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Swington v. State6/17/1999
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 3/12/97
TRIAL JUDGE: HON. MIKE SMITH
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: PIKE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
. Jerry Swington appeals his conviction and sentence in the Pike County Circuit Court of unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to distribute within 1500 feet of a church and his adjudication as a habitual offender, in violation of Miss. Code Ann. § § 41-29-139, -142 & -147 (1993), and Miss. Code Ann. 99-19-81 (1994). Finding no error, this Court affirms the judgment of the trial court.
STATEMENT OF THE FACTS
. On October 11, 1996, Agent Kenneth Hicks of the Pike County Sheriff's Department, with the assistance of Agent Erik Allen, Investigator Robert Holmes, Deputy Dewayne Varnado, Officer Tadlock, and Officer Mark Anderson, conducted a controlled drug buy on the streets of McComb, Mississippi. The officers were in a van approaching the intersection of St. Augustine and Summit Street when they saw Antron Reed standing on the corner. Agent Hicks pulled the van to the curb and asked Reed if he knew where they could get "a twenty". Reed replied that he could get a twenty for them. He then went to Lumpkin's Café and returned with a rock of crack cocaine for which Hicks gave him twenty dollars. Hicks asked Reed if he could get some more cocaine. Reed replied affirmatively at which point Hicks directed his fellow officers to arrest Reed.
.Upon being questioned as to the source of the cocaine, Reed confessed that Jerry Swington had provided him with the cocaine to sell and he was waiting in Lumpkin's Café for Reed to return with the money. He testified that he acted as a go-between for Swington because Swington is a quadriplegic. Additionally, he told the officers that the cocaine was on the table in front of Swington underneath a newspaper.
.The officers entered Lumpkin's Café and found Swington sitting at a table with a newspaper on it. Officer Holmes picked up the paper and found a rock of cocaine on the table. Swington told Holmes that the rock was not his, that it belonged to Roy Lee. Holmes testified that the only Roy Lee he knew was in Parchman for selling cocaine and that he was in Parchman on the day in question. Swington was sitting at the table alone, and no one in the café was near him. Reed testified at trial that he had a deal with Swington where he would sell the crack for Swington and he could keep some for himself. Reed admitted that he was addicted to cocaine.
.In the face of the evidence against him, Jerry Swington denies that the crack cocaine found underneath the newspaper belonged to him. He argues that the fact that the officers found cocaine on the table at which he was sitting does not amount to constructive possession and that he did not know that the cocaine was there, although when Officer Holmes revealed the cocaine beneath the newspaper, Swington told him that it belonged to Roy Lee. He asserts that the only evidence against him is that of a self-professed cocaine addict who admitted to having been under the influence of drugs three days prior to trial.
.It is Swington's position that Antron Reed is lying. His theory is that, upon being arrested by the police and faced with the pressure to reveal his supplier, Reed became frightened of the consequences that would befall him if he were to "rat out" his real supplier. Therefore, in order to protect himself, he told the officers that his supplier was Jerry Swington, a quadriplegic.
.On March 10, 1997, the jury of the Pike County Circuit Court found Jerry Swington
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