People v. Robinson

THOMPSON, J.

Appellant was convicted of violation of Health and Safety Code section 11530, possession of marijuana. On this appeal, he raises the issue of whether the evidence upon which that conviction was based was legally obtained.

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On June 11, 1967, Manuel Mendez and his family were driving on California Avenue in the City of Long Beach. He heard shots and a slapping noise. Upon turning his head, he saw blood streaming from the face of his two-year-old daughter who was riding in the back seat. Mr. Mendez drove his daughter to the hospital, immediately returned to the scene, and called the police.

[791]

The officers arrived approximately 25 minutes after the shooting. They learned from Mr. Mendez that shots, one of which had struck his daughter, had been fired, and from Edward Campbell, a disinterested witness, that two separate volleys had been fired which might have emanated from a two-story building in the 1200 block of Lewis Avenue in the immediate vicinity of the injury to the Mendez child. Other persons who refused to identify themselves confirmed the information.

The officers went to the building, an apartment house, and at its rear saw a refrigerator that bore what appeared to them to be the marks of a ricocheted bullet. From the markings they concluded that the shots had come from apartment number 1 of the building. The officers entered the corridor of the building and approached apartment number 1. The door of the apartment was ajar about 4 inches, and through it the officers saw four empty cartridge cases lying on the floor about 3 feet inside the door. The officers, without identifying themselves or seeking permission to do so, entered the apartment with drawn guns.

There they saw the appellant lying face down on a bed with his arms beneath him. One of the officers saw the marijuana, which is the contraband upon which appellant’s conviction is based, on a chair a few feet from the bed. The officers arrested appellant and searched the apartment discovering a number of empty cartridge cases and the weapon later established as that which fired the bullet removed from the face of the Mendez child.

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