Kohler v. State

Evidence of the marijuana seized during the search of the residence and incident to the defendant's arrest, was properly admissible as part of the res gestae.

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A Paulding County jury convicted Saul Kohler of trafficking in cocaine in violation of OCGA § 16-13-31 a 1.1 Kohler filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. On appeal, Kohler contends that the trial court erred 1 in denying his motion in limine to exclude evidence of marijuana recovered along with the cocaine at the time of his arrest; 2 in admitting evidence of statements made by co-conspirators during commission of the crime when audiotape recordings of the statements had not been produced to him during discovery; 3 in denying his motion for mistrial after a state’s witness impermissibly interjected his character into evidence; and 4 in making improper comments while ruling on the motion for mistrial. For the reasons that follow, we discern no error and affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,2 the evidence at trial showed that on August 2, 2004, a confidential informant contacted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration “DEA” to report that he had been solicited to transport 100 kilos of cocaine from Texas to Georgia. The DEA launched an undercover investigation and coordinated the transport of the cocaine between the informant and conspirators in the transaction. Conspirators delivered the cocaine, which was packaged in six boxes, to a Texas warehouse, where they unloaded the boxes onto the informant’s tractor trailer. After the conspirators departed, the undercover DEA agents opened the boxes and saw that they contained a white powdery substance.

The agents instructed the informant to drive to another location, where the boxes were removed from the trailer, placed into the custody of the agents, and taken to a DEA district office for storage and testing. The agents learned that the boxes contained approximately 100 kilos of cocaine with a purity of 87 percent. The wholesale street value of the cocaine was approximately $2 million.

Kohler v. State

Evidence of the marijuana seized during the search of the residence and incident to the defendant's arrest, was properly admissible as part of the res gestae.

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