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Buckner v. State

The trial court properly declined to charge the jury on the law of equal access, since there was no evidence that anyone other than the defendant had access to the drugs officers found in his car, the defendant testified that his girlfriend had nothing to do with the drugs, and the State did not rely on the defendant's ownership of the car to establish possession nor was the jury charged on that presumption.

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A Spalding County jury found Christopher Buckner guilty of trafficking in a controlled substance, MDMA “Ecstacy”, a violation of OCGA § 16-13-31.1 e.1 Buckner appeals from the order denying his motion for a new trial, contending that the evidence was insufficient, that his trial counsel was ineffective, and that the trial court erred in admitting his statement and in refusing to give a jury charge on equal access. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict,2 the record reveals the following relevant facts. On April 28, 2007, while patrolling Interstate 75 in Spalding County, a Spalding County deputy noticed a car following a truck too closely. The deputy stopped the driver of the car, Buckner, with the intention of issuing him a warning. Buckner’s girlfriend and her three-year-old child were in the back seat. The deputy testified that Buckner seemed very nervous and that he was breathing heavily and kept moving back and forth. While his partner was writing up the warning citation, the deputy asked Buckner for permission to search the car. Buckner responded by repeatedly stating that “we’re church people; we don’t mess around” and “we sing in a church band,” which the deputy found suspicious. The deputy got his drug dog from his patrol car, walked the dog around Buckner’s car, and the dog alerted on the driver’s side door. The deputy then radioed for assistance.

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