Pitts v. State

A Fulton County jury found Orlando Pitts guilty of trafficking in cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana-less than an ounce, which charges arose after Pitts was stopped by Atlanta Police Officer J. L. Stafford for a traffic violation at the intersection of Metropolitan and Wells Street in Atlanta, and marijuana was discovered in plain view on the front driver’s seat of Pitts’ vehicle; from a subsequent search of Pitts, the passenger/co-defendant Darlene Harmon, and Pitts’ vehicle, Stafford seized 69.5 grams of cocaine packaged in three separate bags, and 28 grams of marijuana packaged in five separate bags. Pitts appeals and raises numerous claims of error and sub-parts thereto in a seventy-page brief.1 Upon careful review of Pitts’ contentions, we find as follows. 1. In his first claim of error, Pitts makes several arguments by which he attempts to demonstrate that the trial court erred in admitting all of the bags of drugs contained in State’s Exhibits 1 and 2 without proper “authentication” of each bag.

a The record shows that State’s Exhibit 1 contained the five seized bags of marijuana, and State’s Exhibit 2 contained the three seized bags of cocaine. Only one bag in State’s Exhibit 1 and one bag in State’s Exhibit 2 were tested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory “GBI Crime Lab” and identified as marijuana and cocaine, respectively. Because of this, Pitts claims that seizing officer J. L. Stafford could not “authenticate” the contents of all of the bags contained in State’s Exhibits 1 and 2, thereby rendering both exhibits inadmissible. We disagree.