People v. Foster

California Court of Appeal Feb 10, 1953 No. Crim. 2860Published

Before: Dooling

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Holding. The court affirmed the conviction of Foster, finding sufficient evidence of guilty knowledge based on his false testimony, but reversed and remanded the conviction of Phillips, holding that mere proximity to the thrown object was insufficient to prove possession.

Issues

Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction for possession of narcotics against defendants Foster and Phillips.

Disposition. Affirmed as to Foster; reversed and remanded as to Phillips.

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Mere presence at the scene of the crime standing alone is not sufficient to justify a finding of guilt.”

“To infer guilty knowledge in Phillips from the fact, standing alone, that he testified that he did not see the package thrown from the car would be to permit a conviction on the wildest sort of surmise and conjecture.”

“From this clumsy attempt to manufacture a defense the jury might reasonably infer the guilty knowledge necessary to find that Foster was the one of the three defendants who had possession of the heroin.”

DOOLING, J.

Two defendants, Foster and Phillips, appeal from a conviction of possession of narcotics (Health & Saf. Code, § 11500) and from the order denying their motions for new trial. Three defendants were tried jointly, the jury returned verdicts of guilty against all three but the trial court granted the motion for new trial of the third defendant, Dabney.

On December 22, 1951, two police officers of the city and county of San Francisco at about 1 o’clock a. m. observed a La Salle automobile in which the three defendants were riding and followed it because of a suspicion that it had been used in the commission of thefts from other automobiles. They flashed the red light on their patrol car and sounded the siren thereby causing Dabney, who was driving the La Salle, to bring it to a stop. As one of the officers was alighting from the patrol car he saw a small object come from the right front window of the La Salle and fall to the street. This proved to be a narcotic user's outfit, consisting of an eyedropper fitted with a hypodermic needle, and 1% grains of heroin, wrapped in a small piece of paper held in place by a rubber band. Upon questioning, all three defendants denied any knowledge of the package and its contents.

All three defendants were riding in the front seat; Dabney driving the car, Foster in the middle and Phillips on the right side. The officers saw all three defendants moving about in the car but did not see any of the three make any throwing motion. All three both before trial and on the witness stand denied any knowledge of the packet containing heroin and

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each denied that he had thrown it from the ear or seen anything thrown from the car by either of the others.

In this state of the record it is perfectly clear'that one, if not more, of the defendants was guilty of the possession of the heroin, the problem presented by the record being whether the State proved facts sufficient to justify the jury’s finding that either Foster or Phillips was the guilty person or, as it actually found, that both were guilty.

Mere presence at the scene of the crime standing alone is not sufficient to justify a finding of guilt.

People v. Foster

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DOOLING, J.

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