On December 14, 2015, the Harris County Sheriff’s department arrested 33-year-old Dwight Gates for possession of pills suspected to be hydrocodone, a codeine-based pain killer.
On January 12, 2016, Gates pled guilty in Harris County Criminal District Court to misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to 30 days in the Harris County Jail.
On January 15—three days after he pled guilty—the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences performed laboratory tests on the pills. No controlled substances were detected.
The laboratory report was forwarded to the Harris County District Attorney’s conviction integrity unit, which notified Gates’s defense attorney.
The defense attorney filed a motion for a new trial and on January 21, 2016, the motion was granted, the conviction was vacated, and the charge was dismissed.
– Maurice Possley
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