State v. Willett

674 S.E.2d 602 (2009)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D and her husband, Richard Willett, purchased a house in Beckley, West Virginia. The couple resided in Tampa, Florida. The house was in poor condition and required a lot of structural work. The couple frequently drove to Beckley to have work done on the house. Police received a telephone call from an inmate at the Regional Jail. The inmate, Reed, informed the police that drugs were being sold from the house purchased by D. A police detective received additional information from another source that indicated a white female was coming from Tampa and she would bring large amounts of Oxycontin to the home, possibly to sell. On a third occasion, the Beckley police received an anonymous call regarding drug activity at the home: The caller went into detail that they had personally observed cars coming to the house, but parking away from the house so as not to draw attention, going to the house for four or five minutes and then leaving, and they -- in their opinion, they thought that some drug activity was going on. A fourth anonymous tip identified D as the person selling drugs from the home. With a search warrant Police discovered over 3,000 pills, a handgun, and over $1,000 in cash. The pills included the narcotic drugs Oxycontin, Percocet, Roxycodone, and Xanax. D was arrested. During the trial, P called five witnesses. Four of the witnesses were law enforcement officials who testified regarding evidence obtained during the search. They also provided testimony about information obtained during the investigation of the case. Reed, was the only witness to provide direct testimony of having purchased drugs from D. Reed visited the home 'about 50 to 100 times' to obtain narcotic pills from D. Reed also brought other individuals to D for the purpose of buying narcotic drugs. D would give Reed drugs as a gratuity for bringing customers to her. On a few occasions, Mr. Willett was present when he obtained drugs from D. Mr. Willett testified that his wife did not sell drugs. Their daughter testified that D had a habit of hoarding all types of drugs for her personal use. D testified that the narcotic drugs were legally obtained from prescriptions written by a Florida physician and a West Virginia physician. D admitted that neither doctor knew the other was prescribing the same narcotic drugs for her. D claimed that she needed the drugs to relieve pain from a back operation that she had in 2000. D stated that because she feared having problems obtaining the drugs, she began hoarding them. D was convicted. D appealed.