Bryant Hughes v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.), 49A02-1602-CR-217

Officers King and Lemrick went to Hughes’s home around midnight to serve an arrest warrant; porch was dark and they used flashlights.
Officers placed Hughes under arrest and conducted a search incident to arrest while Hughes sat on the porch.
Officer King emptied Hughes’s pockets and placed the removed items on an initially empty chair on the porch; Officer Lemrick then pointed out a small plastic bag containing a white substance among those items.
The substance was tested and confirmed to be 0.24 grams of cocaine; State charged Hughes with Level 6 felony possession of cocaine.
At bench trial Hughes denied knowledge of the cocaine; the trial court found Officer King’s testimony credible that the chair had been empty before the search and concluded the cocaine came from Hughes’s pockets.
Hughes appealed, arguing the evidence was insufficient to prove possession; the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to prove possession of cocaine	State: Officer King’s testimony and the placement of Hughes’s effects on an empty chair support actual possession	Hughes: Officer King’s inconsistent testimony about whether the bag was on the chair or in Officer Lemrick’s hand creates reasonable doubt	Court affirmed: evidence was sufficient to support a finding of actual possession

Bailey v. State, 979 N.E.2d 133 (Ind. 2012) (standard for reviewing sufficiency of evidence)
Gray v. State, 957 N.E.2d 171 (Ind. 2011) (definition of actual possession)
Washington v. State, 902 N.E.2d 280 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009) (possessory offense can be actual or constructive)
Boarman v. State, 509 N.E.2d 177 (Ind. 1987) (contraband found after verifying area was clear supports actual possession)
Polk v. State, 683 N.E.2d 567 (Ind. 1997) (similar to Boarman; contraband discovered after initial negative inspection can support conviction)