Maddle Appeal On Drug Conviction Denied

The State Court Of Criminal Appeals denied the appeal Wednesday of a Putnam County man sentenced to 15 years in prison on drug charges.

A Putnam Country jury found Eddie Maddle guilty in 2018 on possession with intent to sell or deliver methamphetamine. Maddle asked the Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction on four issues. The state denied relief in all four cases.

Maddle claimed the trial court erred by allowing the introduction of evidence about his wife’s drug sales to an informant. In the appeal, Maddle claimed the jury was bombarded by evidence about Bobbie Sue Maddle, confusing the jury.

“The State responds that the Defendant cannot show that a clear and unequivocal rule of law was breached, that the alleged error affected a substantial right of the Defendant’s, that the Defendant did not waive the error for tactical reasons, or that consideration of the error is necessary to do substantial justice,” Judge Allen Glenn wrote in the opinion. “We agree with the State.”

Maddle also claimed the drugs found in Maddle’s home should not have been admitted because the chain of custody in securing the evidence was not sufficient. Maddle’s attorney claimed the original technician did not testify calling the absence “suspicious.” The state said the technician was on maternity leave.

Issue three involved a Tennessee Department of Corrections officer briefly interrupting the trial by entering the wrong courtroom.

“The interruption here comprised only a brief moment in a fairly lengthy trial, and there is nothing in the record to show that the jurors were upset by the interruption,” Glenn wrote in the opinion.

Finally, Maddle claims the trial only showed his wife to be selling methamphetamine. The state focused on a statement made by the wife that said she has to check with Maddle about drugs he had ready to sell.