People v. Crandall

California Court of Appeal Aug 15, 1969 No. Crim. 15489Published

Before: Files

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Holding. The court held that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for possession of marijuana because it was purely conjecture as to which of the three occupants of the vehicle threw the contraband.

Issues

Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction for possession of marijuana when multiple occupants were in the vehicle and the specific individual who discarded the contraband could not be identified.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Upon this evidence it is purely conjecture whether defendant or the juvenile threw the package from the right side of the car.”

“Defendant’s presence in the car is not enough to establish that, he was an aider or abettor.”

FILES, P. J.

After a court trial defendant was found guilty of possession of marijuana (Health & Saf. Code, § 11530). The court sentenced him to state prison, “which sentence is ordered to run consecutively to any sentence now being served. ’ ’ This appeal is from the judgment.

[610]

By stipulation, the case was submitted to the trial court upon the transcript of the preliminary examination, plus one additional stipulation. Defendant offered no evidence. The sole witness was a deputy sheriff who testified in substance as follows :

At 8:45 p.m. on August 1, 1967, deputy sheriffs in a patrol car were following a vehicle because of a traffic violation. When the officers turned on their red light and sounded their horn the vehicle, which was then northbound, accelerated to the next comer, where it turned eastward. The officers sounded their siren. The vehicle again accelerated. Three-fourths of the way down the block a shiny object was thrown from the right-hand side of the vehicle and landed in the middle of the front yard of a residence. The vehicle continued to Orizaba Street where it turned to the south at such a speed that it skidded and almost struck the west curb. After traveling about three-quarters of a block from that corner it stopped. The driver emerged from the left side of the vehicle and said, “ ‘You have got me. Go ahead and do something about it now. ’ ’ ’ Defendant came out of the right front door. Also in the vehicle was a third person, referred to in the record only as “the juvenile.” Where he was sitting or from what door he emerged or when is not disclosed in the record.

The article thrown from the car was recovered and found to be a cellophane bag containing two ounces of marijuana.

It was stipulated that the officer would be deemed to have testified that when he stopped the car the front window on the right side of the car was open and the rear windows were closed.

The evidence is sufficient to show that someone in the vehicle possessed marijuana. (See

People

Groom,

People v. Crandall

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FILES, P. J.

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