People v. Mandell

MUSSELL, J. Prosecution for illegal transportation and possession of narcotics and for conspiracy.

Defendant was charged with illegal possession and transportation of narcotics and with criminal conspiracy to commit a violation of section 11500 of the Health and Safety Code. The information contained seven counts: the first three charged possession of morphine, opium and cocaine in separate counts, in the next three defendant was charged with unlawful transportation of the same drugs, and in the seventh count, containing the conspiracy charge, two overt acts were alleged, one as possession and transportation of narcotics in Fresno County, and the other, possession and transportation in the county of Solano. The information also contained an allegation that defendant had been previously convicted of a violation of section 266a of the Penal Code.

Defendant admitted the prior conviction, was tried before a jury, found guilty on all seven counts and sentenced to imprisonment in state’s prison. The judgments on counts one, two and three were ordered to run consecutively, and the judgments on counts four, five and six were ordered to run concurrently with the judgments on counts one, two and three. The judgment on count seven was ordered to run consecutively with the judgments on counts one, two and three. Defendant appeals from the judgments and from the order denying his motion for new trial.

Defendant and his wife, Laura Mandell, lived in an apartment house in Vallejo, California. During the month of February, 1948, a friend, Roy Hovermale, moved into the apartment with the Mandells and all three were residing there on February 29, 1948. Defendant and his wife owned a Studebaker sedan and on February 29th defendant instructed her to drive to Mendota, California, in the Studebaker, with Roy Hovermale, and to meet defendant at 1 a. m. on March 1st at one of the two or three card rooms in Mendota. Defendant left the apartment at 5 or 6 p.m. on February 29th with Pat Leonard and arrived in Mendota about 11 p. m. and about an hour later he went to see E. B. Lanham who resided in cabin No. 8 in an auto court in Mendota. About February 27th, Lanham had called defendant by telephone asking him to bring some cocaine the next time he came to Mendota. Lanham testified that he had purchased opium from defendant three times during the three weeks preceding March 1, 1948, and when defendant came to cabin No. 8, Lanham asked him if he had the cocaine; that defendant then opened the [868]door, went out, and when he returned he said, “I think there is the law out there”; that defendant and Lanham then left and went to a hotel where defendant used the telephone to call a man named Valencia.