STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. NICK JOSEPH CIPALE, Defendant-Appellant.
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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 6-897 / 05-1624
Filed December 13, 2006
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
NICK JOSEPH CIPALE,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Joel D. Novak, Judge.
Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for possession of
methamphetamine with intent to deliver. AFFIRMED.
Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Dennis D. Hendrickson,
Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Cristen Douglass, Assistant Attorney
General, John P. Sarcone, County Attorney, and Stephanie Cox, Assistant
County Attorney, for appellee.
Considered
by
Mahan,
P.J.,
and
Miller
and
Vaitheswaran,
JJ.
2
VAITHESWARAN, J.
A jury found Nick Cipale guilty of possession of methamphetamine with
intent to deliver. On appeal, Cipale contends the State presented insufficient
evidence of his specific intent to deliver the methamphetamine and, accordingly,
the district court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal.
In considering this argument, we must view the evidence in a light most
favorable to the State.
State v. Quinn, 691 N.W.2d 403, 407 (Iowa 2005).
Viewed in this fashion, the jury could have found the following facts. Des Moines
police officers had a woman under surveillance for possible drug activity. They
saw a car pull up to the woman. A man, later identified as Cipale, approached
her and engaged her in a short conversation. The officers observed something
change hands.
The exchange appeared to be consistent with a narcotics
transaction. Cipale returned to the passenger side of his vehicle and the car left.
Officers followed the car, stopped it, and seized $402 from Cipale, 2.72 grams of
crystal methamphetamine that he threw beneath the car, and some marijuana.
Cipale admitted the drugs were his. One of the officers testified that the amount
of methamphetamine found near Cipale was inconsistent with personal use.
A jury could have found from this evidence that Cipale had the specific
intent to deliver the methamphetamine.
While there was other evidence
suggesting that the woman Cipale approached was the drug dealer and Cipale
was simply the buyer, it was up to the jury to sort out this evidence. See State v.
Thornton, 498 N.W.2d 670, 673 (Iowa 1993). As there was substantial evidence
to support the jury’s finding that Cipale had the intent to deliver, we will not
disturb that finding.
3
We
affirm
Cipale’s
judgment
methamphetamine with intent to deliver.
AFFIRMED.
and
sentence
for
possession
of
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