People v. Rankin

The defendant, Steve Rankin, was charged and convicted by a jury of dispensing dangerous drugs. C.R.S. 1963, 48-8-2.1 The primary issue on appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction. The record establishes that the prosecution failed to establish the corpus delicti. Therefore, the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal should have been granted.

The defendant, who was 18 years of age and attended high school with the other witnesses to the transaction, was arrested after Jeffrey Lebsack ingested two pieces of a blotter and suffered an increase in blood pressure,…