People v. Garcia

[963]

BURCH, J.

Defendant was prosecuted and found guilty in the Municipal Court of San Diego Judicial District under a complaint charging that on or about the 9th day of April, 1953, in San Diego Judicial District in the said County of San Diego, State of California, he did “. . . wilfully and unlawfully use

narcotics; . .

.,” in violation of the provisions of section 11721 of the Health and Safety Code. A jury having been waived, the trial was had before the court. Defendant was found guilty. His contentions on appeal are as follows:

1. That the trial court committed prejudicial error in admitting, over defendant’s objection, the purported extrajudicial statements of the defendant in the absence of proof of the corpus delicti.

2. That the evidence was and is insufficient to sustain the conviction, for the following reasons:

a. . That the evidence fails to establish that the defendant used any narcotic within the State of California.

b. That .the evidence fails to establish that the defendant ever unlawfully used any narcotic at any time or in any place.

From the settled statement of facts it appears:

The evidence for the People consisted of the testimony of one doctor and a police officer. Doctor Robert L. Williams testified that he was a physician licensed to practice in the State of California, and that on April 9, 1953, he had examined the arms of defendant and found thereon certain scabs, scars, and discolorations which in his opinion resulted from punctures in and about the veins by a needle-like object; that the scars and discolorations, in his opinion, were caused by frequent punctures of the veins in that area over a long period of time; that inexpert injections with unsterile instruments and/or injections of an overly strong solution on various occasions would tend to cause such sears and discolorations; that there were several scabs in the same area which had resulted from punctures -within approximately 24 hours of the time of the examination; that in his experience he had seen the foregoing pattern of scabs, scars, and discolorations only on the arms of narcotic users and addicts. Doctor Williams testified further that at the time of the foregoing examination the defendant stated to him that he had used habit-forming drugs on one occasion only, to wit, in June, 1952, when he smoked one marijuana cigarette, and that he had never used a drug by injection, but that the marks on his left arm were caused by brush scraping his arm years ago.