Supreme Court of Delaware

Defendant's conviction for controlled substance possession within 300 feet of a church is affirmed where a LIDAR device provided a reliable and trustworthy measurement of the distance to the religious building at issue, and the building presumptively constituted a church, synagogue or other place of worship. However, defendant's conviction for tampering with evidence is reversed where the police perceived and immediately retrieved the marijuana baggie defendant placed in his mouth.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/08/2010
• Published 04/08/2010

Judges

• STEELE, Chief Justice, BERGER, and JACOBS, Justices for the Majority:, Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND, BERGER, JACOBS and RIDGELY, Justices, constituting the court en banc.

Court

• Supreme Court of Delaware

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Thomas D. Donovan, Donovan & Hopkins, LLC, Dover, Delaware, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John Williams, Department of Justice, Dover, Delaware, for appellee.