Commonwealth v. Kenneth Littleton

Practice, Criminal, Cross-examination by prosecutor, Instructions to jury, Reasonable doubt, Verdict. Constitutional Law, Double jeopardy. The defendant appeals from a conviction of possession of heroin. He was apprehended in these circumstances: two police officers, patrolling the Mission Hill area of Boston in a cruiser at 10:00 P.M. on February 27, 1993, observed the defendant showing something in his hand to a female and decided to investigate. As the officers exited from the cruiser, a bystander shouted ""five-O,"" meaning police, and the defendant fished in his pocket and dropped to the ground a yellow glassine baggie of a type Officer Connelly, an experienced drug enforcement officer, associated with heroin packaging. He retrieved the baggie (as well as several other glassine bags lying on the ground near the defendant) 1 and arrested the defendant. The baggie that he saw the defendant drop contained heroin, according to the report of the State police laboratory.