People v. Sand CA1/3

Filed 4/29/25 P. v. Sand CA1/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A170320 v. DENNIS KEITH SAND, (Humboldt County Super. Ct. No. CR2303454) Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Dennis Keith Sand appeals a judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of transporting methamphetamine. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11379, subd. (a).) He contends the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Late on the evening of November 21, 2023, a police officer with the City of Eureka, Tyler Moore, saw a Volkswagen Jetta with defective taillights and license plate lights. He recognized the car as being associated with defendant and another person, Norma Payton, and a records check showed it was registered to both of them. Moore had the car pull over into a parking lot, parked behind it, and saw that Payton was driving and defendant was in the passenger seat. Payton handed Moore her driver’s license, and he returned to the patrol vehicle and ran a records check, then brought the license back to

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the car. While he was by the patrol vehicle, he could not see through the back window into the Jetta. Moore and another officer asked defendant to get out of the Jetta. Moore was paying attention to defendant rather than to Payton, who was still in the driver’s seat. As defendant stood next to the open passenger side door, Moore searched him and found no contraband.1 During the search, Moore was facing the Jetta and could “kind of” see into it; however, he could not see all the way into the car from his standing position. The other officer took defendant to the patrol vehicle, and Moore asked Payton to get out of the car. Payton stepped out of the car while Moore was still standing by the open passenger door. Moore then searched the Jetta, which he described as “pretty cluttered” in both front and back. On the car’s floorboard, “kind of tucked underneath the front” of the passenger seat and close to the door, he found a “fairly large” plastic bag containing methamphetamine. He located it after removing trash and personal belongings from the floorboard in front of the seat. The bag weighed 28.98 grams, including the packaging. On the center console and front seat Moore found glass pipes. In the front driver’s side door pocket he found a digital scale, which had a white residue on it, and three smaller plastic bags. A search of Payton’s person revealed a smaller bag of methamphetamine, weighing a total of 2.13 grams, glass pipes of the sort used to smoke methamphetamine, and $64 in cash, in the form of 12 five- dollar bills and four one-dollar bills.