State v. Weigand

Miller, Chief Justice:

This is an appeal by David Weigand from an order of the Circuit Court of Lewis County sentencing him to six months in the county jail and fining him $1000 for possession of marijuana. The defendant’s only claim of error is that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the marijuana plants seized from his property without a search warrant. We conclude that the evidence was properly seized under the “open fields” doctrine and affirm his conviction.

On August 28, 1978, two Lewis County deputy sheriffs, while patrolling Lewis County Route 46, spotted what they…