State v. Purvis

Citations

• 227 Conn. App. 188

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of, inter alia, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell by a person who is not drug-dependent, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant was arrested during an investigation and search of an apartment. When the police entered the apartment, the defendant turned and ran down a hallway, dropping six small bags of crack cocaine, which were individu- ally wrapped in plastic. He then fled to a bathroom, where he was found attempting to ingest narcotics, which the arresting police officer forced him to spit out. The narcotics that fell out of the defendant's mouth were six pieces of cocaine, each wrapped in plastic, and two glassine bags containing a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell: contrary to the defendant's argument, there was no requirement that an individual must have pos- sessed a certain quantity of narcotics to support a finding of an intent to sell; moreover, the fact that the state did not present any evidence establishing that the defendant had engaged in a sale of narcotics was not dispositive of a lack of intent to sell; furthermore, the state presented sufficient circumstantial evidence to support an inference that the defen- dant intended to sell the narcotics found in his possession, as it was undisputed that the defendant was present in a location known as a crack house that was associated with narcotics dealing and use, that he was in the company of four individuals known to law enforcement as drug users, and he was in the possession of fourteen individually packaged units of narcotics and $2126 in cash. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction of posses