Alpena drug conviction upheld | News, Sports, Jobs

Steven Wyman

ALPENA – A 65-year-old man will remain in prison until at least 2036 after the Michigan State Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and suspended sentence for cocaine possession.

Police arrested Steven Wyman on Boxing Day 2021 after stopping him for speeding and discovering 175 grams of cocaine and $620 in cash during a search of his vehicle. A search of Wyman's cellphone revealed that he had been texting with people “known to law enforcement to be involved in drug trafficking,” the appeals court said in its recent opinion.

After a jury conviction, Wyman was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison in March 2023.

Wyman, who had unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Alpena County District Attorney's Office from introducing the text messages as evidence against him at trial, again argued in his appeal that the search warrant that police used to obtain those text messages was not properly authorized. Wyman argued that the evidence police used as the basis for the search warrant was not specific enough.

The three-judge appeals court disagreed, saying the search warrant was properly obtained and arguing that the text messages presented at trial probably wouldn't have significantly influenced the jury anyway.

“As demonstrated at trial, the defendant was found with over 175 grams of cocaine and cash in a grocery bag after driving for hours, stopping briefly, and returning to his starting point,” the appellate judges wrote. “As such, we are not convinced that the jury would have found the defendant not guilty without the text messages.”

Wyman also argued that the trial court erred in allowing a state police trooper to express his opinion that Wyman lied when he told police he knew of nothing illegal in the vehicle before giving police permission to search the vehicle. The appeals court ruled that the trooper's testimony was accurate because he was not testifying as an expert witness at the time.

Finally, Wyman told the Court of Appeal that his verdict was wrong because the court should have taken into account his age and poor health. The appeal judges said the trial court had acted appropriately.

“Although the defendant was 63 years old at the time of his conviction and suffers from heart disease, this court has held that a defendant's advanced age is not sufficient to rebut the presumption of appropriate punishment,” the appellate judges wrote in their opinion.

Read the Michigan Court of Appeals' full opinion denying Steven Wyman's appeal.

Denial of Steven Wyman's appeal by JustinHinkley on Scribd