JACKSON — The Mississippi Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case of a Greenwood man who was sentenced to prison on marijuana charges in 2006 even though much of the evidence marijuana had disappeared from the police station.
Lorenzo Tarver was sentenced to 60 years for possession of more than 81 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Brad McCullouch, who was the assistant district attorney then, had described Tarver as a major drug dealer.
Police had seized the pot while executing a search warrant at a home on Cypress Avenue on June 18, 2004.
Under state law, the maximum penalty for possession of more than a kilogram of marijuana is 30 years in prison.
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds.
Circuit Judge Ashley Hines doubled the maximum sentence of 30 years because Tarver’s house was within 1,500 feet of Willow Street Daycare Development Center.
Prosecutors went ahead with the trial after 90 pounds of marijuana disappeared from the Greenwood Police Department’s vault. That missing batch had included all but a few core samples of evidence marijuana in Tarver’s case, officials said.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors photographs of a large haul of marijuana. Police testified that they found about nine pounds of marijuana in the Cypress Avenue home and more in a shed.
Defense attorneys claimed Tarver shouldn’t have been tried without the evidence present.
