People v. Douglas

Opinion

ELKINGTON, Acting P. J.

Defendant Stephen Junnell Douglas (Douglas) was found guilty by a jury’s verdict of possession of marijuana

for sale.

He appeals from the judgment which was thereupon entered.

[1694]

We shall affirm the judgment after stating our reasons.

I. The first of Douglas’s appellate contentions is that: “The court erred in allowing expert opinion on matters which were not a proper subject of expert opinion.”

A police officer with much training and experience in the suppression of the narcotic and dangerous drug traffic was asked a long hypothetical question, in the course of which he was asked to assume as facts the prosecution’s evidence, and which ended with the following: “Assume all those things. With that long hypothetical in mind, do you have an opinion, officer, as to whether or not the marijuana . . . was possessed for personal use or was possessed for sale?”

The issue posed is whether the subject matter of the hypothetical question was “a proper subject of expert opinion.” No question was raised as to the officer’s qualifications. It is conceded that “defense counsel objected to the hypothetical [only] on the grounds that the question went to the ultimate issue.”

The applicable rule is stated by

People

v.

Cole

(1956) 47 Cal.2d 99, 103 [301 P.2d 854, 56 A.L.R.2d 1435], as follows: “[T]he decisive consideration in determining the admissibility of expert opinion evidence is whether the subject of inquiry is one of such common knowledge that men of ordinary education could reach a conclusion as intelligently as the witness or whether, on the other hand, the matter is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact.”

We note that embraced by the hypothetical question of the officer were the assumed conduct of a purported seller of marijuana and of a purported buyer, the weight and packaging of 14 bindles of marijuana possessed by the purported seller, and the 44 dollar bills found in his possession. The interpretation of such evidence, we opine, “is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact.” (See