not reach the question of whether the guns were properly admitted.
Defendant was convicted of violating N.C.G.S. 90-113.22, which provides, in pertinent part:
(a) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly use, or to possess with intent to use, drug paraphernalia to ... manufacture, compound, convert, produce, process, prepare, test, analyze, package, repackage, store, contain, or conceal a controlled substance which it would be unlawful to possess.
N.C.G.S. 90-113.22 (1985). A person has actual possession when she has "both the power and the intent to control ... disposition or use." State v. Baxter, 285 N.C. 735, 738, 208 S.E.2d 696, 698 (1974); State v. Harvey, 281 N.C. 1, 12, 187 S.E.2d 706, 714 (1972). This Court has recognized numerous times that constructive possession is...
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State v. Baublitz, Jr.
.... is nonexclusive, constructive possession . . . may not be inferred without other incriminating circumstances. State v. McLaurin, 320 N.C. 143, 146, 357 S.E.2d 636, 638 (1987) (internal quotations and citations omitted). Our Court has also held that constructive possession can be inferred ......
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State v. Butler
...linking her to those items, her control was insufficiently substantial to support a conclusion of her possession...." 320 N.C. 143, 147, 357 S.E.2d 636, 638 (1987). In State v. Ledford evidence that: (1) a defendant was seen picking up objects from the ground in a public place where drugs w......
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State v. Miller
...v. McLaurin, the defendant was convicted of possession of drug paraphernalia under a constructive possession theory. 320 N.C. 143, 144, 357 S.E.2d 636, 637 (1987). Law enforcement searched the defendant's residence pursuant to a search warrant and found drug paraphernalia which contained tr......
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State Of North Carolina v. Ferguson, COA09-1048.
...control its disposition or use.’ ” State v. Steele, ---N.C.App. ----, ----, 689 S.E.2d 155, 158 (2010) (citing State v. McLaurin, 320 N.C. 143, 146, 357 S.E.2d 636, 638 (1987), and quoting State v. Reid, 151 N.C.App. 420, 428-29, 566 S.E.2d 186, 192 (2002)). In this case, the fact that Defe......