Moseley v. State ( 2020 )

Maurice Malik Moseley v. State, No. 0137 of the 2019 Term, Opinion by Moylan, J.
HEADNOTE:
UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF AMMUNITION – THE CONTENTIONS –
AN EVIDENTIARY ADDENDUM – ODDITY OF ODDITIES – CONSTRUCTIVE
POSSESSION – THE JIGSAW PUZZLE OF 5 PEBBLE DRIVE – DRAMATIS
PERSONAE – CONTRABAND: WHAT AND WHERE – CIRCUMSTANTIAL
PROOF OF POSSESSION – PROXIMITY: WHERE AND WHEN – VIEW OR
KNOWLEDGE – THE TIME FACTOR – THERE WAS NO CLEAR VIEW – THE
MALE OCCUPANT OF THE BACK BEDROOM – MARYLAND CASELAW –
OWNERSHIP OR OTHER POSSESSORY CONTROL OF THE PREMISES –
MUTUAL USE AND ENJOYMENT OF AMMUNITION – OUT OF NOTHING,
NOTHING – POSTSCRIPT
Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County
Case No. D-07-CR-18-006774
REPORTED
IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS
OF MARYLAND
No. 0137
September Term, 2019
_____________________________________
MALIK MAURICE MOSELEY
V.
STATE OF MARYLAND
Kehoe,
Arthur,
Moylan, Charles E., Jr.
(Senior Judge, Specially Assigned),
_____________________________________
Opinion by Moylan, J.
_____________________________________
Filed: April 8, 2020
Pursuant to Maryland Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act
(§§ 10-1601 et seq. of the State Government Article) this document
is authentic.
Suzanne Johnson
2020-07-20 15:12-04:00
Suzanne C. Johnson, Clerk
The most unexciting of cases may occasionally possess a hidden analytic gravitas
that it would be imprudent to ignore. The seeming insignificance may arise from the fact
that the case does not go to the hard core of criminality but lies only on the fringe of
criminality (or, more precisely, on the fringe of proof of criminality). In dealing, as we are
herein, with a possessory crime, mere constructive possession lacks much of the drama of
actual possession. We lack eyewitness testimony, and are fed only the thin gruel of
permissive inferences arising out of surrounding circumstances. A real bird in the hand is
always more exciting than two constructive birds in the bush.
This slippage of serious attention is aggravated exponentially, moreover, when the
object of possession is not of the primary contraband that drives the investigation and the
prosecution but is only secondary or coincidental contraband left over as so much trial
detritus. When, as in the case now before us, all issues with respect to the unlawful
possession of contraband narcotics had been resolved and the lustre of the trial had faded,
we were left only with the unlawful possession of ammunition. What hidden significance,
if any, might lurk therein?
The appellant, Malik Maurice Moseley, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Anne
Arundel County by a jury, presided over by Judge Glenn L. Klavans, of the unlawful
possession of ammunition. He was sentenced by Judge Klavans to the maximum term of
one year’s imprisonment.
The Contentions
On appeal, he raises three contentions:
1. The evidence was not legally sufficient to support the conviction for the
possession of ammunition;
2. The State, in closing argument to the jury, misstated the law with respect to
constructive possession; and
3. Judge Klavans erroneously failed to give a supplemental instruction following
two questions by the jury.
The appellant failed, by way of timely objection, to preserve for appellate review
either the second or the third contention. Maryland Rule 8-131(a) provides that “the
appellate court will not decide any other issue (other than the jurisdiction of the trial court)
unless it plainly appears by the record to have been raised in or decided by the trial court.”
We are not inclined, moreover, to overlook non-preservation by way of noticing plain error.
We will deal, therefore, only with the first contention.
An Evidentiary Addendum
Our exclusive focus will be on the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support the
conviction for the unlawful possession of ammunition by a prohibited person 1. Our focus
is at best slightly skewed, however, by two factors. The first is that ammunition, as a
forbidden contraband, was not the primary focus of the trial. It was, at most, something
only in the peripheral vision of the trial.
The case was, from start to finish, about drugs and drug paraphernalia and drug
addicts. It was triggered by two fatal drug overdoses that brought emergency medical
personnel and the police to a trailer home twice in little more than 24 hours. Its centerpiece
1
“Prohibited person” is an awkward usage. The appellant nonetheless was, by
stipulation, a “prohibited person.”
2
was a search and seizure warrant for narcotic drugs. The presence of some ammunition in
the middle of a cornucopia of drugs and drug paraphernalia was simply an unexpected
evidentiary addendum. The addendum, however, is all we have.
Oddity of Oddities
As this investigation unfolded, moreover, the appellant himself never appeared to
have been the central character of the story. As fans of Alfred Hitchcock over the years can
verily attest, the moviegoer has very little to go on in assessing the significance of one who
appears only fleetingly in a no more than cameo role. What we actually know about the
appellant, Malik Maurice Moseley, in this case casts him as little more than an extra.
The conviction itself was for a misdemeanor of relatively modest gravity. In this
film noir in a trailer park, the lead villain was the crime of possession of cocaine with intent
to distribute. Solid supporting roles were filled by the possession of amphetamine and the
possession of narcotic paraphernalia. In this narrative at least, the possession of
ammunition was no more than a cameo appearance.
The police had contact with 5 Pebble Drive on essentially three occasions, the latter
two overlapping. On June 12, 2018, officers responded to a call for emergency medical
assistance for a possibly fatal drug overdose. It was a fatal overdose. When Detective
Joseph Goldberg arrived on the scene, he spoke to several other police officers and to a
couple of civilians who were standing in the driveway in front of 5 Pebble Drive. One of
them was the appellant. The appellant told Detective Goldberg that he lived at 5 Pebble
Drive. No further information was developed at that time with respect to the appellant. He
was simply someone standing on the edge of the scene.
3
The second contact occurred on the following day, June 13, 2018 at about 5:30 p.m.,
when the police received yet another call for emergency medical assistance, an apparent
drug overdose that turned out to be another fatal overdose. For the obvious reason that he
was then in police custody for an unrelated reason (a traffic stop), the appellant was not
even present at 5 Pebble Drive on that second occasion.
Based upon inculpatory evidence observed during that second visit, however, the
police requested a search warrant for 5 Pebble Drive. At approximately midnight, a search
warrant was issued and a search of the premises followed immediately during the early
morning hours of June 14, 2018. During that search, which we will designate as the third
contact, the appellant was once again completely absent. The only observation of the
appellant at 5 Pebble Drive had been on the first police visit of June 12 and that was outside
on the driveway along with others. He was never seen inside of 5 Pebble Drive. He was
never seen going into or coming out of 5 Pebble Drive. Ordinarily, the quintessence of a
cameo appearance is that it is innocuous. The incongruity now before us is that it was the
cameo appearance that ultimately won the Oscar.
Constructive Possession
A second slightly complicating factor is that this case is built entirely on
circumstantial evidence. At the end of the trial, five counts against the appellant went to
the jury. Each charged the unlawful possession of a form of contraband. The charges going
to the jury were:
Count 3: Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Distribute
Count 4: Possession of Cocaine
4
Count 8: Possession of Amphetamine
Count 9: Possession of Ammunition
Count 10: Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
With respect to each of those counts charging unlawful possession, the State’s only
evidence went to the establishment of constructive possession. There was in the entire trial
not a scintilla of evidence pointing to the direct or physical possession of any of the items
of contraband. At no time was the appellant ever observed with any of the charged items
of contraband in his hand or under his control or even in his immediate physical presence.
When the police first observed the contraband, the appellant was in police custody at the
station house.2 The only form of possession involved in this case was constructive
possession. That, by definition, brings us into the kaleidoscopic world of circumstantial
evidence.
Circumstantial evidence, of course, once admitted, is just as valid as direct
eyewitness evidence. It does, however, implicate an additional mental step— the drawing
of the permitted inference from the proved predicate facts. In Anaweck v. State, 63
Md.App. 239, 242, 492 A.2d 658 (1985), this Court spoke of the two-step process.
The appellants were not caught with the contraband in their hands. That, of
course, is not legally fatal to proof of possession, but it does at least make the
burden of persuasion a heavier one. “Possession and control need not be
immediate and direct but may be constructive.”
(Emphasis supplied.)
2
To be in police custody away from the crime scene is truly to enjoy an “ironclad
alibi.”
5
What is involved, of course, is not the proof of a single direct fact but the proof of
a series of predicate facts and then an induction from these predicate facts.
A single eyewitness, lucky enough to catch a culprit red-handed, can in a few
sentences easily prove sole and actual possession of contraband. The proof
of joint or constructive possession, on the other hand, is frequently more
circuitous and frequently involves a set of predicate circumstances from with
the inference of joint or constructive possession may permissibly arise.
63 Md.App. at 243. (Emphasis supplied.)
When a fortuitous snapshot of the very happening of the corpus delicti, to wit, an
eyewitness, is not available, then to survey the surrounding predicate facts and to observe
the scene over a longer time span permits us to paint on a circumstantial canvas. What then
is the palette with which we work? What then are the ways in which to paint a picture of
constructive possession? Like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, let us count the ways. There is,
of course, the place. There are possible sub-divisions of that place. There may, moreover,
be people in or about that place. There are goods and chattels in that place. From the
concatenation of all of those predicate facts, there may emerge the discernible mosaic of
the crime that probably transpired in that place. Inference can be an amazingly powerful
technique.
The Jigsaw Puzzle Of 5 Pebble Drive
Prominent among those predicate facts is the geography of the place where the
alleged possession occurred. The place in question is 5 Pebble Drive. At the very least,
there is a kitchen in 5 Pebble Drive. There is also, to be sure, a back bedroom with a closet.
There is as well a front bedroom, also with a closet. Both the appellant’s brief and the
State’s brief describe 5 Pebble Drive as having “multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and other
6
areas.” In ordinary usage, the adjective “multiple” suggests three or more. At one point in
the cross-examination of Detective Daniel Rodriguez, the detective replied to the counsel
for the appellant:
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Now there are two bedrooms in this house, isn’t
that correct?
[RODRIGUEZ]: I would say three bedrooms, ma’am.
(Emphasis supplied.)
As the photographs of the crime scene further reveal, both the front bedroom and
the rear bedroom have closets that appear to be tightly packed (indeed, overflowing) with
clothing, both male and female. The photographic survey did not reveal the presence or the
possible contents of a possible closet in the third bedroom. Neither, to be sure, did it reveal
the absence of such a closet. Circumstantial evidence can be ambiguous. And ambiguity,
of course, helps the party who was spared the burden of proof.
Dramatis Personae
Who owns 5 Pebble Drive? Who possesses 5 Pebble Drive? Who simply “lives”
there and how regularly does such living occur? Where precisely do they live within the
larger place? Who else may live there? Who else visits regularly? All of these are pieces
of the jigsaw puzzle we would like, if possible, to fit together. A reliable census, however,
was not available. In the surrounding circumstances, there was a lot of guesswork and a lot
of uncertainty. If the stolen Maltese Falcon or a smoldering marijuana joint had been sitting
in the middle of the dining room table, who, if anyone, could be deemed to have been in
7
unlawful contact with one or both? Involved is the art of inducing constructive possession.
Unlike eyewitness observation of direct physical possession, it is an art.
The appellant, Malik Maurice Moseley, was clearly one person associated with 5
Pebble Drive. When Detective Joseph Goldberg arrived on the scene at approximately 5:30
p.m. on June 12, 2018, he saw the appellant and one or two other persons standing on the
driveway outside of 5 Pebble Drive. In a very brief conversation, the appellant informed
Detective Goldberg that he lived at 5 Pebble Drive. That is essentially the sum total of the
police contact with the appellant on June 12. On the afternoon of the next day, June 13,
2018, the appellant was in police custody after being arrested for a traffic infraction. At the
station house, Detective Daniel Rodriguez spoke to him briefly. In that conversation, the
appellant again acknowledged that he lived at 5 Pebble Drive.
There was one other item of evidence connecting the appellant to 5 Pebble Drive.
When the search and seizure warrant was executed during the early morning hours of June
14, 2018, there was found in the back bedroom, a document addressed to “Malik Moseley,
4147 Audrea Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland.” The police believed that the correct and
intended address was actually “Audry Avenue,” a street address in the nearby Brooklyn
area of upper Anne Arundel County. Somewhat ambiguously, the document both connects
the appellant with 5 Pebble Drive but also suggests that his legal address may have been
elsewhere, albeit in the general area, and that his “living” connection with 5 Pebble Drive
may have been in some sense informal or sporadic. Although the location of the document
connects the appellant with 5 Pebble Drive, its address derogates from the likelihood that
8
the appellant had any significant proprietary or possessory interest in 5 Pebble Drive. The
document cut both ways.
A second person unquestionably associated with 5 Pebble Drive was Tanya
Swecker. Although his testimony was subsequently stricken as hearsay, Detective
Rodriguez said that he had learned that the legal owner of 5 Pebble Drive was Debra
Anderson, the mother of Tanya Swecker. In any event, it was Tanya Swecker who was in
possessory control of 5 Pebble Drive and it does not matter whether she or her mother was
the legal owner in fee simple. The search of the premises, moreover, revealed a debit card
belonging to Tanya Swecker on a corner dresser in the back bedroom.3
Two other names associated with 5 Pebble Drive were Michael Thomas and Yanek
Ford. When the appellant was briefly questioned by Detective Goldberg on June 12, 2018,
Michael Thomas was present with him in the driveway just outside 5 Pebble Drive. A log
maintained by the police placed both Michael Thomas and Yanek Ford inside 5 Pebble
Drive as of 5:40 p.m. on June 13, 2018. Their precise status was exasperatingly murky and
that, of course, adds to the problem of constructing constructive possession.
During the 36-hour period between the late afternoon of June 12 and the early
morning of June 14, moreover, the police logs indicate that a large number of persons-- as
many as 25 according to one bit of testimony-- were in and out of 5 Pebble Drive. Although
it was assumed that most of these were either emergency medical personnel or police
3
Tanya Swecker was initially indicted as a co-defendant of the appellant, but did
not stand trial with him because she entered a guilty plea. Prior to the appellant’s
sentencing, Tanya Swecker died.
9
officers, it nonetheless appears that there could have been several civilians as well.
Clarification on that issue was available but sadly neglected. Inferring constructive
possession of an item of contraband from a suspect’s proximity to the contraband is a very
different exercise if one or two suspects are in the room than it is if 10 or 15 suspects are
in the room. Because the burden of proving the predicate facts that may give rise to a
permitted inference of constructive possession is allocated to the State, it behooves the
State to do all that it can to reduce the ambiguities and uncertainties that may inhibit the
predicate facts. It is not for the defense to prove that other extraneous possible culprits were
in the trailer; it is for the State to prove that other extraneous possible culprits were not in
the trailer. Factual ambiguity only helps the defense. It can be fatal to the State. The critical
inference to be drawn must be not merely a possibility but a reasonable likelihood. The
heavier the traffic, the more varied are the circumstances, and the lesser, therefore, the
likelihood.
Speaking of other possible visitors who might explain the presence of contraband
in the trailer, let us not forget the two departed overdosers for whom the bell tolled. During
the critical hours immediately preceding the police discovery of the various items of
contraband, they were both in the trailer and were self-evidently involved with narcotics
contraband. One was expressly taken from a bed in one of the bedrooms. They cannot be
eliminated from the equation and they obviously may influence the result.
Contraband: What And Where?
And what of the chattels? The numerous police photographs of the interior of 5
Pebble Drive reveal that interior of the trailer to have been a pigsty of tatterdemalion clutter.
10
The closets were overflowing. The top of every table or stand was jam-packed with items,
most of them innocuous, in chaotic disarray. A small amount of cocaine was found in a
separate bedroom, but most of the contraband that led to the charges against the appellant
were found in either the kitchen or the back bedroom.
One largely full box of ammunition, containing 52 cartridges, was found in the rear
of a high shelf in a storage area of the kitchen. Realistically, it can be dismissed from any
further consideration of constructive possession in this case. No gun was ever recovered
from anywhere in 5 Pebble Drive. Also recovered from the top of a refrigerator was a
digital scale.
The remaining contraband that led to the charges against the appellant was found in
the back bedroom. From a drawer in a nightstand, the police recovered an unmarked bottle
of four pills, which on analysis turned out to be amphetamines. The most significant
amount of cocaine found in the search was in a Zip-loc bag found sitting on a coffee filter
somewhere in the back bedroom. Of the five charges of unlawful possession of contraband
that were submitted to the jury against the appellant, the previously described contraband
accounts for four of those five charges. The jury found the appellant not guilty on all four
of those charges.
The only count on which the appellant was convicted was Count Nine, charging the
unlawful possession of ammunition. The ammunition found in the search of 5 Pebble Drive
was found in two places. The conviction could not possibly have been based on the box of
cartridges found in a relatively remote storage closet in the kitchen. It had to have been
based on eight cartridges found on top of a dresser in a corner of the back bedroom across
11
the room from the bed and the nightstand. The top of that dresser, incidentally, was
cluttered with numerous other incidental items. It is of that conviction that we are called
upon to assess the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support it.
In any event, this is where the various items of contraband were found in 5 Pebble
Drive. The five charges of unlawful possession that went to the jury against the appellant
included four separate acts of possession.4 The appellant was charged with possessing four
forms of contraband: 1) cocaine, 2) amphetamine, 3) drug paraphernalia, and 4)
ammunition. With respect to all of these possessory charges, there was no scintilla of
evidence suggesting direct physical possession. Each of the charges involved simply proof
of constructive possession. The bulk of the cocaine seems to have been found in two places:
1) loose on a coffee filter on a waist-high shelf in the front bedroom and 2) in a closed Zip-
loc bag on a refrigerator or freezer in the kitchen. The amphetamine, the drug
paraphernalia, and the ammunition were all found in the rear bedroom. With regard to each
of the forms of contraband, moreover, the evidentiary guidelines for proving constructive
possession are precisely the same. The final tally of four verdicts of not guilty of unlawful
possession and one verdict of guilty of unlawful possession was incongruously strange.
Circumstantial Proof of Possession
Maryland Code, Criminal Law Article, Sect 5-101(v) defines “Possess” in the
following terms: “‘Possess’ means to exercise actual or constructive dominion or control
over a thing by one or more persons.” Its earlier version, as Art. 27, Sect. 277(s) was
4
Count 3 charging the possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute and Count
4 charging the simple possession of cocaine involved, of course, the same act of possession.
12
verbatim. As early as 1964, Judge Hammond had observed for the Court of Appeals in
Henson v. State, 236 Md. 518, 524-25, 204 A.2d 516 (1964):
That the narcotics were not on his person but only in the house of which he
was a resident did not prevent the inference the police and the trial court
drew—that he had possession and control of narcotics—from properly being
drawn. Possession and control need not be immediate and direct but may be
constructive.
(Emphasis supplied.)
In Garrison v. State, 272 Md. 123, 321 A.2d 767 (1974), the Court of Appeals
reversed the conviction of Shirley Garrison for the unlawful possession of heroin,
notwithstanding the fact that she was the co-lessee of the house with her husband in which
the heroin was found and notwithstanding the further fact that the heroin was found in the
bedroom in which she slept. Judge O’Donnell wrote for the Court:
[B]efore the State may obtain a conviction it must adduce evidence to meet
the test of legal sufficiency; that evidence must show directly or support a
rational inference that the accused did in fact exercise some dominion or
control over the prohibited narcotic drug in the sense contemplated by the
statute, i.e., that she exercised some restraining or directive influence over it.
272 Md. at 142. (Emphasis supplied.) It was not enough just to know that it was there. See
also State v. Leach, 296 Md. 591, 596, 463 A.2d 872 (1983). One must be in dominion or
control.
The absence of knowledge of the presence of contraband would clearly foreclose
the existence of constructive possession. As Judge Eldridge pointed out for the Court of
Appeals in Dawkins v. State, 313 Md. 638, 649, 547 A.2d 1041 (1988):
[A]n individual would not be deemed to exercise “dominion or control” over
an object about which he is unaware. Knowledge of the presence of an object
is normally a prerequisite to exercising dominion and control.
13
(Emphasis supplied.)
Such knowledge, however, may be inferred from the predicate facts. Judge Cathell
wrote for the Court of Appeals in State v. Suddith, 379 Md. 425, 432, 842 A.2d 716 (2004):
An individual’s knowledge of the contraband is a key element in finding that
individual guilty of possessing it and that knowledge may be proven by
inferences from the totality of the evidence, circumstantial or direct,
presented to the trier of fact.
(Emphasis supplied.) See also Archie v. State, 161 Md.App. 226, 245, 867 A.2d 1120(2005)(“Knowledge of the presence and illicit nature of narcotics may be proven by
inference from the circumstances as a whole.”).
To constitute constructive possession, the possession need by no means be
exclusive. Joint possession can be just as inculpatory. Judge Orth wrote for this Court on
the subject of joint possession in Jason v. State, 9 Md.App. 102, 111, 262 A.2d 774 (1970),
cert. denied, 258 Md. 728 (1970):
We find that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions as to each
appellant of possession of heroin, control of heroin and possession of
narcotic paraphernalia as charged. We note that it is not required that there
be sole possession and sole control; there may be joint possession and joint
control in several persons. And the duration of the possession and the
quantity possessed are not material, nor is it necessary to prove ownership in
the sense of title.
(Emphasis supplied).
In Folk v. State, 11 Md.App. 508, 275 A.2d 184 (1971), this Court picked up on
Jason v. State and compiled what is now widely accepted as the controlling set of guidelines
for determining joint and/or constructive possession.
The common thread running through all of these cases affirming joint
possession is 1) proximity between the defendant and the contraband, 2) the
14
fact that the contraband was within the view or otherwise within the
knowledge of the defendant, 3) ownership or some possessory right in the
premises or the automobile in which the contraband is found, or 4) the
presence of circumstances from which a reasonable inference could be drawn
that the defendant was participating with others in the mutual use and
enjoyment of the contraband.
11 Md.App. at 518. (Emphasis supplied). See State v. Gutierrez, 446 Md. 221, 234, 130
A.3d 985 (2016); Smith v. State, 415 Md. 174, 198, 999 A.2d 986 (2010); Hall v. State,
119 Md. App. 377, 394, 705 A.2d 50 (1998). Folk v. State is the primary template we will
use to assess the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support the appellant’s conviction for
the constructive possession of ammunition.
Proximity: Where And When?
The caselaw speaks of the “proximity between the defendant and the contraband.”
Ordinarily, that inquiry would raise the question of “Where?” The inquiry in this case,
apparently as one of first impression, raises the additional question of “When?”
The police search of 5 Pebble Drive, pursuant to a search and seizure warrant, took
place on the early morning of June 14, 2018, at approximately 2 a.m. It was then that the
police discovered various items of contraband and took numerous photographs of that
contraband at specific locations in specific rooms. Those specific locations, as of 2:00 a.m.
on June 14, ordinarily would become the points of departure from which to measure
proximity. Proximity? Proximity to what? Proximity to whom? Ordinarily the defendant,
on whose proximity we are focusing, would be the driver or one of the passengers in the
car in which the contraband is found— or would be standing or sitting in the room (or
adjacent room) in which the contraband is found. He would be there, or nearby, and a tape
15
measure would be available. This appellant, by unique contrast, was somewhere downtown
in a police stationhouse. His presence on the driveway outside 5 Pebble Drive had been
established as of approximately 36 hours earlier, on the late afternoon of June 12. There
was no direct evidence that he had even been at 5 Pebble Drive since then.
The State, however, with the audacity and dexterity of H.G. Wells’s time traveler5,
presumes to conflate the early morning of June 14 with the last night when appellant
presumably slept at 5 Pebble Drive, some 24 or 48 hours before. The State would have us
measure the proximity between where the appellant probably was THEN and where the
contraband (as of June 14) is NOW, assuming, of course, that the contraband has not been
moved or altered in any way and is NOW exactly where it was and in the same condition
that it was THEN. In terms of such a completely undisturbed scene, however, let it be
remembered that the police log itself listed approximately 25 persons, emergency medical
personnel and police officers plus a civilian or two, traipsing in and out of that small trailer
in the intervening 36 hectic hours. “DON’T ANYBODY TOUCH ANY
CONTRABAND!”
It may be that the very notion of proximity does not permit the assessment the State
would have us make in this case, to wit, the assessment of the proximity between two places
at two different times. As a space-time phenomenon, the very passage of time would
ordinarily erode proximity as surely as does distance. In such a case, we would be asked to
measure the immeasurable. To have been at an earlier time close to the spot where the
5
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895).
16
ammunition is found at a later time would be, except in extremely rare circumstances, not
proximity. As a general rule, proximity assumes contemporaneity.
It is prudent, of course, never to say “never.” Our analysis of the effect of the
passage of time on the factor of proximity (an analysis of first impression) is, we believe,
a valid one. A necessary caution, however, is to be alert to such modifiers as “ordinarily”
and “as a general rule.” If the evidence in a given case could establish that in the interim
between THEN and NOW, no one had entered the room where the contraband was later
found or could have affected it in any way, the passage of time might then have lost its
possibly erosive effect. In such a circumstance, such evidence could be said to have frozen
time in its tracks. We would, therefore, properly be measuring the proximity between
where the suspect was THEN and where the contraband was THEN, because where the
contraband is NOW would have been shown to be precisely where the contraband was
THEN. The circumstances would have negated any possibly erosive effects of the passage
of time. In such circumstances, but only in such circumstances, time would, indeed, stand
still. In this case, of course, no such immutability between THEN and NOW was
established. “The moving finger writes, and, having writ, moves on.”6
Without more being said, we dismiss proximity as a pertinent factor in the
assessment of constructive possession in this case. It may well be that this temporal
disconnect should call automatically for a dismissal of the entire constructive possession
6
Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859).
17
analysis. Because the end result, in any event, is going to be the same, we will go forward
with the rest of the legal sufficiency assessment.
Quite aside from the temporal disconnect, which we hold to be dispositive of the
proximity factor in this case, even the State’s most creative theory of geometric nearness
cannot adequately close the gap between the viewer and the viewed. The State, as its
working hypothesis, wants to put the appellant in bed in the back bedroom and to measure
proximity from that bedstead, condensing the earlier time and the later time into a finite
instant. The box of eight cartridges was largely hidden on the cluttered top of a dresser on
the far side of the room. Before even turning to the hypothetical illogic of putting the
appellant in that bed in that bedroom, we contrast even that hypothetical distance with the
notion of proximity as contemplated by Folk v. State:
In the case at bar, the proximity between the appellant and the marihuana
could not be closer, short of direct proof that the appellant herself was in
exclusive physical possession of the marihuana. She was one of six
occupants in a Valiant automobile and was, therefore, whatever her position
in the car, literally within arm's length of every other occupant of that
automobile. The marihuana cigarette being smoked was, at any point in time,
within direct physical possession of one of those occupants. Proximity could
not be more clearly established.
11 Md.App. at 518. (Emphasis supplied.) The State here stretches proximity past its
breaking point.
View or Knowledge
The second of the inculpatory circumstances laid out in Folk v. State is that “the
contraband was within the view or otherwise within the knowledge of the defendant.” For
starters, there is no direct evidence whatsoever that the appellant had any knowledge of
18
any ammunition in 5 Pebble Drive. There was no evidence at all bearing on the appellant’s
thought process or knowledge about anything. He did not take the stand. He never said
anything to the police except that he lived at 5 Pebble Drive. He was never quoted by any
witness as having said anything.
Any knowledge on the appellant’s part would have to be inferred from
circumstantial evidence. In its brief, the State argued its theory of the appellant’s
knowledge of the ammunition inferred from the circumstances.
Eight cartridges of .40 caliber Browning ammunition were found on one of
the dressers in the back bedroom of the trailer. This was the same bedroom
where the police also found male clothing and mail addressed to Moseley.
Taken all together the evidence showed that Moseley lived in the trailer home
and the ammunition was found in his bedroom and in the kitchen cabinet. A
jury could rationally infer that Moseley would have knowledge of and
dominion and control over ammunition that was kept in plain sight in his own
bedroom.
(Emphasis supplied.)
The State’s theory stressed the fact that a small box of eight cartridges was found
on a dresser in the back bedroom, what the State repeatedly labeled as the appellant’s
bedroom.
The collective evidence supported the inference that Moseley resided in the
back bedroom of the trailer where the ammunition was found… In this case,
the ammunition was found on top of a dresser in Moseley’s bedroom.
Logically, Moseley would have knowledge of and dominion and control over
items kept in his bedroom.
(Emphasis supplied.)
19
The State’s repetitive theme is that the eight cartridges were at a spot in the bedroom
where they would have been within the view of an occupier of that bedroom and that if the
occupant could see them, he ipso facto would know about them.
[T]he ammunition was not hidden from view, it was found on top of a dresser
in the bedroom which also contained mail addressed to Moseley, which
supports the conclusion that Moseley used that bedroom and thus had
knowledge of the ammunition… It was reasonable to infer from this evidence
that Moseley would have knowledge of and dominion and control over
ammunition kept in plain sight in his bedroom.
(Emphasis supplied.)
The State’s reliance on this alleged circumstance, inferred knowledge of the
ammunition based on a clear view of the ammunition by an occupant of the bedroom, we
hold to be thrice-flawed.
A. The Time Factor
Just as with the ostensible circumstance based on proximity, the allegedly clear view
of the ammunition also flounders on the time line. The location of the ammunition that
ostensibly could be viewed is fixed as of the early morning of June 14. Even assuming,
purely arguendo, that the appellant regularly slept in the rear bedroom, he was in no
position to take a clear view in the bedroom at that time. He was detained at a police
stationhouse.
As we have already analyzed with respect to the proximity factor, we cannot assume
that the location of the ammunition NOW was the exact location of the ammunition
THEN, to wit, back when the appellant was in a position to take a view of the surroundings
in that rear bedroom. We would have to make the additional assumption, which we cannot
20
make, that in the interim between THEN and NOW that neither the ammunition nor other
surrounding items had been moved or in any way disturbed. This non-congruence of
critical times alone is enough to negate any inference of knowledge based on the presence
of a clear view as a predicate fact for inferring constructive possession. One cannot have
had a clear view yesterday of what may only have existed as of today. A permitted
inference does not allow for a crystal ball.
B. There Was No Clear View
The State, moreover, attributes to the appellant the visual acuity of Clark Kent. Even
if we indulged the State, arguendo, in its convenient assumption that the back bedroom was
the appellant’s bedroom, we cannot agree that any ammunition was in clear or plain view.
The bed was on one side of the back bedroom. On the far side of the room was a
dresser, on top of which a small box of ammunition was found. A good police photograph
reveals that the top of the dresser was in absolute disarray. From the center of the dresser
top and occupying much of its left-hand side was a large lamp with a fat base. The right-
hand side of the dresser top was a disorganized clutter, containing, inter alia, an ashtray, a
set of dark glasses, an electrical plug, a glass with a candle in it, a vial of nail polish, a
lipstick, no fewer than six large containers and bottles of moisturizer, plus a debit card
belonging to Tanya Swecker.
To the left of the large lamp and against the adjoining wall appears to be a picture
and then a healthy stack of mail or other paper items. Wedged between the “mail” and the
lamp is a box of Q-tips. On top of the Q-tips and half-obscured (or two-thirds-obscured)
by the base of the lamp was the box containing eight cartridges. The box was closed. The
21
box was turned upside-down. Obscuring half of the front of the box was what appears to
have been some sort of an ear piece and on top of the box was what appears to have been
a wire extending out from that earpiece.
It is insightful to contrast the absence of any clear view and the consequential lack
of knowledge here with Folk v. State’s contemplation of a clear view and its resultant
knowledge:
Nor would there be, under the circumstances of this case, any difficulty in
drawing a reasonable inference that the marihuana was within the view, or
otherwise within the knowledge, of the appellant. In a darkened car in a dark
field, the glow from a lighted cigarette is clearly visible within that maximum
radius of four to five feet between the glow and the viewer. Knowledge of
the presence of marihuana would be imparted even more emphatically by the
sense of smell, in a situation where the cloud of smoke and the peculiar
pungent odor filled the interior of a tightly-closed automobile. Neither would
the inference be unreasonable that some conversation transpired among the
six persons huddled there in the dark dealing with what the cigarette and the
fumes were all about. It would, indeed, be unreasonable not to infer
knowledge of the marihuana on the part of the appellant.
11 Md. App. at 518. (Emphasis supplied.)
On the cluttered dresser top in this case, nothing short of X-ray vision could have
detected the presence of ammunition. To assert that the ammunition was somehow in clear
view is, at the very least, a gross exaggeration. A technically unobstructed line of sight to
a partially covered and closed container is hardly a clear view. Mt. Fujiyama may be aptly
described as being in “clear view.” The aptness of the descriptive phrase after that point
begins dropping off.
C. The Male Occupant Of The Back Bedroom
22
Having determined that at one end of a possible line of sight the ammunition was
not in clear or open view, it is perhaps a case of carrying coals to Newcastle to examine
too closely the alleged presence of the appellant at the other end of that line of sight.
Nevertheless…
The basic trial strategy of the State has been to reduce the population of 5 Pebble
Drive as austerely as possible, thereby enhancing the possessory status and degree of
control of the appellant. To be sure, the only occupants that we know of by name are the
appellant and Tanya Swecker. The State is content to stop there. It further ensconces the
appellant and Tanya Swecker as bedroom partners in the back bedroom. Significantly, not
a word in the five-day trial ever suggested the existence of any sort of relationship between
the appellant and Tanya Swecker, romantic, proprietary, or conspiratorial. Not so much as
a whisper campaign.
The State, however, does not hesitate to use the definite article in referring to the
back bedroom as “the bedroom.” In the State’s telling, it is the “master bedroom” with the
master and the mistress of the house ensconced therein. With reference to the appellant,
the State does not hesitate to refer to the back bedroom as “his bedroom.” It may, however,
be jumping the gun in that regard.
Police testimony and the photographs established that 5 Pebble Drive had not one
but three bedrooms. 5 Pebble Drive could, therefore, have accommodated not two but up
to six sleep-in residents, even if their names are not all known. A quantity of cocaine was
also found in the front bedroom. A photograph of the front bedroom shows an unmade bed,
as it also shows what appear to be several jackets or other items of men’s clothing. This
23
negates the State’s reliance on the significance of the fact that the closet in the back
bedroom contains both male and female clothing to corroborate the inference of the
appellant’s occupancy of that bedroom. The State is guilty of cherry-picking its facts.
The evidence strongly suggested that 5 Pebble Drive was a relatively small
habitation and the back bedroom seems to have been the most likely place for the occupants
and their guests to assemble. This possible secondary function of the room might well
account for a letter or a document addressed to the appellant to have been in that room.
That letter or document was the only thing linking the appellant to that bedroom and we
do not join the State in concluding that the back bedroom was necessarily “his bedroom.”
It is a redundant observation, however, because the box of ammunition was not in clear
view of an occupant of that bedroom in any event, whoever he or she may have been.
D. Maryland Caselaw
Even assuming, purely arguendo, that the temporal disconnect could be ignored and
even further assuming, again arguendo, that the appellant could be placed in the back
bedroom where the eight cartridges of ammunition were found, even the appellant’s actual
presence in the room (not his assumed presence several days earlier) would not have been
nearly as suspicious as the defendant’s presence in a motel room in Taylor v. State, 346
Md. 452, 697 A.2d 462 (1997). Taylor was one of five persons who had rented a motel
room in Ocean City. He was apparently asleep on the floor when the police entered the
room. The trial court found him guilty of the constructive possession of marijuana. Judge
Raker summarized the case against him:
24
The trial court found that Petitioner was in close proximity to the marijuana;
that, because people were smoking marijuana in Petitioner’s presence,
Petitioner “knew” there was marijuana in the room; that, because he was on
the premises asleep or pretending to be asleep, he had some possessory right
in the premises; and that the circumstances were sufficient to draw a
reasonable inference that Petitioner was participating with others in the
mutual enjoyment of contraband. Accordingly, the trial court found
Petitioner guilty….
346 Md. at 456. (Emphasis supplied.) In an unreported opinion, the Court of Special
Appeals affirmed the conviction.
Without dissent, the Court of Appeals reversed this Court and held that the evidence
was not enough to support Taylor’s conviction for the constructive possession of
marijuana.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, Officer Bernal's
testimony established only that Taylor was present in a room where
marijuana had been smoked recently, that he was aware that it had been
smoked, and that Taylor was in proximity to contraband that was concealed
in a container belonging to another. The record is clear that Petitioner was
not in exclusive possession of the premises… Possession requires more than
being in the presence of other persons having possession; it requires the
exercise of dominion or control over the thing allegedly possessed… Without
more, Petitioner's presence in the room where marijuana had recently been
smoked does not support a rational inference that Petitioner had possessed
the marijuana. Furthermore, the existence of smoke in a room occupied by
five people does not alone justify the inference that Petitioner was engaged
in the mutual use or enjoyment of the contraband.
346 Md. at 459. (Emphasis supplied.)
In White v. State, 363 Md. 150, 767 A.2d 855 (2001), the trial court found White, a
passenger in a car driven by another, to have been in joint possession of cocaine found in
the trunk of the automobile. This Court affirmed the conviction. The Court of Appeals
25
reversed. Although White was “in close proximity to the cocaine,” he did not exert control
over the vehicle.
Although Petitioner, by virtue of being a passenger in Charity’s vehicle, was
in close proximity to the cocaine, on this record he did not have a possessory
right in, or control over, the vehicle.
363 Md. at 164. (Emphasis supplied.)
The Court of Appeals also held that mere knowledge of the drugs is not enough.
The required inference is that to be found guilty, the defendant must have been able to exert
dominion or control over the contraband.
Assuming arguendo that there was evidence in the record sufficient to
establish beyond a reasonable doubt the knowledge requirement for
possession, we conclude nonetheless that there was not sufficient evidence
establishing that Petitioner exercised dominion and control over the cocaine.
363 Md. at 165. (Emphasis supplied.)
Judge Harrell’s opinion made it clear that the burden the State must carry to support
a conviction for constructive possession.
Circumstantial evidence which merely arouses suspicion or leaves room for
conjecture is obviously insufficient. It must do more than raise the possibility
or even the probability of guilt. [I]t must… afford the basis for an inference
of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
363 Md. at 163. (Emphasis supplied.)
Ownership Or Other Possessory Control of the Premises
The third of the factors which Folk v. State lists, 11 Md. App. at 518, as a possible
predicate fact that might support an inference of constructive possession of or control over
the contraband is “ownership or some possessory right in the premises or the automobile
in which the contraband is found.”
26
The only indication we have in this case of anyone having any possessory control
over 5 Pebble Drive is the implication that such residential control was in Tanya Swecker,
through her mother who seems likely to have been the legal owner of the premises. The
fact that the appellant acknowledged that he “lives” there was not enough to attribute to
him liability for any contraband or other evidence found anywhere on the premises.
The appellant may, of course, have been one of two people living at 5 Pebble Drive.
He may, on the other hand, have been just one of five or six people living there. We simply
do not know. That lack of knowledge, however, works to the appellant’s advantage,
because it is the State to which is allocated the burden of proof with respect to the predicate
facts that might, if established, give rise to the permitted inference of constructive
possession. It was for the State to establish some possessory control over the premises in
the appellant. It was not for the appellant to negate such possessory control in himself. In
the absence of any hard evidence one way or the other, possessory control over the premises
simply did not exist as a predicate fact. That, ipso facto, helps the appellant.
In Moye v. State, 369 Md. 2, 796 A.2d 821 (2002), Moye was convicted of the
possession of cocaine, the possession of marijuana, and the possession of drug
paraphernalia. This Court affirmed the convictions. This Court relied upon Moye’s
“residence at a house in which marijuana and cocaine were found in plain view combined
with Moye’s presence in the specific area in which the drugs were found.” The Court of
Appeals reversed. At the outset of her opinion, Judge Battaglia announced:
While a valid conviction may be based solely on circumstantial evidence, it
cannot be sustained “on proof amounting only to strong suspicion or mere
probability.
27
369 Md. at 13. (Emphasis supplied.)
Key to the reversal of his convictions was the fact that “Moye did not have any
ownership or possessory right in the premises where the drugs and paraphernalia were
found.” 369 Md. at 18. The husband who, with his wife, leased the home testified that
Moye was “living” in the house with them. There was no evidence of any proprietary
interest in the property other than the fact that Moye, just like the appellant in the present
case, was “living” there. The Court of Appeals concluded, “On this record, therefore, we
cannot conclude that Moye had any ownership or possessory right to or in Bullock’s
home.” 369 Md. at 18.
The evidence also failed to establish that Moye was “participating with others in the
mutual enjoyment of the contraband.”
We also conclude that based on the evidence in this record, no reasonable
inference could be drawn that Moye was participating with others in the
mutual enjoyment of the contraband. There is no evidence concerning
whether Moye, Benson, or the Bullocks were observed using drugs on the
night in question. Although the facts may lead a trier of fact to believe
that someone may have been using marijuana in the Bullocks's home, the
evidence fails to establish who may have been using it, and when such use
may have taken place.
369 Md. at 20. (Emphasis supplied.)
Under possessory circumstances significantly more entangling than those binding
on the appellant here, the Court of Special Appeals declined to hold that defendants were
in constructive possession of marijuana. Puckett v. State, 13 Md.App. 584, 587-588, 284
A.2d 252 (1971)(holding evidence of presence of marijuana plants on property Puckett
jointly owned with his wife was not sufficient to create rational inference that Puckett was
28
in possession of the marijuana); Davis v. State, 9 Md.App. 48, 55, 262 A.2d 578(1970)(holding conviction for possession that rests only on defendant's co-occupancy of
apartment where marijuana was sold and on defendant's intimate relationship with a co-
occupant who sold marijuana is not supported by sufficient evidence). And see Taylor v.
State, 346 Md. 452, 462, 697 A.2d 462 (1997).
Mutual Use And Enjoyment Of Ammunition
The fourth and final of the Folk v. State factors, 11 Md.App. at 518, that might give
rise to an inference of constructive possession is “the presence of circumstances from
which a reasonable inference could be drawn that the defendant was participating with
others in the mutual use and enjoyment of the contraband.”
With respect to this factor, the State is understandably silent. In this case, it is hard
to imagine what mutual use or enjoyment one could get out of eight cartridges, except by
way of firing them out of a gun. No gun was ever found anywhere in 5 Pebble Drive. What
then does one do with cartridges? One cannot eat, drink, or otherwise ingest them. As
decorative ornaments, they would need to be taken out of their box. One cannot use them
as playing pieces in any conceivable games such as Chinese Checkers or Dominoes. Even
if, purely arguendo, one could attribute pleasurable utility to them, the evidence is that the
eight cartridges were not being mutually used and/or otherwise enjoyed in this case by
anyone. Nobody “was participating with others” in doing anything with any of the eight
cartridges. In this case, unlike narcotics cases where it is frequently a significant factor,
“mutual enjoyment” or “participation with others” was simply, by the very nature of the
crime, a non-factor. It is, to be sure, hard to have fun with a cartridge.
29
Out of Nothing, Nothing
In Folk v. State, we also stated the converse, stressing the negative factors that argue
against joint or constructive possession.
The common thread running through all of these cases negating joint
possession is 1) the lack of proximity between the defendant and the
contraband, 2) the fact that the contraband was secreted away in hidden
places not shown to be within his gaze or knowledge or in any way under his
control, and 3) the lack of evidence from which a reasonable inference could
be drawn that the defendant was participating with others in the mutual use
of the contraband.
11 Md.App at 514. (Emphasis supplied.)
For several different reasons, but based on the time factor alone, there was no
proximity between the appellant and the ammunition. For three separate reasons, the
ammunition was not within 1) the clear view, 2) the knowledge, or 3) the control of the
appellant. The appellant was not shown to have been in possessory control of the entire
premises of 5 Pebble Drive. The appellant was indisputably not participating with others
in the mutual use or enjoyment of the eight cartridges of ammunition.
The State has failed to establish a single one of the possible predicate facts from
some combination of which an inference of constructive possession of the ammunition
might permissibly arise. The evidence, therefore, was not legally sufficient to support the
conviction for the unlawful possession of contraband ammunition, based on the necessary
theory of constructive possession.7
7
The jury’s verdict convicting the appellant for the unlawful possession of
ammunition, contrasted with its four verdicts acquitting the appellant of the unlawful
possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, was so logically and factually implausible as
to warrant this POSTSCRIPT by way of possible explanation.
30
Five counts against the appellant went to the jury. Four of the counts charged the
unlawful possession of various drugs and drug paraphernalia. One charged the unlawful
possession of ammunition. There was no suggestion of direct physical possession with
respect to anything. Every one of the charges was based exclusively on the theory of
constructive possession. With respect to all five charges, the rules and the caselaw with
respect to constructive possession are precisely the same. With respect to two of the four
acquittals, moreover, the predicate facts for inferring constructive possession were
significantly stronger that were the predicate facts pointing to the possession of the
ammunition.
With respect to any charge of constructive possession in this case, we must indulge
the State, arguendo, in the assumption that the temporal disconnect has been solved, to wit,
1) that the circumstances pointing to possession and 2) the possession itself were
contemporaneous. We will, arguendo, indulge the State in the further assumption that the
appellant slept in the bed in the back bedroom. From that doubly-indulged vantage point,
the predicate facts pointing to the constructive possession of both the amphetamine and the
narcotic paraphernalia (the scales) were far stronger than were the predicate facts pointing
to the constructive possession of ammunition. The amphetamine and the scales were both
in the drawer in the nightstand right up against the bed in which the appellant assumptively
slept. They were in that assumed posture within his unobstructed view, his immediate
touch, and therefore his knowledge.
The ammunition, by contrast, was largely obscured on the top of a dresser on the far
side of the room. The amphetamine and the scales, moreover, were more vulnerable to the
appellant’s participation in mutual use and enjoyment than were eight boxed cartridges
without a gun. Notwithstanding a decided tilt in the other direction, however, the appellant
was found not guilty of the possession of the amphetamine and the scales, but guilty of the
possession of the ammunition. Such an incongruity is, of course, within a jury’s power, but
it does raise eyebrows.
The explanation would seem to lie in the unpreserved contentions. We are adamant
in our determination not to consider contentions that have not been preserved for appellate
review, but the discussion of those contentions by both parties in their respective briefs
does provide the narrative background to clear up the mystery of the jury’s curious
behavior. We are by no means suggesting any merit in the unpreserved contentions, but the
jury somehow, even if absent plain error, came up with the idea that the guidelines for
finding the constructive possession of ammunition are much laxer than are the guidelines
for finding the constructive possession of narcotics or anything else. Two questions posed
by the jury in the course of its deliberations are the tipoff as to the jury’s mistaken notion.
On the first occasion, the jury asked:
31
JUDGMENT REVERSED; COSTS TO BE
PAID BY ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
“Can we clarify the law in relation to ammunition? When the Defendant
is prohibited, does that mean that he cannot be in the same building as
the ammunition?”
The jury came back with a second question:
“Is the Defendant in violation of his prohibition of ammunition simply
by being in the same room?”
Fortunately, we need not open Pandora’s Box of unpreserved problems. At a much
simpler surface level, the State’s case of constructive possession of the ammunition, even
by the normal (and quite proper) rules, was so clearly legally insufficient that it is not
necessary to range abroad into unpreserved, albeit exotic, alternative theories of defense.
32
The correction notice(s) for this opinion(s) can be found here:
https://mdcourts.gov/sites/default/files/import/appellate/correctionnotices/cosa/0137s19cn.pdf