People v. Noland

NOURSE, P. J.

The defendant was tried before a jury on an information charging a felony—possession of narcotics. He has appealed from the judgment following a verdict of guilty and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

The defendant was arrested at about 1 p. m. while asleep in his room in a hotel in San Francisco which he had occupied with a married woman, not his wife. The narcotics were found in a vase standing outside the door of defendant’s room. They were in a phial wrapped in tissue paper with a rubber band around it. With them was another package containing a syringe and hypodermic needle. The defendant denied to the officers that he was an habitual user of narcotics, but admitted that he used them occasionally, and displayed sixteen punctures in his arms which were shown to have been caused by the use of a hypodermic needle. His woman companion testified that the instruments belonged to defendant; that he had kept them and the package of narcotics in his possession in his room for the period of two or three weeks while she was living with him, and had placed them in the vase in the hallway to avoid detection. The testimony of this witness was attacked, the defendant showing that she had recently comenced a civil action against him to recover a sum of money which he had taken into his possession and held on the claim that she had given it to him. There was also an attempt to show that she had threatened his arrest charging a theft of the money. This witness admitted that she had commenced the civil action, but denied the threats of criminal proseen

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tion. She had been apprehended, for reasons not shown, and led the officers to defendant’s room, and showed them where the narcotics and instruments could be found.

Appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient to prove possession since the articles were found in the vase located in the hallway. But the evidence is that the vase was a secret hiding place used by him for that purpose, that he had kept them in his possession all the time his companion had lived with him, but had placed them in this vase, or in other secret hiding places outside his hotel room.

In

People