Page:Corbit v. State.pdf/2

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ARK.]
CORBIT v. State
Cite as 334 Ark. 592 (1998)

595


333 Ark. 503, 969 S.W.2d 663 (1998). Police authorities seized $1810.00, a 1987 GMC truck, various firearms, and other items following the arrest of Randy Corbit for possession and sale of marijuana. Randy Corbit and his father, Norman Corbit, have appealed from an order forfeiting $1710.00 of the cash seized, allowing a substitution of the firearms and other items for the truck, and making the forfeiture of the truck or the substituted assets dependent upon a conviction in the drug possession add sale case. We must dismiss the appeal due to the lack of a final order.

Michael Steele, a narcotics investigator with the First and Third Judicial Districts' Drug Task Force, along with a confidential informant, met with Christopher Jarrett and Edward Knapp and arranged for Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Knapp to purchase marijuana at New Place Store in Phillips County where Randy Corbit was employed.

Mr. Steele gave $100.00 in Drug Task Force "buy money" to Mr. Knapp. Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Knapp were to meet Investigator Steele at a specified location after buying the marijuana. According to Mr. Jarrett, when the pair arrived at the store, Randy Corbit told him that he did not have the marijuana and that he would have to go get it. According to Mr. Jarrett, Randy Corbit told him to come back in about an hour.

After an hour passed, Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Knapp returned to the store at which time Randy Corbit handed Mr. Jarrett the marijuana in exchange for the $100.00. Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Knapp then met Investigator Steele and gave him a plastic bag containing twenty-three grams of marijuana. At the forfeiture proceeding, Mr. Jarrett stated that upon returning to the store he noticed that the truck that had been outside the store had been moved.

At some distance from the store, officers observed Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Knapp enter the store and leave a short time later. They then observed Randy Corbit leave the store in the truck and then return about twenty minutes later. They also observed him obtain something from the bed of the truck before going back into the