Beard v. State

The evidence did not support the defendant's convictions for marijuana possession with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a housing project.

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Kelvin Beard appeals following the trial court’s denial of his motion for new trial after a jury convicted him of one count of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute OCGA § 16-13-30 j and one count of intent to distribute marijuana within 1000 feet of a housing project OCGA § 16-13-32.5. We reverse.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 on November 11, 2003, Larry Bracken and Brian Valle, two narcotics officers with the Richmond County Sheriff’s office, approached a car parked in front of Beard’s residence. Beard was exiting from the driver’s seat of the car, and Braxton Davis Walton, Jr., was sitting in the passenger’s seat. After Officer Bracken, who was dressed in plain clothes, approached the car and displayed his badge, Beard dropped a white plastic grocery bag he was holding. As the bag sat on the ground, Bracken could see what appeared to be bags of marijuana inside. Upon further inspection, Bracken discovered four sandwich bags, with what was later determined to be approximately twenty-eight grams, or one ounce, of marijuana in each. After Beard admitted that he also had a small amount of drugs inside, Bracken requested and received Beard’s consent to search the apartment, where the officers discovered an additional bag containing another 28 grams of marijuana. Bracken testified that the marijuana was “street level,” with an approximate total value in 2003 of $500 to $600. Bracken did not testify that the packaging or amount of the marijuana in this case had any significance, but in response to the prosecution’s inquiry, he stated that a nickel bag, holding less than one gram, was “the smallest quantity of marijuana sold for personal use that he had encountered” as a narcotics investigator. Both officers further testified that Beard’s residence, where this incident occurred, took place in the Overlook Apartments, which Bracken explained was a subsidized housing project owned by the Augusta Housing Authority. Bracken also identified the location of the apartment on an aerial map of the area.

Beard v. State

The evidence did not support the defendant's convictions for marijuana possession with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a housing project.

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