People v. Langley

GRIFFIN, P. J.

Defendant-appellant was convicted of having marijuana in his possession, in violation of Health and Safety Code, section 11530, and admitted a prior felony conviction of burglary, second degree. His codefendant, Charles Shaffer, entered a plea of guilty to the charge. Probation was denied and defendant was committed to the custody of the sheriff for one year.

[90]

The principal questions on this appeal are whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the conviction and whether the search and seizure of an automobile for narcotics was based upon reasonable and probable cause.

About 1 a.m. on September 14, 1959, two police officers on patrol observed a car parked on the north side of Neilson Avenue, about 150 feet east of West Avenue, just outside the city limits of Fresno, in an uninhabited territory. The night was dark, clear and warm, but the windows of the ear were rolled up. The officers turned their spotlight on the parked car. They saw four occupants in it. Defendant Langley was the

driver;

one Garrison was sitting in the right rear seat; one Hayes was in the front seat with defendant Langley; and one Shaffer was seated behind defendant. When the police approached, defendant Langley rolled down his window and the officer smelled an odor similar to that of burning alfalfa but which was not alfalfa. Several years previously, and while the officer was working as a policeman in Sacramento, he had smelled a similar odor and it was determined at that time to be marijuana. The officers interrogated defendant as to what the men were doing, and were informed they were telling dirty jokes. Two of the occupants of the car, Garrison and Hayes, were recognized by the officers from prior prison records. The police ordered the men out of the car and one officer searched them for weapons and the other searched the car. The officer searching the car pulled out a brown paper sack from underneath the front seat of the car. This sack was found to contain a small, round honey jar with a yellow lid, some wheatstraw cigarette papers, rubber bands, a spoon and some safety pins. The occupants were taken to jail. The contents of the sack were turned over to other officers and ultimately examined by an expert chemist who found the jar to contain eight and one-half grains of marijuana.