The opinion
IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE
AT NASHVILLE
NOVEMBER 1999 SESSION
STATE OF TENNESSEE, *
FILED
C.C.A. #M1998-00012-CCA-R3-CD
Appellee, * December 15, 1999
BEDFORD COUNTY
VS. * Hon. Charles Lee, Judge Crowson, Jr.
Cecil
Appellate Court Clerk
TROY SHONDELL SALES, * (Sale of Cocaine)
Appellant. *
For Appellant: For Appellee:
William C. Roberts, Jr. Paul G. Summers
and Robert L. Marlow Attorney General and Reporter
Attorneys
100 South Spring Street Elizabeth T. Ryan
#109 Assistant Attorney General
Shelbyville, TN 37160 Criminal Justice Division
425 Fifth Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37243
Robert G. Crigler
Assistant District Attorney General
Seventeenth Judicial District
Bedford County Courthouse
Shelbyville, TN 37160
OPINION FILED:__________________________
AFFIRMED
GARY R. WADE, PRESIDING JUDGE
OPINION
The defendant, Troy Shondell Sales, was convicted of the sale of a
Schedule II controlled substance. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-417. The trial court
imposed a Range II sentence of nine years, six months. In this appeal of right, the
defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.1 We affirm the judgment.
At approximately 7:40 P.M. on January 14, 1998, an informant
employed by the Shelbyville Police Department arranged by telephone to purchase
a small amount of cocaine from the defendant. Drug Interdiction Officer James
Edward Wilkerson and Detective Tony Collins had searched the informant prior to
the call and had taken him to the pay telephone he used at Baker's Quick Check.
Officer Wilkerson and Detective Collins watched as the informant placed the call.
After his conversation, the informant reported to the officers that he had been
instructed by the defendant to wait at a pay telephone at a McDonald's Restaurant
located only a short distance away. The officers observed the informant
continuously from the time of their search until 9:10 P.M. when the defendant and
two others in a maroon Buick arrived at McDonald's. The officers observed the
defendant get out of the vehicle and walk across the street with the informant to
Baker's Quick Check, where he frisked the legs and pockets of the informant.
As a signal to the officers that the sale had been completed, the
informant tipped his cap and scratched his head. At that point, Officer Wilkerson
and Detective Collins, who were in an unmarked vehicle, and Patrolmen Joe Brown
and Anthony Whitehead blocked the path of the maroon Buick. The defendant was
arrested and Officer Whitehead removed over $400.00 from the pocket of Craig
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The defendant was indicted for sale of a controlled substance, delivery of a controlled substance, and
criminal conspiracy. The trial judge merged the conviction of delivery with the conviction of sale. The
conspirac y charge was dismissed.
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Clark Green, the driver of the Buick. One of the bills removed from Green was a
twenty dollar bill which had been marked by the officers with a red magic marker
and given to the informant to purchase the drugs. The serial number on the bill
matched Officer Wilkerson's records.
Detective Collins continued to observe the informant while the other
officers made the arrest. The informant, who had returned to the McDonald's
Restaurant, had rock cocaine in his possession when the detective arrived. Donna
Flowers, a forensic chemist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's crime
laboratory in Nashville, identified the rock-like substance acquired from the
informant as 0.2 gram of cocaine.
The defendant contends that because the police were unable to say
that they saw the informant exchange money for illegal drugs, the evidence is
insufficient. He also argues that the informant could have planted the illegal drugs
at the public pay telephone in advance.
On appeal, the state is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the
evidence and all inferences which might be drawn therefrom. State v. Cabbage,
571 S.W.2d 832 (Tenn. 1978). When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged,
the relevant question is whether, after reviewing the evidence in the light most
favorable to the state, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential
elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Williams, 657 S.W.2d
405 (Tenn. 1983); Tenn. R. App. P. 13(e). The credibility of the witnesses, the
weight to be given their testimony, and the reconciliation of conflicts in the proof are
matters entrusted exclusively to the jury as the triers of fact. Byrge v. State, 575
S.W.2d 292 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1978).
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A criminal offense may be established exclusively by circumstantial
evidence. Marable v. State, 203 Tenn. 440, 313 S.W.2d 441 (1958). The jury has
the responsibility of determining the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence. State v.
Tharpe, 726 S.W.2d 896 (Tenn. 1987).
Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-17-417(a)(2) and (3) provide
that the defendant may be convicted when he has knowingly sold or delivered
cocaine. Here, the state established that the defendant was the only one of the
three occupants of the maroon Buick who had any contact with the informant.
According to police, the informant had no illegal drugs in his possession prior to his
encounter with the defendant and had rock cocaine afterwards. No one other than
the defendant came into contact with the informant. Whether the circumstances
established an illegal drug transaction was a proper question for the jury. In our
view, the jury was entitled to accredit the testimony offered by the state and find the
defendant guilty of each of the elements of the crime.
Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed.
__________________________________
Gary R. Wade, Presiding Judge
CONCUR:
_____________________________
John H. Peay, Judge
_____________________________
Norma McGee Ogle, Judge
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