Commonwealth v. Paine (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-126-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 13-P-229 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. DOLORES G. PAINE. No. 13-P-229. Essex. February 4, 2014. – October 2, 2014. Present: Cohen, Brown, & Rubin, JJ. Controlled Substances. Evidence, Expert opinion, Certificate of drug analysis. Witness, Expert. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on February 4, 2009. The cases were tried before Garry V. Inge, J. Kathleen S. Lucey for the defendant. Catherine P. Sullivan, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. COHEN, J. After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted of two counts of possession of a class E substance, in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 34.[1] The charges arose from the seizure by police of three tablets found in a container in the defendant’s purse. On appeal, the defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the tablets contained cyclobenzaprine and quetiapine, as alleged in the indictments. Because we agree that there was insufficient proof of the composition of the tablets, we reverse. 1. Background. Viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, see Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 676-677 (1979), the relevant evidence may be summarized as follows. On October 31, 2008, at about 3:00 A.M., a State police trooper observed a pickup truck parked outside the designated parking area of a rest area on Route 495 in Haverhill. The trooper approached in his cruiser and shined a spotlight into the cab of the truck. Upon seeing the trooper, the driver (later identified as the defendant) and her two passengers began moving around. The trooper approached on foot, shined his flashlight into the truck, and noticed what appeared to be a crack pipe on the lap of one of the passengers. The trooper ordered the occupants out of the truck and, after finding a ball of what appeared to be cocaine, placed all three individuals under arrest. When the trooper returned to the State police barracks, he inventoried the contents of the defendant’s purse and discovered a pill bottle with a prescription label bearing the defendant’s name and describing the contents as Oxycontin. Inside the pill bottle were an orange pill, two or three white pills,[2] and two yellow pills. The trooper secured the bottle and the pills and placed them, along with other drug items seized […]