Is Tearing Drug Cigarette Constitute ''Destruction of Evidence'' ?

In Spector v. State, 746 S.W.2d 945 (Tex. App.-Austin 1998, pet. ref'd) a defendant tore a marijuana cigarette in two pieces and threw them in a ditch. The police in Spector recovered part of the cigarette and used it to convict the defendant of both possession of marijuana and destruction of evidence. On appeal, the court reversed the conviction for destruction of evidence, holding that something is destroyed when its evidentiary value is destroyed. Id. at 946. Because the marijuana recovered was sufficient to test and to convict the defendant for possession of a usable amount of marijuana, it was not destroyed. Id. However, the court in Spector also held that "the only way evidence can be destroyed when part is recovered is when the part recovered has less evidentiary value than the whole." Id.