The State established chain of custody as to bag of cocaine found on D while in jail, despite State’s failure to identify the “seizing officer.” Casas v. State, No. 01-11-00057-CR (Tex.App.-Houston [1 Dist] Apr 12, 2012).
“[Defendant] incorrectly assumes that the predicate for the admission of [bag of cocaine] must be established by the jailer who first picked the baggie up off the floor, and not by [a second officer], who was the second person to have custody of the baggie…. [O]ur sister court of appeals declined to find a break in the chain of custody of a packet containing cocaine where the exhibit was not positively identified at trial by the police officer who removed the cocaine from the defendant’s pocket, but by a second officer who immediately gained custody of the cocaine after observing the first officer seize it from the defendant.”
