People v. Hood

[199]

FOX, J.

Defendants were indicted for possession of heroin in violation of section 11500, Health and Safety Code. Their motion under section 995, Penal Code, to set aside the indictment was granted. The People have appealed from that order.

Shortly before the arrest of the defendants, Helen Delores LaVigne, who was a state parole officer, received information from one of her parolees that defendant Hood, who was also a parolee, had given her narcotics and that he was dealing in narcotics. The parolee also gave Miss LaVigne Hood’s exact address, his living arrangement, a good description of his car, and where he could be located generally. Miss LaVigne considered that the source of her information was trustworthy because she had received other information which, upon investigation, had proved to be accurate. Miss LaVigne passed this information on to Albert E. Gustin, who was the supervising parole officer of Hood. Mr. Gustin called the Narcotic Detail of the Los Angeles Police Department and gave them the information he had acquired from Miss LaVigne.

With this information, Officer MacGregor, of the Narcotic Division, went to the apartment house where Hood lived, at about 9:30 in the evening. Hood occupied an upstairs apartment. While going upstairs, the officers met Hood’s mother. They identified themselves and asked whether Othello Hood was at home; she advised them that he was there, and in the bathroom. After entering the apartment, one of the officers knocked on the bathroom door and inquired, “Is Othello there?” There was no response. The officers, however, heard a sound, such as a screen or window being opened. At that time, one of the officers ran to the bedroom window, which is on the same side of the house as the bathroom; he forced open the screen and stuck his head out of the window. The windows between the bathroom and the bedroom were only about 3 feet apart. The officer observed an arm coming out of the bathroom window and throwing an object, which landed on a car and bounced off to the sidewalk. The officer ran back to the bathroom door, forced it open, identified himself, and placed defendants under arrest.

The arm that was thrust out of the window appeared to be a man’s arm because of its size. When the officer entered the bathroom Hood was standing by the window. The arm that the officer observed at the window looked more like his arm than that of his companion, Mrs. Lewis, whose arm was comparatively thin. Mrs. Lewis was fully clothed, standing by the