Defendant was convicted of selling cocaine, OCGA § 16-13-30 (b), and enumerates as error the court’s permitting the State’s expert witness to identify the substance and state the basis for her conclusion, over his objection.
Before trial defendant invoked OCGA § 17-7-211 for copies of all scientific reports. He was given a document titled “official report.” It described two plastic bags received from the undercover agent and stated the final conclusion of the examining forensic chemist, that the substance in each bag was “positive for cocaine.”
During trial the chemist identified the substances sold to an undercover agent as being cocaine. She stated that she performed three tests, thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy, and the results were all positive. This constituted the basis for her opinion and, together with her qualifications, comprised her entire testimony on direct.
Defendant cross-examined her about the existence of notes and test results generated when she tested the substance which were not given to the district attorney and thus not furnished to defendant. Defendant, objected to the allowance of the chemist’s testimony on the ground that the State had not supplied him with all the scientific reports as required by OCGA § 17-7-211. The objection was overruled.
Defendant relies upon Durden v. State,
The proscription of the code was applied in Durden, supra at 158, because “the scientific evidence which was denied to the defense, in fact comprised the entire substance of the State’s case.” Here, the State’s evidence was not quantitative but related solely to whether the substance was or was not cocaine. Identity of the substance was the issue; quantity and quality were not. The report included what the expert testified, that the substance tested positive for cocaine.
Carson v. State,
Moreover, defendant failed to demonstrate the availability of further scientific reports as described by OCGA § 17-7-211. The Code section does not mandate that notes, graphs, preliminary tests and work product be furnished because they do not constitute scientific reports. Williams v. State,
Judgment affirmed.
