People v. Shelton

TRAYNOR, J. Defendants Joseph Shelton and Margie Victorian appeal from judgments of conviction of possessing heroin in violation of Health and Safety Code, section 11500, and from the order denying their motion for new trial. The appeal from the order denying a new trial is dismissed. (Pen. Code, § 1237.)

Officer Hanks of the Narcotics Division of the Los Angeles Police Department testified that he had investigated defendant Shelton for several years and had received many reports from informants that Shelton was a dealer in heroin. He knew that Shelton had been convicted once of a narcotic charge and had been arrested twice on narcotic charges that did not result in convictions. He had often seen Shelton in “high frequency narcotics areas,” and in February 1962 he saw him talking to a known heroin dealer. Officer Hanks talked several times with Eunice Baúl, a narcotics user, who told him that Shelton was a dealer in heroin and kept her supplied with it. Officer Grennan, another narcotics officer, had also talked with Baúl and had used her information to obtain convictions of narcotic offenders. Officer Hanks always found Baul’s information consistent with other information he had.

On March 22, 1962 Officers Hanks and Grennan and two other officers went to an apartment house and showed the [743]manager a picture of Shelton and described Baul. The manager told the officers that Shelton and Baul were occupying apartment No. 1 and that her husband had seen Shelton hide what he believed to be narcotics in the hallway. She gave the officers two hypodermic needles in a plastic case that she said she found in the hallway over the doorway to apartment No. 1. The officers waited outside the door of the apartment until Baul opened it to leave and then entered the apartment and arrested Shelton and Baul. The officers searched the apartment but found no narcotics or other contraband. They searched Shelton and found a key and a rent receipt for an apartment No. 212. Shelton denied knowledge of the receipt and said that Baul gave it to him. She said that she found it in Shelton’s car and told the officers “ ‘I know he isn’t going to take me there. That’s where he’s got Margie.’ ” The officers asked her if Shelton had any “junk” there, and she replied, “ ‘He very well could. He could be using that as a stash pot for some junk. ’ ’ ’

Having ascertained that apartment No. 212 was on West 87th Street, the officers told Shelton they were going to take him there to have the manager identify him. Shelton then admitted that he had rented the apartment the preceding night. Officer Hanks asked Shelton, “ ‘... who is in [apartment No. 212] now, Joe?’ He says, ‘There is no one.’ I said, ‘Do you have any junk in there?' He says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘How about if we go down and take a look?’ He says, ‘All right, go ahead.’ ” The officers took Shelton to apartment No. 212 on West 87th Street and knocked on the door. After some delay defendant Victorian asked who was there. The officers asked Shelton to say it was he, but he refused to do so. Officer Hanks then said, “ ‘All right, police officer. Open the door right now.’ ” Victorian opened the door, and Officer Hanks testified that she had a hypodermic needle attached to an eye dropper in her left hand. Both defendants testified that when she opened the door Victorian had no clothing on and had nothing in her hand. The officers arrested Victorian and searched the apartment. They found two balloons containing heroin in a shoe box. The manager testified that the box was not in the apartment when he rented it to defendants the preceding evening. Victorian told the offi cers that Shelton brought her the two balloons, but she refused to repeat the statement in front of Shelton and later denied that she had made it.