People v. Taylor CA1/4

Filed 8/28/14 P. v. Taylor CA1/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A136552 v. MICHELLE LYNN TAYLOR, (Del Norte County Super. Ct. No. CRF119222) Defendant and Appellant.

I. INTRODUCTION This case arises in part from a routine traffic stop in which drugs were found in appellant’s possession, resulting in her conviction of, among other things, transportation of a controlled substance (methamphetamine). (Health & Saf. Code, § 11379.) A subsequent amendment to section 113791 now requires that transportation of a controlled substance must be for purposes of sale to fall within the statute’s proscription. (Stats. 2013, ch. 504, § 2, p. 4288.) The Attorney General concedes the amended statute must be applied retroactively. We shall therefore reverse the conviction on the transportation count and remand for retrial. We find it unnecessary to reach appellant’s other issues, but we note the remaining convictions would leave appellant eligible for drug treatment under Proposition 36 (Prop 36).

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Health and Safety Code.

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II. STATEMENT OF FACTS On March 31, 2011, at about 7:15 p.m., Crescent City Police Officer Justin Gill initiated a routine traffic stop of a pickup truck for a defective tail light. Appellant’s boyfriend, Damian VanParks, was driving the truck, and appellant Michelle Lynn Taylor was a passenger. Two backup officers arrived at the scene, including California Highway Patrol Officer Theodore Luna. When Luna arrived he saw Gill remove VanParks from the vehicle and place him under arrest as an unlicensed driver. Gill then directed appellant to exit the truck. When Taylor turned to face the pickup, Luna noticed her reach into her waistband with her left hand. Luna grabbed appellant’s arm and asked her if she had any weapons. Appellant responded, “It’s not mine. It’s not mine.” After Luna handcuffed appellant, she was allowed to remove a “bundle” from her pants, which Gill confiscated. It contained several individual bags of a white crystalline powder, which later tested positive for methamphetamine. Each of the individual bags contained a usable amount. While appellant was detained in Luna’s patrol car, she spontaneously explained how she came to be holding the package. As Luna summarized, “the driver had handed her the baggie or the bindle and asked her to hide it in her pants, stating they’d more than likely search him but not her.” In a separate incident, at 4:00 p.m. on September 5, 2011, Del Norte County Deputy Sheriff Richard Griffin contacted appellant inside a trailer at the Shangra-La Trailer Park, where he was executing an arrest warrant for VanParks. Griffin noticed appellant had “piano fingers” and “bruxism,” which are indicia of being under the influence of a stimulant. Griffin conducted a further section 11550 evaluation and arrested appellant. He explained to the jury the signs of drug intoxication he detected and testified as an expert that appellant was under the influence of a central nervous system stimulant when she was arrested. After receiving Miranda warnings (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436), appellant told Griffin she normally smoked methamphetamine, “[b]ut she’d recently been