People v. Bledsoe

NOURSE, P. J.

The defendant was tried to the court sitting without a jury upon an information filed under section 11160 of the Health and Safety Code charging that he “feloniously had in his possession a preparation of marihuana.” He was convicted and given the minimum sentence of 90 days in the county jail.

The defendant was employed as leader of a small band at a restaurant located at 1650 Post. Street, which is in what is known as the Negro district of San Francisco. His time of

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employment was from 6 p. m. to midnight with rehearsals from 2 to 6 p. m. He customarily parked his automobile in front of the restaurant. At about 6 p. m. of July 3, 1945, his car was missing and he reported to a near-by police station. He was told to do nothing further as the car might have been taken by a friend. Early the following morning he found the car parked near where he had left it and went to his room to sleep. The following afternoon he reported for work and while seated in the car with a friend in front of the restaurant two police officers approached him and inquired about the ownership of the car and the circumstances of a robbery in Oakland the previous night in which a car similar to his had been used. He was directed to wait and two other officers were called. One of the latter ordered him to drive his car to a garage and rode with him all the way. What became of the “friend” does not appear. The defendant was handcuffed and while the other officers had some difficulty in adjusting or removing the handcuffs the officer who had ridden with defendant searched his car. He found a package of marihuana cigarettes on the right hand side of the front seat stuffed down alongside the cushion. He said to the defendant, “Look what I found,” and the defendant answered, “Whatever it is, it doesn’t belong to me.”

The police officer who rode with defendant to the garage was the only witness called by the state. The defendant was the only witness testifying for the defense. The evidence as a whole is incomplete and far from convincing. The officer testified on direct examination that when he first approached the car it was locked. Then he testified that he thought it was locked. The defendant testified that when the two officers first drove up he and a friend were seated in the car. These officers were both in court but were not called as witnesses. The state did not deny that the defendant and a friend were sitting in the car when the first two officers apprehended the defendant, or that one of the officers rode in the car with defendant to the garage. It did not deny that the defendant had reported the theft of the car on the night preceding the arrest, and admitted that another party who had been convicted of a robbery in Oakland had testified that he had used the defendant’s ear in that and other robberies.