People v. Mandell

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendants were jointly charged with violations of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code. In the first three counts they were charged with the possession of narcotics, the respective counts charging possession of morphine, opium and cocaine. In the fourth, fifth and sixth counts, respectively, they were charged with the transportation of these drugs.

On the last night in February, 1948, an officer was parked behind a garage in Mendota directly across the street from an auto court, consisting of 10 cabins. He was watching for a new Studebaker automobile with a certain license number. Shortly before 1 a.m. on March 1, he saw this car drive into this court and up to the door of cabin No. 8. This cabin was occupied by a man named Lanhan, who was known to the officer to be a user of narcotics. The officer ran over to this cabin. From the side of the cabin he saw the car parked at the front door, heard the car door slam and the front door of the cabin slam, and someone went inside the building. Through a window of the cabin the officer saw Lanhan and the man who had come from the Studebaker and heard Lanhan ask the man if he had any “snow,” to which the man replied “Yes.” After a further conversation in low tones which the officer could not hear, the other man walked to the door

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of the cabin and the officer heard the door slam. The Studebaker was then driven out of the court, and headed north. This was some five minutes after it had entered the court. The officer ran to his own car and followed the Studebaker. At this time the defendant Mandell was driving the Studebaker and the defendant Hovermale sat beside her. About a mile and a half north of Mendota the Studebaker turned into a pumping station and stopped. The officer drove on for about half a mile, then turned off his lights, turned around and followed the Studebaker in the dark toward Mendota. At a point near the north edge of Mendota and when he was approximately 150 feet behind the Studebaker he suddenly turned his lights on high beam. He then saw a box come out of the Studebaker car from the passenger side of the front seat. He sounded his siren, both cars were stopped at the side of the road, and he arrested the defendants. He radioed for help and three other officers arrived about 30 minutes later.

When the other officers arrived the first officer told them that he had seen a box thrown out of the car a short distance back and that he could show them where this had occurred. He and one of the other officers walked back and found the box at the place where it had been thrown from the Studebaker. The box was a cigar box and was dry when found. The box contained four bindles of opium, four bindles of morphine, four bindles of cocaine and also five jars of opium. These were well packed in cotton and the outside of the box was securely taped on all four sides. The corners of some of the bindles were marked “C,” and others were marked “H” or “M.” These markings were indicative of the type of narcotics in the bindles. The cigar box contained $1,500 worth of narcotics at illegal market prices.