Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court decided State v. Miller, an interesting and very, very close constructive possession case. Prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges should all be aware of it. The short version of the facts is as follows: Winston-Salem police obtained a search warrant for a house based on suspicion of drug activity. When the police entered the residence, they found a number of adults present, some in the living room, and two, including the defendant, in an adjoining bedroom, the door to which was open. The defendant was sitting on a corner of the bed, while another male was sitting in a nearby chair. The police ordered everyone to the ground, and the defendant complied. The police found a small, white, rock-like substance in the light-colored bedclothes near where the defendant had been sitting, and a plastic bag containing more apparent crack cocaine from a corner of the room, behind the open bedroom door. The defendant's birth certificate and state ID card were in the bedroom, though no men's clothes, or other items that tied the defendant to the room were present. Two of the defendant's children lived in the house with their mother. The defendant was charged with, inter alia, PWISD cocaine and being a habitual felon. It seems that the trial judge wrestled with the defendant's motion to dismiss, but she ultimately let the case go to the jury. Despite the testimony of the defendants' children's mother that the defendant did not live at the house [...]
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