766 So. 2d 981 | Ala. Crim. App. | 2000
The appellant, Ray Thomas Ricketson, was found guilty of trafficking in cocaine and of trafficking in marijuana. He was sentenced to consecutive terms of 15 years' imprisonment on each conviction, with 3 years' imprisonment mandatory. Evidence at trial tended to show that, on September 18, 1998, June Ricketson, the ex-wife of the appellant, picked up a package at the Equality, Alabama, post office; the package was addressed to "Ray Ricketson." Before the package arrived, postal inspectors in Montgomery had been advised that the package might contain illegal drugs. They had obtained a search warrant, had searched the package, and had found marijuana and cocaine inside. They resealed the package and placed it back into the mail. Agents watched Mrs. Ricketson drive home with the package; she left it in the van. They watched the appellant later remove the package from *982 the van, place it in a pontoon boat in the yard, and cover it with a tarpaulin.1 The agents then executed a previously obtained search warrant and retrieved the package from the boat. They also found small amounts of marijuana in a freezer and on a table inside the house. The total weight of the marijuana found in the boat and in the house was in excess of 5 pounds, and the weight of the cocaine was 99.9 grams.
The offenses of trafficking in marijuana and trafficking in cocaine require proof that a person "knowingly" was "in actual or constructive possession" of more than 2.2 pounds of marijuana and more than 28 grams of cocaine. §
In order to prove constructive possession, the State must show that the defendant owned or controlled the premises where the drugs were found and that he had knowledge of the presence of the drugs. Marks v. State,
In the present case, agents observed the appellant hide the contraband that had been mailed to him. Although the appellant claimed that he did not know who had sent the package and claimed that he was not expecting such a package, he did not store it in his house or return it to the post office. Furthermore, the State offered evidence that the appellant had previously received similar packages from the same return address as the package at issue here.2 The appellant admitted in a statement to an Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent that he knew "that there was probably pot in the box" for Arroldo Serrato, Jr., a convicted marijuana trafficker, although he claimed that "[i]t was not for me except for what I was gonna [buy from him and] smoke."3
The evidence offered by the State was sufficient to allow a fair inference that the appellant knew of the presence of the contraband in the package that was mailed to him. With regard to the weight of the evidence, the jurors are the sole judges and can reject witness testimony if they chose. Waldrop v. State,
REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.*
LONG, P.J., and COBB, BASCHAB, and FRY, JJ., concur.