State v. Crewe

Citations

• 193 Conn. App. 564

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of possession of a narcotic sub- stance, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. The defendant's conviction stemmed from an incident in which two police officers, C and R, while patrolling an area known for drug use, located the defendant and two other individuals, Y and M, inside of a van that was parked behind bushes. After C observed two bundles of heroin on the center console next to the defendant's left leg, the police conducted a search of the van, which revealed the presence of heroin. Heroin was also found on the person of M. In prosecuting the case, the state pursued the theory that although the defendant did not physically possess narcotic sub- stances on his person at the time of the arrest, he constructively pos- sessed at least some of the narcotics found in the van. Held that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to draw a reasonable inference that the defendant constructively possessed at least some of the narcotics to support the defendant's conviction, as the jury reasonably could have inferred, on the basis of the totality of the circumstances, that the defendant knew of the presence of the narcotics in the van and exercised dominion and control over the narcotics: C testified that the van was parked in the rear of an otherwise vacant parking lot in broad daylight and was concealed by a cluster of bushes so that it was not visible from the street, the area was known for traffic in narcotics, the location of the van raised C's suspicions, the defendant quickly reached behind the driver's seat as C approached the van, and a subsequent search of the vehicle revealed that a large bag containing small rubber bands and a white powder that later tested positive for heroin was present where the defendant had reached, which supported the inference that the defendant hastily attempted to conceal the substance he knew was illegal and exercised