Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District / Feb 24, 2020
STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent vs. PATRICK D. FRIEND, Appellant
Patrick D. Friend was convicted of drug trafficking after police found methamphetamine and paraphernalia in a rental car he occupied. On appeal, Friend challenged the trial court's refusal to compel his codefendant, Krista Payne, to testify, and the sufficiency of the evidence regarding his awareness of the drugs. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, finding no abuse of discretion in the trial court's decision regarding Payne's Fifth Amendment invocation and concluding that sufficient circumstantial evidence supported the jury's finding of Friend's awareness of the methamphetamine.