Cocaine convictions can rise or fall on whether you keep your mouth shut with police, says Fairfax criminal lawyer

Cocaine convictions and all other convictions often come about only because the suspect / Virginia criminal defendant did not assert their Constitutional right to silence under the Fifth Amendment. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I cheer when defendants assert that right, and often bury my head in my hands when they do the opposite. In the latter regard, Jerome Lee Wilkerson let a prideful boast lead straight to his conviction for possessing coke as an inmate whose personal property bag was found to contain said controlled substance. After jail officials received word of possible coke possession in Wilkerson’s unit, a drug dog alerted on his personal property bag, where the drug was found: “Hidden inside one of the toilet paper rolls [in Wilkerson’s personal property bag]  was a plastic bag with a white powder substance in it; the substance was later confirmed to be 1.03 grams of powder cocaine.” A jail official asked Wilkerson about anyone else having access to the bag. Instead of asserting his right to remain silent, Wilkerson let loose a “‘“F**k no. Ain’t no one goes into [] my bag. I watch my bag. They know better. I check my bag every 15 minutes.'” Wilkerson won in the Virginia Court of Appeals, for the possibility that someone else may have slipped the coke into his bag when Wilkerson was out of his jail hut, but a unanimous Virginia Supreme Court reinstates his conviction by Wilkerson’s confirmation of his level of exclusive use of and access to his personal property bag. Wilkerson v. Commonwealth of Virginia, ___ Va. ___ (Feb. 20, 2025).

Don’t take law enforcement officers’ (LEO’s) bait to boast

Jail and prison inmates are fish out of water. How limiting it is for inmates to be reduced to being permitted but one personal property bag, to the point where an inmate like Jerome Lee Wilkerson would obsessively check his bag every 15 minutes. That obsession perhaps got the better of him in boasting about nobody messing with his bag, a boast that proved his downfall for adding his name to the thousands in the nation who annually receive cocaine convictions.

Cocaine convictions are only possible through knowledge, dominion and control of the coke- Consider non-exclusive possession

Cocaine convictions are only possible through knowledge, dominion and control of the coke- Non-exclusive possession of contraband can make the difference between your trial judge’s letting your case go to your jury or dismissing your case. Wilkerson provides examples of insufficient evidence to conviction for drug possession where the defendant shares a refrigerator with the fridge’s owner, or where the defendant possesses someone else’s prescription bottle, in which an illegal substance is found in the bottle for which the container is not marked. Wilkerson.

Fight against the scarlet letter of a Virginia drug conviction- Hire the best possible Fairfax criminal lawyer / Virginia defense attorney you can find

Cocaine convictions and any drug guilty verdicts are scarlet letters. Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz has successfully defended hundreds of defendants charged with drug dealing and possession. For your free in-person initial confidential consultation with Jon Katz about your court-pending prosecution, call 703-383-1100, info@BeatTheProsecution.com or (text) 571-406-7268. Usually Jon can meet with you within a business day of your contacting us.