People v. Lawton

VALLÉE, J.

In a nonjury trial defendant was convicted of unlawfully possessing heroin on November 30, 1959. His motion for a new trial was denied. He appeals from the judgment sentencing him to state prison.

On September 22, 1959, Spot Johnson, an informer, told

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Officers Leeds, Beckmann, and Drees of the Los Angeles Police Department that a person known to him as Cadillac Willie or Black Willie was selling heroin in large amounts on Central Avenue between 5th Street and 68th Street in Los Angeles. Johnson told the officers this person lived somewhere in the 1000 block on East 24th Street. At the same time, the officers talked to Ricky Pender graft, another informer, who told them substantially the same thing.

The officers checked the 1000 block on East 24th Street and saw a two-tone blue Cadillac bearing license number KPE-747 parked in front of 1006 East 24th Street. They cheeked with other police officers and were told Cadillac Willie or Black Willie was defendant Lawton. They checked their monitor file and found under “Cadillac Willie” the name of defendant—William Lawton, his Los Angeles number, and a prior booking number. They checked to see if defendant had a prior police record and found he had a narcotic record.

The officers then checked Central Avenue from 5th Street to 68th Street. On several occasions they saw defendant on 5th Street between Stanford and Central Avenues in a Cadillac with license number KPE-747 talking to a Walter Gibson and a Tommy Bryant. Gibson and Bryant were known to the officers as narcotic users. The officers then talked to another narcotic user known to them as Jazz who lived at 68th Street and Central Avenue. Jazz told them Cadillac Willie was dealing in narcotics up and down Central Avenue and made regular runs on Central and on 5th Street. The officers then learned from an unidentified informer that defendant’s address was 1043 South Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles. About 5 :20 p.m. on November 30,1959 Officers Leeds and Beckmann, in plain clothes, went to that address, an apartment house. A two-tone blue Cadillac, license number SBY-256, was parked across the street. The officers walked to the entrance of the apartment house. As they did, they saw defendant standing in the entrance with a bag of groceries. They walked by him into the building and through the hallway to back stairs on the inside of the building. They went around the corner, as if to go up the stairway. Leeds remained on the floor level.