People v. Avilés Ralat
People v. Avilés Ralat
Opinion of the Court
Sixto Avilés Ralat was charged with a violation of § 29 of the Narcotics Act, consisting in having in his possession and control the narcotic drug known as heroin. Having been found guilty by a court without a jury, after having waived his right to trial by jury, he was sentenced to from five to eight years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary.
He assigns six errors on appeal. In our opinion the trial court did not commit them. Our grounds for this conclusion follow.
The facts which gave rise to this cause were the following:
Policemen Carlos M. Camacho and Carlos García Méndez were on special vigilance duty around Stop 22, República Street in Santurce, when around two o’clock in the afternoon they observed, about five feet away from them, when a certain Timoteo Lugo Nelson took some small, white half-inch-long packs from a small coin purse he held in his left hand and delivered them to appellant, who took them with his left hand. Upon noticing the presence of the policemen— they were already known as such in that neighborhood— appellant closed the hand where he held the packs and both fled. Lugo Nelson threw the coin purse to the ground when
“. . . The court wants to set forth that it has not taken into account the statements allegedly made by defense witness Timoteo Lugo Nelson, but only the statement of Carlos M. Camacho, insofar as it refers to the personal observation the latter made with respect to the defendant in this case which we expressed in arguing the motion for peremptory acquittal. We consider that Carlos M. Camacho was in a position where he could observe the delivery of several packs wrapped in a white piece of paper from Timoteo Lugo Nelson to the defendant, in the manner he described it,' besides the subsequent action of defendant, the natural inferences . the court has made with-respect to the material evidence introduced, and the stipulation of the chemist. In view . of these considerations, the court believes that there is no doubt in the court’s mind that the defendant is guilty of the- possession of drugs.” -
Appellant argues that the trial court erred in admitting in evidence the rest of the packs in Lugo Nelson’s coin purse and in dismissing the motion for peremptory acquittal introduced by the defense. This assignment is based on the fact that the heroin content of the packs delivered by Lugo Nelson to appellant could not be inferred from the fact that the packs left in the coin purse contained an amount of that drug because the identity of the evidence allegedly in the hands of appellant was not susceptible of being determined and established by a simple inspection, but it required an expert chemical analysis to establish the nature and identity of the content of the packs delivered and of the packs found in the coin purse.
The foregoing facts and circumstances of the case justified the inference, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the material Lugo Nelson delivered to appellant, which the latter took
The fifth error assigned' is to the effect that the court should not have applied to this case the doctrine of the bolita cases to the effect that when the prosecuting attorney shows that it is not possible for him to introduce the material evidence because the latter remains in the possession of the defendant, the prosecutor is relieved of such responsibility and that, under those circumstances, the agent’s testimony regarding his having observed that defendant had in his possession the bolita material is sufficient for the purposes of proving the offense. People v. Jaimán, 86 P.R.R. 663 (1962); People v. Serrano, 85 P.R.R. 658, 662 (1962); People v. Ramírez, 85 P.R.R. 428 (1962); People v. Seda, 82 P.R.R. 695 (1961).
Irrespective of whether or not we should extend the doctrine in question to cases for possession and sale of narcotic drugs, we repeat that the existence of the drug in this case could be reasonably inferred from the facts and circumstances thereof.
For the reasons stated, appellant’s last assignment to the effect that his acquittal was proper on the basis of reasonable doubt, lacks merit.
Therefore, the judgment entered in this case on December 22, 1965 by the Superior Court, San Juan Part, will be affirmed.
Concurring in Part
San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 10, 1967
For the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in People v. Pellot Pérez, 92 P.R.R. 792 (1965), I understand likewise in. this case that the evidence, as produced by the Court’s opinion, does not sustain a conviction on the charge that appellant had in his possession and control the narcotic drug, irrespective of the fact that appellant could have been prosecuted under any other modality of the law. In this case the situation is even weaker than that in Pellot Pérez, inasmuch as there is no chemical analysis of the contents of the alleged pack that witness Nelson delivered to appellant at the’moment in which they were surprised by the agents.
For. the foregoing I dissent from the judgment which affirms the conviction.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.