COLUMBUS: The Ohio Supreme Court has thrown out a woman’s evidence-tampering conviction for hiding drugs in her body, saying she had to have first known she was being investigated for a crime to have been committed.
The court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the woman’s knowledge she was committing a crime just by hiding the drugs is not by itself enough proof for an evidence-tampering conviction.
At issue was the 2013 arrest of a 19-year-old woman found after a traffic stop to have concealed heroin and cocaine in a condom in her body.
Justice Terrence O’Donnell said prosecutors failed to prove the woman was aware that an investigation into her drug trafficking and possession was likely at the time she concealed evidence of those crimes.