State v. Gray

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of possession of narcotics with intent to sell, the defendant appealed to this court. After observing a suspected narcotics transaction between the defendant and D, police officers recovered crack cocaine on D and seized $1268 in cash from the defendant. Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion for discovery requesting that the state produce the money seized during his arrest. The state responded that it could not produce the exact currency because the police department, in accordance with its policy, had deposited those funds immediately into a secure bank account. The defendant subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him or, in the alternative, to suppress any evidence relating to the currency, which the trial court denied. Also prior to trial, the state provided the defendant with a copy of a forensic lab report describing the narcotics as being contained within ''knotted plastic,'' which contradicted certain other pretrial statements. The defendant argued that these discrepancies pre- sented a chain of custody issue and requested that his standby counsel subpoena the lab for any photographs taken of the seized narcotics. At trial, a forensic lab employee produced two photographs of the narcotics as initially received by the lab, which were admitted into evidence as a defense exhibit, and testified that the narcotics appeared to be contained within a knotted plastic bag. The defendant presented testimony, during his case-in-chief, that the narcotics were ''loose'' when recovered by the police, and not placed into a plastic bag, then moved for a judgment of acquittal based on the chain of custody issue. After the state recalled certain witnesses on rebuttal, the trial court denied the defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal. When the defendant asked to call additional lab employees as witnesses, the state presented additional testimony from forensic lab employees and introduced an enlarged c