State v. West
| Decision Date | 31 May 2000 |
| Parties | (Mo.App. W.D. 2000) State of Missouri, Respondent, v. Margaret West, Appellant. WD56766 0 |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal From: Circuit Court of Bates County, Hon. William J. Roberts
Opinion Summary: Margaret West appeals from her convictions and sentences following a jury trial for possession of methamphetamine, section 195.202, RSMo 1994, and attempt to manufacture methamphetamine, section 564.011, RSMo 1994.
Division Four holds: The evidence is insufficient to sustain West's convictions of possession of methamphetamine and attempt to manufacture methamphetamine. Because the controlled substances and manufacturing materials were found on jointly-controlled property, the state must provide evidence not only that West had knowledge of the methamphetamine and manufacturing materials, but also that she intended to possess those items. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the evidence was insufficient to prove that methamphetamine and the manufacturing materials were under her control, which was necessary to prove her constructive possession of them.
Margaret West appeals from her convictions and sentences following a jury trial for possession of methamphetamine, section 195.202, RSMo 1994,2 and attempt to manufacture methamphetamine, section 564.011. Ms. West was fined $10,000.00 and sentenced as a prior and persistent offender to two concurrent terms of ten years imprisonment. Because the state failed to produce sufficient evidence to sustain the convictions, the judgment of the trial court is reversed.
On April 17, 1998, law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant to search the home of Margaret West and Terry Shelton based on information they received that drugs were present in the residence. A warranty deed confirmed that Ms. West and Mr. Shelton held the property in joint tenancy. When the officers, including Deputy Sheriff Gary Martin and Missouri State Trooper D.J. Hendrick, arrived at the home, they knocked on the door and asked Ms. West if they could enter the house and speak with her. Instead of immediately executing the search warrant, Deputy Martin told Ms. West that they had reason to believe drugs were present in the house and asked her for permission to look around the house. Ms. West consented to the search. When Deputy Martin asked Ms. West if the house contained any drugs, she told him that she had marijuana in her purse. Ms. West gave the officers the marijuana.
Deputy Martin then asked Ms. West if the house contained any other illegal items. She directed the officers to an office in the house that she identified as Mr. Shelton's room, her joint tenant. Ms. West told the officers that she was not allowed to go into that room and that if anything illegal was present in the house it would be in that office. While the officers were searching the office, Ms. West directed them to a filing cabinet in the room and the officers questioned her about it. She told the officers the locked filing cabinet and its contents belonged to Mr. Shelton and that she did not know the location of the keys. The officers found the keys in the office and opened the filing cabinet. The filing cabinet contained a box of rolling papers, a couple of books about drugs, a mail-order catalog containing information related to ordering ephedrine, approximately two hundred bottles of pseudoephedrine, and $4000.00 in cash. Also in the filing cabinet, the officers found a drug-related catalog entitled "Loompanics Unlimited" with its shipping envelope that had been mailed to Mr. Shelton and blank checks bearing the name "Shelton Trucking." In a desk in the same room, officers found three corners of baggies that are frequently used to package methamphetamine for sale. The officers searched the remainder of the house. In the process of that search, Deputy Martin looked in the refrigerator and freezer in the kitchen, but did not see any illegal items.
After searching the house, Deputy Martin asked Ms. West if a metal shed located approximately 100 feet from the house contained a methamphetamine lab. Ms. West told him that she did not know. Ms. West refused to consent to a search of the shed because she said it belonged to Mr. Shelton. After securing an amended search warrant, the officers entered the locked shed and searched it. The shed contained a number of items commonly used in methamphetamine production. Officers found a flask, tubing, hot plates, rubber gloves, coffee filters, a funnel, a strainer, a blender, lye, cans of acetone, and several jars containing various stages of methamphetamine.
After finding the items in the shed, at the prompting of a Drug Enforcement Administration officer, Deputy Martin reexamined the freezer in the house and found a jar of black liquid partially hidden in the back of the freezer. The black liquid and the various materials found in the house and shed were tested and the tests revealed chemicals related to methamphetamine and its production. The chemicals found included red phosphorus, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and d-methamphetamine hydrochloride. Each of these materials is an ingredient of methamphetamine, a by-product of the manufacturing process, or completed methamphetamine.
Ms. West was charged with possession of methamphetamine and the attempt to manufacture methamphetamine. After trial by a jury, Ms. West was found guilty. The trial judge fined her $10,000.00 and sentenced her to two concurrent ten-year sentences of imprisonment. Ms. West appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence.
This court's review of a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is limited to determining whether sufficient evidence was presented from which a reasonable juror could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Grim, 854 S.W.2d 403, 405 (Mo. banc 1993). The evidence and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom are viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. Id. All contrary inferences are disregarded. Id. Reasonable inferences may be drawn from direct and circumstantial evidence. See id. at 412-13. However, the inferences must be logical, reasonable and drawn from established fact. State v. Friend, 936 S.W.2d 824, 828 (Mo. App. 1996).
Ms. West argues in her sole point on appeal that the trial court erred in overruling her motion for judgment of acquittal. Ms. West contends that the evidence presented was insufficient to prove that she knowingly possessed methamphetamine or that she possessed items with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine. Ms. West argues that the state failed to present sufficient evidence that would permit reasonable inferences that she knew about and exercised control over the methamphetamine and other items which could be used in the manufacturing of methamphetamines present in the house and shed on the jointly-held property.
To convict Ms. West for the possession of methamphetamine the state must prove two elements: (1) that Ms. West had conscious and intentional possession of the controlled substance, either actual or constructive, and (2) that she was aware of the presence and nature of the substance. State v. Purlee, 839 S.W.2d 584, 587 (Mo. banc 1992). Both elements of this test may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Id. "The two prongs of this test are not entirely separate." Id. at 588. If the state lacks proof of actual possession, constructive possession may be proved "when other facts buttress an inference of defendant's knowledge of the presence of the controlled substance." Id. In order to prove constructive possession, the state must, at a minimum, establish that the defendant had access to and control over the premises where the substance was located. Id.
Where a defendant has exclusive control of the premises, this factor alone suffices to raise an inference of possession and control of the controlled substance. Id. In this case, Ms. West did not have exclusive control of the premises since Ms. West and Mr. Shelton owned the property as joint tenants. In order to show that a person in joint control of the premises knows about the presence of illegal substances and has control over those items, the state must present evidence of "some incriminating circumstance" that raises the inference of such knowledge and control. Id. According to the Missouri Supreme Court:
Where a person is present on premises where drugs are found but does not have exclusive use or possession of the premises, it may not be inferred that he had knowledge of the presence of the drugs or had control, so that no submissible case is made. Additional factors are required. Where the defendant is present on the premises and if there are additional independent factors showing his knowledge and control, then that is sufficient to withstand a motion for a directed verdict. To justify a conviction in any case on a charge of possession it is necessary to prove that the accused knew of the presence of the forbidden substance and that the same was under his control. In the absence of incriminating circumstances no case is made.
State v. Wiley, 522 S.W.2d 281, 292 (Mo. banc 1975). Examples of additional incriminating circumstances that may raise the inference of knowledge and control in a joint possession situation include self-incriminating statements, id., consciousness of guilt, State v. Dreiling, 830 S.W.2d 521, 524-25 (Mo. App. 1992), routine access to the place where the controlled substance is located; the commingling of the controlled substance with the defendant's personal belongings, State v. Steward, 844 S.W.2d 31, 33 (Mo. App. 1992), a great quantity of the illegal substance at the scene, State v. Barber, 635 S.W.2d 342, 344 (Mo. 1982), and...
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