People v. Fuller CA2/3

Filed 3/29/16 P. v. Fuller CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, B262000 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. GA092794)

v. LARRY THOMAS FULLER, Defendant and Appellant; _____________________________________

In re B269261 LARRY THOMAS FULLER on Habeas Corpus.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Dorothy L. Shubin, Judge. Affirmed. Petition for writ of habeas corpus is denied. Anthony J. Patti, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent. _________________________

A jury convicted defendant and appellant Larry Thomas Fuller of possessing and of transporting cocaine base for sale. (Health & Saf. Code, §§ 11351.5, 11352, subd. (a).)1 Fuller appealed from the judgment, and he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which we ordered to be considered concurrently with the appeal. We affirm the judgment and deny the petition for writ of habeas corpus. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND I. Factual background. On March 1, 2014, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, Detective Jonathan Buchholz drove past the Pasadena Motor Inn. He saw a man walk up to the passenger side of a car parked in the driveway. Without a word, the man reached in through the passenger side open window with his right hand, which had nothing in it, and “as he pulled his hand out,” the “hand was closed.” The man then continued to walk, “without even looking around or anything.” To the detective, it looked like a “narcotics transaction.” The detective parked behind the car so it couldn’t leave. The car’s driver, Fuller, got out. Fuller had money and a piece of plastic containing four white rocks, which a chemist later tested and found were .62 grams of a solid substance containing cocaine in a base form. Based on his experience, the detective estimated that each rock was worth $10. The detective recovered from Fuller a cell phone having “very few text messages” and $130 in denominations of fives, tens and twenties. In the detective’s opinion, Fuller possessed the cocaine for sale. The detective based his opinion on the area the transaction occurred in; that Fuller had no smoking apparatus; Fuller’s fingertips and lips were not burnt, which indicated he wasn’t using a hot glass pipe to smoke the cocaine; his money was in small denominations; and Fuller had multiple rocks. The detective had never seen a user with multiple rocks; users usually get one rock and smoke it. Sellers also usually don’t carry too many rocks, it could be “five to ten, up to 20 sometimes.”