State of Texas vs. Gregory Wickware

A search warrant was served at a client’s home, where he was caught in the act of weighing and packaging about one kilogram of crack cocaine. The client was enhanced with two prior trips to the penitentiary, and his penalty range was therefore not less than 25 nor more than 99 years or life in prison. Following a jury trial, 40 years was assessed as punishment. Sasso objected at trial (and re-objected- and obtained running objection- and reurged objection) that police officer’s failure to knock and announce their presence before they executed a “dynamic entry” into the home violated the reasonableness requirement of the 4th Amendment. The Honorable Dan Wyde and the late Shannon Ross prosecuted this case at the trial level. The Dallas Court of Appeals affirmed, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted PDR, and the case was sent back to Dallas. The Dallas Court of Appeals, three years later, reversed, in the first successful defense case on this issue in the State of Texas. Exclusion of evidence is no longer the remedy, thanks to Hudson v. Michigan, one of the many “disappointing,” for lack of a better word, decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court pertaining to the rights of the accused in recent years.