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Johnson v. State

Defendant's mere presence outside his sister's house did not support his conviction for possession of the drugs found in a bedroom occupied by his sister's children.

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Travis Johnson and his sister were convicted of possessing cocaine in violation of OCGA § 16-13-30 a. Johnson appeals, arguing the sufficiency of the evidence. Since there is no evidence which connects Johnson to the cocaine found in his sister’s residence, we reverse.

When a defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for his criminal conviction, we construe the evidence in favor of the verdict to determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the charged crime.1 Here the evidence showed that on the day in question police three times saw Johnson outside his sister’s residence-once beside the apartment house, once on the apartment’s porch with another person, and once in a crowd of 15 or more people gathered around a grill outside the apartment for a cookout. When police executed a search warrant for drugs in the apartment, the only person they found in the apartment was the sister.

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