People v. Jones

FOURT, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of possessing marijuana.

In an information filed in Los Angeles on April 7, 1966, defendant was charged with having possessed marijuana on the 19th day of March, 1966. It was charged further that defendant twice previously had been convicted of a felony, namely, a violation of section 288, Penal Code, in 1963, and a narcotics offense in 1964.

Defendant pleaded not guilty and denied the charge of the prior convictions. A jury trial was duly waived and in a trial before the judge defendant was found guilty as charged and the charged prior convictions were found to be true. Defendant was sentenced to the state prison. A timely notice of appeal of that judgment was filed.

A résumé of some of the facts is as follows: A police radio broadcast by the Pasadena Police Department reported about 2:30 a.m. March 19, 1966, that three or four male Negroes were engaged in stripping cars on the Jack Symes’ Used Cadillac Lot at the southwest corner of Colorado Boulevard and Berkeley Avenue, and that the strippers had an automobile parked on Berkeley Avenue not far from the car lot in question.

Sergeant McEwen, of the Pasadena Police Department, was on patrol duty and received the report. Inspector Ridenour of the same police department also received the report and went to the scene, and on going south on Berkeley Avenue saw a 1960 Cadillac parked at the curb in front of 60 South Berkeley Avenue. Defendant was in the car, lying at about a 45-degree angle, his head slumped down toward the steering

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wheel. Defendant appeared to be dazed, intoxicated, asleep or in a stupor. Inspector Ridenour rapped on the closed window of the car, but was unable to arouse the defendant. The officer then opened the car door and shook the defendant’s arm, thereby awakening him. Inspector Ridenour asked defendant if he had any identification. Defendant replied that he was waiting for a friend. Defendant was again asked if he had any identification, whereupon he opened the glove compartment of the car, looked into it and then replied that he had no identification. Defendant was then asked to step out of the ear and he complied. Defendant was asked if he had a driver’s license and he replied, after reaching toward his pocket, that he did not have it with him, but that he had one. Inspector Ridenour then advised defendant of his constitutional rights, such as a right to an attorney, to remain silent, that anything he said could be used against him, and so forth. Defendant stated, in effect, that he understood his rights and what had been said to him. Just prior to the time Inspector Ridenour advised defendant of his rights, Sergeant McEwen arrived upon the scene. Defendant was asked why he happened to be there and at first he stated that he had been asked to drive four Negroes (later defendant changed the number to three) to that location and that he expected them to return, but that as yet they had not returned.