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Goss v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of two similar transactions involving amounts or packaging of cocaine consistent with sale or distribution.

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Clement Goss appeals from his convictions of trafficking in cocaine and selling cocaine.1 In two enumerations of error, Goss contends the trial court erred by admitting evidence of similar transactions. We disagree and affirm. The State presented evidence showing that Goss sold an undercover agent two ounces of cocaine for $1,400. Goss’s co-defendant, Dennis Wright, was also present for part of the sale. During this transaction, the undercover agent and Goss discussed a future transaction in which Goss would sell a kilo of cocaine to the agent. After additional telephone negotiations, Goss agreed to meet the undercover agent at a grocery store parking lot near Georgia 400 to sell him a kilo of cocaine for $23,000. Goss arrived at the grocery store in a truck driven by Wright and got out of the truck and into the agent’s truck with a bag containing 982 grams of cocaine. When Goss accepted a partial payment of $10,000, he and Wright were arrested.

After a proffer from the State and hearing argument from counsel, the trial court ruled that it would allow the State to introduce evidence about two similar transactions, one from 2006 and the other from 2007. The rationale for the trial court’s decision was that Goss had requested a jury charge on duress, coercion or compulsion based upon evidence that Goss’s co-defendant had a loaded weapon pointed at Goss when he delivered the cocaine to the undercover officer. Before the evidence was introduced, the trial court charged the jury on the limited purpose of similar transaction evidence for showing “knowledge, intent, course of conduct, and bent of mind.”

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