Interesting Constructive Possession Case

The last batch of opinions from the court of appeals included a really interesting constructive possession case.The facts of State v. Slaughter, __ N.C. App. __ (2011), are as follows. Officers executed a search warrant at a mobile home. The defendant did not live in the home but was present at the time of the search. When the police entered the residence, they found the defendant and two other men in a bedroom. In the bedroom and an adjoining bathroom, the officers found "three handguns, digital scales, a lockbox, a box of plastic Ziploc-style bags, a large Ziploc-style bag containing marijuana packed in smaller bags, blunt wraps, a grinder, a cigar tube, 'some tore up parts of a cigar that ha[d] been used to roll a marijuana cigarette,' a knife, a ledger, $7,000.00 in cash in the bathroom sink, $7,182.00 in cash from elsewhere in the bathroom, and $24,500.00 in a white bag in the bedroom." The defendant was charged with various drug-related offenses and was convicted of PWISD marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. On appeal, the defendant argued that there was insufficient evidence to support the convictions, because there was insufficient evidence that he constructively possessed the marijuana and the paraphernalia. The majority began by acknowledging that the "defendant did not have exclusive control over the place where the contraband was found. In addition, there was no evidence that he owned any other items found in proximity to the contraband, that he was the only person who could have [...]