Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
General District Judge John Quigley ruled that Chad T. Moore's arrest was the result of an illegal search. And he threw out the case against Adam C. McCaa because case numbers on a lab report didn't match up with numbers on the plastic bag of suspected marijuana that was submitted to be tested.
Moore's case was thrown out after his attorney, Dick Davis of Radford, argued that Deputy M.M. Wilburn had not obtained a consent to search when he confiscated the marijuana. Wilburn saw the marijuana in a bathroom as he was walking through the apartment to talk with Moore and before another officer returned with a search warrant, the judge said.
``I know and you know what he's doing,'' Quigley said, ruling that it constituted a search.
His ruling on McCaa's case came after Commonwealth's Attorney Randal Duncan objected to defense lawyer Robbie Jenkins' motion to introduce the lab analysis for comparison with numbers on the bag. Quigley ruled that, without the lab report, the prosecutor had no case to proceed on.
Moore, 22, and McCaa, 21, shared an apartment in the 700 block of Downey Street near Radford University. Both are from Burke.
Members of the Drug Task Force came to the apartment about midnight Nov. 17 searching for Timothy Richard Irwin, who also lived there. Task force members suspected Irwin, 21, of providing marijuana to a Virginia Tech student whom they had questioned the previous evening, testified Lynn Roach, a Virginia State Police special agent.
Roach testified that he and other task force members entered the apartment after someone answered his knock by saying, ``Come in; it's open.''
Roach said he saw Moore sitting on a couch with an assault rifle in his hands. Moore was cleaning the rifle, according to testimony.
After Roach took the weapon from Moore, other officers went through the apartment to look for other weapons or any other people, Roach and other officers testified.
Officers retrieved a 9mm handgun from Irwin's room after being told there was a weapon in there, Roach testified.
Besides the two weapons, task force members said they confiscated $13,000 in cash and about 17 pounds of marijuana.
Irwin, also from Burke, waived a preliminary hearing Thursday on felony charges of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute and possessing marijuana within 1,000 feet of a public school with intent to distribute. The charges now go to a grand jury to consider for indictment.
Meanwhile, charges against two Virginia Tech students who were the original subject of the task force investigation were heard last month in Montgomery County General District Court.
Brandon McCulloch, 20, who was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, was entered into a youthful offender program and had his driver's license suspended for six months.
A felony charge of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute against Steven Allyn Ackerman, 21, McCulloch's roommate, was certified to the grand jury to consider for indictment.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.