State v. Ramsey

DANIEL E. SCOTT, Judge.

We consider whether the state proved Earl Ramsey’s constructive possession of drugs hidden in a house that he shared with another. On this record, under well-settled law, the answer is “no.”

Background

Ramsey and a woman lived in what was, in effect, a one-bedroom home.1 Police arrived with a search warrant one day as Ramsey came home. They took his key, entered the empty house, searched, and found 1.31 grams of cocaine in a bedroom wastebasket, hidden under an opaque trash bag liner.

The slender transcript (only 22 pages of trial testimony) of a one-witness bench trial,…