People v. Tejeda

Respectfully, I must dissent because the evidence was not legally sufficient to support defendant’s conviction for criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. The prosecution theory was based upon defendant’s constructive possession of cocaine found, pursuant to a consent search, in the closed drawer of an end table in an apartment leased to an acquaintance of the defendant. There was no testimony that defendant actually possessed either the contraband seized or a bag containing a white powdery substance which the codefendant carried into the apartment. Thus, it was…