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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Shelby County man convicted of possession of methamphetamine and manufacturing was not a victim of double jeopardy, a panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals held on Friday.
The panel granted rehearing in Floyd Weddle v. State of Indiana, 73A01-1209-CR-452, in which the it found a protective sweep of a home was constitutional. Officers sweeping Floyd Weddle’s home on a warrant for theft and false informing found drug evidence that formed the basis of a subsequent warrant that turned up meth and marijuana.
The Court of Appeals earlier this year affirmed Weddle’s aggregate 35-year sentence on multiple drug charges, and on rehearing reaffirmed in greater detail why his convictions of possession of methamphetamine and manufacturing methamphetamine weren’t double jeopardy. The panel rejected arguments that the charging information for the counts didn’t specify different modes of conduct and that the state presented the same evidence to support both charges.
“Weddle was found in possession of methamphetamine,” Judge John Baker wrote in the five-page opinion that reaffirmed the panel’s prior ruling. “The police also found numerous accoutrements in the residence that are used to manufacture additional methamphetamine. The jury could have reasonably concluded that Weddle was in possession of methamphetamine and was in the process of manufacturing an additional amount of the drug.”
The panel also included Judges Cale Bradford and Melissa May.
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