Dexter Dewayne Hodges was found guilty by a jury of trafficking in cocaine in violation OCGA § 16-13-31. On appeal, he claims the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. For the following reasons, we agree and reverse. The State jointly indicted Hodges and Erica Shyane Louder alleging that they knowingly possessed more than 400 grams of a mixture containing at least ten percent cocaine. At their joint trial, the State alleged that Hodges and Louder had joint constructive possession of cocaine found by police hidden in a package on the floor behind the driver’s seat in a car driven by Louder and registered to Louder’s mother, and in which Hodges was a passenger in the front seat. In the absence of any evidence showing that Hodges had actual possession of the cocaine, the State relied on circumstantial evidence to prove that Hodges had constructive possession of the cocaine. “A person is in constructive possession of an object when he knowingly has both the power and intention at a given time to exercise dominion over the object.” Wofford v. State , 262 Ga. App. 291, 292 585 SE2d 207 2003. A finding of constructive possession must be based upon some connection between the defendant and the contraband other than spatial proximity. Evidence of mere presence at the scene of the crime, and nothing more to show participation of a defendant in the illegal act, is insufficient to support a conviction. Reid v. State , 212 Ga. App. 787, 788 442 SE2d 852 1994 punctuation and citation omitted; Maxwell v. State , 238 Ga. App. 197, 198 518 SE2d 432 1999. Moreover, when the State’s constructive possession case is based wholly on circumstantial evidence, the law requires that “the proved facts shall not only be consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, but shall exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt of the accused.” Reid , 212 Ga. App. at 789 punctuation and citation omitted.
In support of its case, the State presented evidence that two Henry County police officers were patrolling on Interstate 75 when they saw a car weaving out of its lane of traffic. Concerned that the driver might be impaired, the officers stopped the car to investigate. When Officer Freeman spoke to the driver, Louder, to evaluate her condition, he smelled the odor of marijuana in the car and obtained Louder’s consent to search the car. Officer Amerman got Hodges out of the front passenger seat of the car, patted him down for weapons, found none, and sent him to the rear of the car, where Officer Freeman was standing with Louder. Officer Freemen asked Hodges if there was any marijuana in the car, and Hodges pulled less than an ounce of marijuana in a bag out of his sock and gave it to the officer. Officer Freemen intended to write Hodges a misdemeanor citation for possession of the marijuana and release him, but about that time, Officer Amerman, who was searching the car, found a substantial amount of suspected cocaine in the car. Officer Amerman testified that, behind the driver’s seat on the rear floor of the car, he found “a yellow plastic bag which contained a white shoe box which contained a gray tee shirt which contained a clear plastic bag which contained suspected cocaine.” Both Hodges and Louder were placed under arrest and charged with possession of the cocaine.
