People v. Garavito

PETERS, J. Defendant was charged with unlawful possession of narcotics in violation of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code and with a prior conviction under that section. He pleaded not guilty, and waived a jury trial. The court found him guilty of both charges. Defendant appeals.

The facts are not materially in dispute. Officer Villahermosa was a deputy sheriff assigned to the narcotic detail, and experienced in that work. On information received from an informant not known to be reliable, and on information received from several radio ear deputies to the effect that they had observed male visitors, at varying hours of the day and night, visit the premises for short intervals, Villahermosa decided to observe the premises personally. He did so. On one occasion he observed conditions for an hour and a half and, during that time, saw four men enter the premises at various times, staying but three to five minutes. On a later occasion he [763]observed defendant, then unknown to him, approach the premises with his wife and child. The wife entered the house from the front, but defendant entered from the rear. Although this last observation involved nothing in itself suspicious, the other activities observed made Villahermosa reasonably suspect that the occupants may have been engaged in illegal narcotic activity.

On July 16, 1964, at about 9 p.m., Villahermosa, and Deputies Burkett and Burley, also of the narcotic detail, in civilian dress, approached the premises. Deputies Villahermosa and Burley went to the front door, which was open, and knocked on the locked screen door. Deputy Burkett went to a point where he could observe the rear entrance but did not then enter the rear yard. All three deputies could see the interior of the house through the windows, on which the shades were not drawn, and could see two men in the kitchen. A woman responded to Villahermosa’s knock and asked him what he wanted. He asked if Bobby Garcia was there, a name that had been given him by the informant as a possible occupant, and the woman answered that he was not, and then she asked the deputy who he was. He said that his name was Villahermosa, and that “We’re from the Sheriff’s Narcotics.” This statement was, of course, heard by Deputy Burley who was on the front porch, and also by Deputy Burkett who was near the back gate. It was also apparently heard by the two men in the house because they immediately stopped what they were doing and began moving rapidly towards the rear of the house. When Deputy Burkett saw the men run towards the rear door, he entered the backyard and crouched near the house. He saw the two men hesitate on the service porch, glance towards the living room, and then come out the rear door. He believed that they, from their actions, were involved in narcotics and were trying to dispose of them. He jumped from his hiding place, identified himself as a narcotic officer, and told the men to stop. He grabbed one of the men, not the defendant. The defendant ran back into the house with a white package crumpled in his right hand. In the meantime Officer Burley arrived from the front of the house and the captured person was turned over to him. Burkett followed the defendant into the house, opened the screen door for Deputy Villahermosa, and then proceeded into the bedroom where he saw defendant leaning over the baby’s crib, now with nothing in his hands. Burkett ordered Villahermosa to search the crib, which he did, and the deputy found, in the baby’s diaper, a