People v. King

FOURT, J.

The appellant was charged in an information in Los Angeles County with having marijuana in his possession. In a nonjury trial the appellant was found guilty on March 25, 1959. On April 22, 1959, a motion for a new trial was denied. Proceedings were suspended and probation was granted for five years conditioned, among other things, upon his spending nine months in the county jail. The appellant filed a notice of appeal “from the judgment—rendered on the 25th of March, 1959” and “the denial of a motion for a new trial rendered on the 22nd day of April, 1959, and the sentence pronounced on the 22nd day of April, 1959.”

A résumé of the facts is as follows: Ambrose P. Burke, Jr., a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was working in the area of Adams and Normandy Streets in Los Angeles on an investigation of the robbery of the Security-First National Bank at 48th and Western Streets, Los Angeles on July 17, 1958. The agent’s information was to the effect that the robbery at the bank had been committed by two male Negroes, that one of the robbers had entered the bank

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and the other had operated a get-away car; that the get-away car was a two-tone green, that it was dark and dirty, that it rattled, had a loud muffler and that the driver supposedly was wearing a dark T-shirt and some sort of a white cap.

Burke first saw the appellant at about 1 or 1:15 o ’clock p. m. in the 1600 block of Adams Street near Normandy, about 2 miles from the site of the robbery. Appellant was driving west on Adams in a 1951 Buick, two-toned, a lighter color over a dark green and, which', Burke said, “pretty well fit the description of the ear described as the get-away car of the bank robbers.” The car appellant was driving was also dirty, loud, and seemed to rattle. The appellant was the only person in the Buick car. Burke’s partner, who was the driver of the Bureau car, pulled the appellant to the curb. The appellant got out of his car, went to the rear thereof where Burke talked to him about the bank robbery after displaying to appellant his identification card as a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. After talking to the appellant about any possible knowledge of the bank robbery, they asked appellant what was in a box on the seat of the car. Appellant stated that there were clothes in it, that he was not sure what clothes they were, but that he was taking them back to the cleaners where he worked. Agent Burke testified, ‘ ‘ In view of the fact there was a bank robbery and the car looked good, we asked the defendant if he minded if we looked in the box, in view of the fact there could be clothes or money in the box. This happened in the past and it was a logical question to ask him.” The appellant stated that he had no objections to their looking into the box. There was three packages wrapped in brown paper, one of the packages was opened at one end and it appeared to contain a weed of some sort; there were seeds and leaves on it. Appellant said he did not know what it was. Another package was found under the driver’s side of the front seat. The contents were later examined and found to contain 9% pounds of marijuana.