Sherman v Commissioner of Police

• Jurisdiction: Bahamas
• Judge: Gonsalves-Sabola, C.J.
• Judgment Date: 09 October 1990
• Docket Number: Appeal from Magistrate's Court No. 27 of 1990
• Date: 09 October 1990
• Court: Supreme Court (Bahamas)

Supreme Court

Gonsalves-Sabola, C.J.

Appeal from Magistrate's Court No. 27 of 1990

Sherman

and

Commissioner of Police

Appearances:

Mr. Wilbert Moss for the appellant

Mr. Desmond Bannister for the respondent

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction and sentence — Possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply — Drugs found by police during a search at the appellant's family's home — Appellant in Miami at time of search — No admissible evidence that the room in which the drugs were found was his bedroom — Appeal allowed.

Gonsalves-Sabola, C.J.

1 On the 30th of November, 1989, the police executed a search on the home of the Shermans at Alice Town, North Bimini. Present were the father of the family and a daughter of the family. Absent were the appellant, and two sons. One of the sons, that is the appellant, was in Miami at the time. The police found the dangerous drugs, the subject matter of the two counts of the charge involved in this appeal, in a bedroom cunningly secreted in a waterbed. The fact of the matter is that at the time the drugs were found the appellant was not in residence, and there is no admissible evidence whatever that the room in which the drugs were found was his bedroom.

2 There is evidence that near the place where the drugs were found secreted was a briefcase...