Tony Dewayne Patterson v. Commonwealth ( 2002 )

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Chief Judge Fitzpatrick, Judges Bumgardner and Felton
Argued at Salem, Virginia
TONY DEWAYNE PATTERSON
MEMORANDUM OPINION * BY
v. Record No. 0355-02-3 JUDGE RUDOLPH BUMGARDNER, III
NOVEMBER 5, 2002
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF LYNCHBURG
Mosby G. Perrow, III, Judge
David E. Wright, Assistant Public Defender,
for appellant.
Jennifer R. Franklin, Assistant Attorney
General (Jerry W. Kilgore, Attorney General,
on brief), for appellee.
The trial court convicted Tony Dewayne Patterson of
possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He contends
the evidence failed to prove he possessed the cocaine. Finding
the evidence sufficient, we affirm.
We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences
therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth.
Commonwealth v. Taylor, 256 Va. 514, 516, 506 S.E.2d 312, 313
(1998). An undercover police officer was working an unrelated
assignment at a convenience store. The defendant approached him
and offered to sell $20 worth of cocaine. The officer needed
* Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not
designated for publication.
backup assistance so he told the defendant he had to go back
inside the store. The defendant said to hurry up because he was
leaving, but he sat on the sidewalk and waited for the officer
to return.
After other officers arrived, the undercover officer
arrested the defendant. An officer found four individually
wrapped rocks of cocaine. They were between an air hose and the
wall of the building approximately eighteen inches from where
the defendant sat. The undercover officer saw no other person
in the immediate area where the defendant was seated. Testimony
showed that drug dealers often "stash" their supplies of drugs
away from their persons. That technique prevents a purchaser
from snatching the supply during a transaction and prevents
police from finding a large quantity of drugs if they arrested
the dealer during a sale.
The defendant agreed with the officer's testimony except he
denied saying "crack" or to hurry up because he was leaving.
The defendant denied possessing the drugs or knowing they were
behind the air hose. He testified he offered to sell the
officer drugs as a ruse to steal money from him. The defendant
did not have any drugs on his person.
The defendant offered to sell cocaine and then waited,
although he claimed to be in a hurry. The individually wrapped
rocks of cocaine were eighteen inches from where he waited. No
one came near the defendant. The trial court could conclude the
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defendant was waiting to conclude the sale he negotiated. The
cocaine near him was his "stash" from which he planned to
fulfill his part of the agreement.
The trial court disbelieved the defendant's testimony that
the offer to sell cocaine was a ruse to steal money. "In its
role of judging witness credibility, the fact finder is entitled
to disbelieve the self-serving testimony of the accused and to
conclude that the accused is lying to conceal his guilt."
Marable v. Commonwealth, 27 Va. App. 505, 509-10, 500 S.E.2d
233, 235 (1998) (citation omitted). The trial court could also
infer reasonably that the cocaine had sufficient value not to be
abandoned or left carelessly in the area where found. See
Collins v. Commonwealth, 13 Va. App. 177, 180, 409 S.E.2d 175,
176 (1991).
The evidence permitted the finding that the defendant
possessed cocaine. Accordingly, we affirm.
Affirmed.
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