Prosecutors showed photographs of a large haul of marijuana and pulled out core samples in front of a jury as part of their case against Lorenzo Tarver.
But the samples and the photographs are all prosecutors have to present as drug evidence against the 36-year-old Greenwood man on trial for possession of more than 81 pounds of pot.
The rest of the drugs went missing in April from the Greenwood Police Department.
The trial continued today in Leflore County Circuit Court with testimony from Greenwood Police Sgt. Byron O'Bryant, who said he brought three samples of marijuana from the Mississippi Crime Lab to the evidence locker at the police station.
On Wednesday, a jury looked intently at enlargements of photographs of the haul made by police at 506 Cypress St. on July 22, 2004.
The state's first witness, Sgt. Demetrice Bedell, a narcotics officer for the police department, testified that officers acted on a tip and got a warrant to search the house. They believed Tarver lived at the house. He received mail at the address.
Officers obtained the warrant, went to the house and had Tarver come to the door. Once inside, officers handcuffed Tarver and searched the house. They found several guns and about nine pounds of marijuana. In a safe, officers discovered $18,500.64 in cash.
At one point, Bedell said that Tarver told officers the nine pounds of marijuana was his. Bedell also testified that Tarver fetched a set of scales out from under the bed.
Another witness, former Greenwood Police Officer Robert Vail, testified that he and another officer stood watch outside while Bedell and others questioned Tarver and searched the house. Vail was assigned to keep anyone from going into or leaving the house.
While waiting outside, Vail said, he walked into the back yard. He saw two sheds. One was opened , and the other was locked with a chain and padlocked. The opened shed had lawn equipment in it, including a lawn mower.
Vail testified he approached the locked shed and about a foot away, he smelled marijuana. "I pulled the doors apart, took a deep breath and verified it was marijuana."
Vail called another officer to come over and confirm what he had smelled. After that, they called Bedell outside. Bedell got a key to the locked shed from Tarver, Vail said, and opened the shed. The officers found two long, black bags of large bundles containing "what appeared to be marijuana."
Officers took all the bags of marijuana and put them in the trunk of a police car. They delivered the pot to the evidence room at the Greenwood Police Department.
Bedell testified that the only time he asked for any of the evidence was to deliver it to the Mississippi Crime Lab for sampling. The pot was returned within a day, he said.
Bedell testified that he didn't have access to the evidence room.
Defense attorney Ali ShamsidDeen of Jackson questioned Bedell for more than an hour about his training in executing a warrant and about the lack of Tarver's fingerprints on any of the weapons or bags containing the marijuana.
- Staff writer Bob Darden contributed to this article.
