People v. Rodriguez

DRAPEAU, J. By information, defendant was charged with the possession of a preparation of heroin, denounced by section 11500, Health and Safety Code, and with one prior conviction of the same offense.

Defendant was found guilty as charged, and appeals from the judgment of conviction.

It is here urged that the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence.

Appellant particularly urges that the evidence did not establish the corpus delicti, i.e., possession of the narcotics by him or any other person. Therefore, it was error to receive and consider evidence of his extrajudicial statements.

[50]At the beginning of the trial, appellant admitted the prior conviction, and the cause was submitted on the testimony taken at the preliminary examination.

Mr. M. Y. Duncan of the Los Angeles Police Department, one of the arresting officers, testified that about 9:15 p. m. on July 20, 1954 (a dark night), he saw appellant coming out of the front door of a residence on Rowan Street, Los Angeles. The officer went across the street and stood behind appellant’s automobile. He saw appellant walk directly over to a palm tree growing in the front yard of the house. There appellant “squatted down and leaned forward, reached down with his hands to the base of the palm tree. Then he stood up.” Meanwhile, Officer Duncan approached and, using his flashlight, told appellant to stand back. In the ensuing search, nothing was found on appellant’s person. However, the officer did find a small piece of a green rubber balloon on the ground at the base of the palm tree, where appellant had been squatting. Upon opening the balloon in appellant’s presence, Officer Duncan counted 29 capsules. Later these were analyzed by a chemist in the police department and were found to contain a narcotic known as heroin.

Over the objection of appellant’s counsel that the corpus delicti had not been established, the trial court admitted in evidence a conversation between Officer Duncan and appellant at the scene of the crime, to wit:

Appellant told the witness Duncan that he had picked up the capsules from a man at the corner of Whittier and Rowan by the drugstore. When asked if he had carried them and planted them at the base of the palm tree, appellant said “No,” that someone else had put them there. And that he went out to get one “so he could sniff it.” Later he told the officer that he had bought the capsules from some fellow at the drugstore and had paid about $15 a gram for them.