People v. Young

Opinion

ELKINGTON, J.

Defendant Delvin Young was convicted by jury verdicts of three offenses relating to narcotics and restricted dangerous drugs. Three concurrent county jail sentences were ordered for a maximum of 60 days. He appeals from the judgment.

His first contention is that there was no probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant which turned up the evidence on which he was convicted. The contention has been considered and is found to be without merit.

The affidavit upon which the search warrant was based was that of a peace officer; it was dated May 7, 1969, the same day on which the search warrant was later issued. In it the officer related that on May 7, 1969, a 13-year-old girl, Peggy, had given him the following information. She stated that four days earlier, May 3d, she and her 17-year-old sister went to the premises for which the search warrant was later sought. Upon entering, the sister asked defendant Delvin Young, “Where is the grass?” Young then brought out a plastic bag containing what Peggy “believed to be marijuana.” Young then rolled some of the substance into three “home-made cigarettes” which were thereupon smoked by the sister, Young, and another man, Frank Spencer. The girl described “the odor of the substance that was being smoked and its general physical characteristics” to the officer. Each of the other three persons told Peggy “that it was ‘grass’ ” they were smoking. All concerned then went out for an automobile ride on which more of the same type of cigarettes were made up and smoked and passed around the car. Frank Spencer “had a baggie of marijuana on his lap” from which such a cigarette was rolled. The officer’s affidavit gave this additional information. Peggy’s description to him of the substance she had seen and smelled made it “appear that it was marijuana.” The county sheriff’s department for a couple of weeks had received “complaints from the neighborhood ... to the following effect: Individuals that can be described as Hippies have been coming and going from that [described] house day and night.” One such complaint stated that this traffic was “all hours of the day and night” and that it included many young girls. Five men, including Frank Spencer,

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known to frequent the premises were also known to be “narcotic users and/or dealers.” Frank Spencer had three times been arrested for narcotic violations. Several narcotics users had previously told the officer “that their source of supply was Rocky Young” (the defendant here).