People v. Robinson

FOURT, J.

This is an appeal from the “judgment and sentence” wherein appellant was convicted of possessing heroin.

In an information filed in Los Angeles County on October 10, 1961, defendant was charged with possessing heroin on July 20, 1961. She was represented by private counsel at all stages of the proceedings. A motion under section 995, Penal Code, was denied and she pleaded not guilty. A jury trial was properly waived and the cause was submitted upon the testimony contained in the transcript of the preliminary hearing subject to the privilege of each side to call additional witnesses and to present other and additional evidence. Other witnesses did testify for each side at the trial. Defendant

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was found guilty as charged. Probation was denied and defendant was sentenced to the state prison.

A résumé of some of the facts is as follows:

Officer Buckner of the Los Angeles Police Department narcotics squad checked defendant’s criminal record and found that she had been arrested about eight times for narcotics offenses and that apparently in each instance the case was dismissed; he also learned that his officer partner Northrup had known defendant for about five years and that his partner had conducted narcotics investigations with reference to the. defendant during such time and had arrested her once for a narcotics violation. Buckner also had talked to agent Barry of the State Narcotics Bureau who stated they had arrested defendant on an occasion when there was about an ounce of heroin found in her yard and some marijuana found in the house at 11635 Bandera Street. Buckner further had received information from Geraldine Curtiss, Irene Bradford, Lawrence Williams, Debra Shaw and Buster Small, and from another unnamed informant that defendant again was dealing in narcotics from her home and that it was her procedure to leave the house and to go where she had her narcotics stashed and then return home with enough to sell from the premises throughout the day.

On July 20, 1961, at about 7:30 a.m. Buckner, together with Brewer and Northrup, went to a location near defendant’s home to maintain a stake-out. About 8:30 a.m. defendant came out of the house, got into her Buick automobile and drove to the vicinity of 6123 McKinley where she sat in her car in front of the house for about five minutes; she then drove around in the alley and honked the horn of her car and sat there for about five minutes after which she returned to the front of the house. In about five minutes a male Negro named Claude Reed, known to Buckner, came out of the house. Buckner was watching the procedure through binoculars and saw the male Negro go to defendant’s ear where he appeared to hand the defendant something and to receive something she handed him. The male Negro put whatever defendant handed him into his pocket and walked back into his yard. The officers followed defendant to her home and as she was alighting from her car, Buckner approached her, identified himself and said, “Where is the narcotic you just picked up?” The defendant first remained silent and then said, “What’s this about?” She started to perspire profusely and