People v. Amiotte

FILES, J.

Defendant appeals from a conviction, after court trial, of possession of narcotics in violation of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code.

This record shows that in the early afternoon of October 17, 1961, two Los Angeles police officers observed defendant leave a residence located at 603 Marine Way which they, in the course of a narcotics investigation, had placed under surveillance. As he prepared to depart in his car, the officers approached the driver’s seat and asked defendant his name and occupation. He told them that his name was Jugan and that he was a merchant seaman aboard a coastwise cement ship from Seattle. He wore a white T-shirt. One of the officers noticed that there were hypodermic needle marks visible on his left elbow and that his eyes were extremely pinpointed. Believing defendant to be under the influence of a narcotic, the officers took him into custody. At the police station defendant told them that he had gone to 603 Marine Way “to score some narcotics” but was unsuccessful; that he lived at a motel where he shared a room with another, and that he was expecting a delivery of heroin to this location. In the course of a search of defendant’s room the following day, the officers discovered atop an empty suitcase on an upper shelf of the room’s closet a shaving kit from which they removed a bottle containing some white tablets. Chemical analysis revealed these tablets to be Amidone, a narcotic. In that same closet about 6 feet below the upper shelf was another large suitcase containing another shaving kit, personal effects and papers bearing the name Don Perkins.

Defendant testified that he had recently been discharged

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from state prison, that he had shared the room with Perkins for 3 weeks bnt that he had neither suitcase nor shaving kit, and that he had not used narcotics since his release. He denied knowledge of the presence of the Amidone, but thought that his roommate was a user.

Defendant claims that the Amidone found in his room was the inadmissible product of an unreasonable search. To begin with, the arrest was not unlawful. The arresting officers were entitled to infer from their observation of defendant that he had recently possessed narcotics in violation of Health and Safety Code, section 11500.