State v. Lopez

In State v. Lopez, 79 Wn. App. 755, 904 P.2d 1179 (1995), the defendant "was arrested in a car during a controlled drug buy with an informant. The cocaine he had just purchased was found on the floorboard of the car, and additional cocaine, unrelated to the present deal, was found on Lopez's person." Adel, 136 Wn.2d at 638-39. The cocaine found on Lopez's person was packaged in "14 bindles and appeared to be intended for distribution." Id., at 639. "Lopez was charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver, one count based on the cocaine he had just purchased, and the other count based on the separate cocaine found on his person." Id. The facts of Lopez supported only one criminal conviction: Lopez may have had two distinct quantities of cocaine under his dominion and control, and evidence showed the two quantities came from separate sources, but none of that evidence was relevant to the unit of prosecution for possession with intent to deliver. The evidence failed to establish more than one intent to deliver the drugs in the future--there were not two distinct intents to deliver, as there were in State v. McFadden, 63 Wn. App. 441, 820 P.2d 53 (1991). Id. The "results of Lopez and McFadden compliment sic each other when the proper unit of prosecution analysis is applied to both cases." Id.