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Commonwealth v. Sanchez

Citations

  • 40 Mass. App. Ct. 411
  • 664 N.E.2d 868
  • 1996 Mass. App. LEXIS 163

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • conviction reversed where jury may have taken an erroneous route to its guilty verdict
  • evidence sufficient that passenger constructively possessed drugs found in suitcase in trunk
  • police found birth certificate, beeper bill addressed to the defendant, business cards with beeper number; jury could make probable inference that the defendant, with small build, owned the small-sized clothing in a suitcase that also contained drugs
  • evidence that defendant exercised control over vehicle, possessed beeper, and his birth certificate and personal papers were found in trunk near suitcase containing his clothes and cocaine was sufficient to permit inference of knowledge of cocaine
  • defendant driver’s control of vehicle was of equal significance to ownership
  • joint venture appropriate where participants act together toward a common end and where it is unnecessary “to decide who was a principal and who a helper — for each is guilty whether acting in one or the other role or successively in both”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Kaplan

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

21 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

34 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Other cases with this name

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.