The Fifth District Court of Appeal has reversed a Seminole County man’s drug trafficking and possession convictions and ordered him discharged, holding that carrying keys to a third party’s house and to a locked safe that held drugs did not, without independent proof, establish that he constructively possessed the drugs.
Officers found Dwight Deon Oliver, who was subject to an arrest warrant, in a truck backing out of the driveway of a house in Sanford, and arrested him. While they waited for a search warrant, they saw Jessica Green, who has a child with Oliver’s brother, carrying a bag and a locked safe in the backyard of the house. Keys on a lanyard around Oliver’s neck fit the house and the safe, and officers used his key to open the safe, which held fentanyl, phenethylamines, cocaine, and another controlled substance. The trial court denied his motion for judgment of acquittal.
The Fifth District reversed. Because the house belonged to a third party and was not in Oliver’s exclusive possession, the State needed independent proof that he knew of and controlled the drugs. “No evidence, including fingerprints, DNA, or otherwise, was provided to show that Oliver handled, possessed, or controlled the safe or the contents inside,” the court wrote. “A key affording access, without more, establishes only opportunity, not possession.”
Green’s possession of the safe did not help the State. She was carrying it after Oliver was already in custody, testified that it was hers and that she could open it with a PIN code, and there was no evidence she was acting at Oliver’s direction. “Green’s actual possession of the safe establishes her knowledge and control over the safe’s contents, not Oliver’s,” the court wrote.
Download the full opinion (PDF)
Citation: Oliver v. State, No. 5D2025-0442 (Fla. 5th DCA Oct. 9, 2026).
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