Waters v. State

Lavertis Bernard Waters (Waters) was convicted and sentenced for sale of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. He raises three issues in this direct appeal, only one of which merits discussion. We affirm the judgment and sentence for sale of cocaine and reverse the conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Waters was arrested for the sale of cocaine approximately one month after the offense occurred. He had in his mouth, at the time of his arrest, a small piece of metal which was identified by an expert witness as a device commonly used to smoke controlled substances. However,…