Drug case poses question: Is having cocaine in a motel room you’re not renting ‘burglary’?

A man arrested on drug charges Sunday after police found him with a woman in a Victory Drive motel room they weren’t renting prompted a brief debate over burglary during his Tuesday hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court.

First-degree burglary was among the charges 41-year-old Sheddrick Frager faced after officers found him and Rayshawndria Gardner in an unused room at the Candlewood Suites, 3389 Victory Drive. The manager had called police shortly after midnight to report intruders in a room that was closed for renovation.

Frager was renting a room at the motel, but it was not the one he was in, police said. The door to the room would not lock, from the outside, but Frager and Gardner had locked it from the inside, officers said.

When they knocked on the door, Gardner answered, and police asked her and Frager to step outside as the motel manager gave officers permission to search both that room and the room Frager had paid for.

While searching the two rooms and patting Frager down during his arrest, officers found 4.5 grams of cocaine, 1.1 grams of marijuana, 55 hypodermic needles, four cellphones, an assortment of plastic bags and several digital scales, they said.

Frager was charged with first-degree burglary, possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it, possessing cocaine, misdemeanor possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, and two counts of having drug-related objects.

Officers said Frager told them a motel worker had allowed him to use the room police found him in. Representing him in Recorder’s Court was public defender Owen Lynch, who asked Judge Julius Hunter to dismiss the burglary charge, arguing Frager had not entered the room to commit theft.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Brown countered that under Georgia law, Frager did not have to intend to steal anything. He had only to have intruded onto another’s property to commit a felony, and possessing cocaine is a felony, Brown said.

The Georgia code prohibiting first-degree burglary reads: “A person commits the offense of burglary in the first degree when, without authority and with the intent to commit a felony or theft therein, he or she enters or remains within an occupied, unoccupied, or vacant dwelling house of another or any building, vehicle, railroad car, watercraft, aircraft, or other such structure designed for use as the dwelling of another.”

Hunter let the burglary charge stand, and found probable cause to send the case on to Muscogee Superior Court. He set Frager’s bonds at $5,000 for burglary, $5,000 for possessing marijuana with intent to distribute it, $2,500 for possessing cocaine, and $250 on each of the three misdemeanor charges.

Gardner, 23, who police said told them she’d come to the motel only to visit Frager, was not in court Tuesday because she’d already been released on bond.

Gardner was charged with criminal trespass, having drugs that weren’t in the original container, giving police false information and possessing a dangerous drug. Each charge had a $250 bond.

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Drug case poses question: Is having cocaine in a motel room you’re not renting ‘burglary’?."