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Kenneth Jerome Roundtreev.The State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A20A2067
DecidedJanuary 22, 2021
JudgesCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Tags
CriminalCriminal LawCriminal ProcedureSufficiency of the EvidenceJury InstructionsReversal
Case Summary

Kenneth Roundtree was convicted of possessing cocaine and Alpha-PVP after officers searched him following an arrest on a probation warrant. The search produced small bags containing residue, and Roundtree told officers that he had found the bags near a park and collected them to keep children from handling them. On appeal, he challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, the trial court’s handling of a jury question, and the denial of a new trial. The Court of Appeals held that the evidence supported the cocaine conviction because testing showed cocaine residue in the bags. It reached a different result on the controlled-substance conviction, concluding that the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Roundtree knowingly possessed Alpha-PVP rather than merely possessing bags he had found. The court also rejected his jury-instruction and general-grounds arguments. It affirmed the cocaine conviction, reversed the Alpha-PVP conviction, and left the remaining judgment undisturbed.

Opinion

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