People v. Castro

SHINN, P. J. Richard Lomeli Castro and codefendant Helen Ann Roberts were accused by an information in count I [725]of illegally possessing heroin and in count II of illegally possessing marijuana. Castro was also charged with a prior felony conviction of burglary. He pleaded not guilty and denied the prior felony conviction.

In a trial to the court the matter was submitted upon the transcript of the preliminary hearing, subject to the right of offering additional evidence. Appellant was represented by counsel, but did not take the stand in his defense. The court determined that he was not guilty of illegally possessing marijuana, but that he was guilty of illegally possessing heroin and of the prior conviction.

Castro gave notice of appeal from the judgment.

There was evidence of the following facts: In the evening of May 3, 1960, H. G-. Virgin, a narcotic officer, received a telephone call from a woman. The caller identified herself as appellant’s sister and reported that she had just come from an apartment located at 908% West Olympic Boulevard, where she had seen her brother, the appellant, placing a white powder from a bowl in some capsules. She declared that appellant had given one of the two girls who were also in the apartment a shot in the arm with a needle. When asked who the people were in the apartment she replied that one was a redheaded girl, whose name she did not know, and the other a girl nicknamed “Doggie.” She identified her brother as Richard Castro, otherwise known as “Lucky.” The caller said that she believed Doggie’s name was Helen Roberts.

Officer Virgin testified that at the time he received the telephone call he knew the appellant by the nickname of “Lucky” and he had “knowledge” that he had been selling narcotics in pretty good-sized quantities for a period of approximately three, four or five months.

The officer, with two of his partners, proceeded to the Olympic Boulevard address and parked their vehicle across the street in a vacant gas station. As Virgin got out of the vehicle he observed appellant and a redheaded woman leaving the aforementioned address. They entered a brown-colored Oldsmobile and drove east on Olympic. The officers knocked on the apartment door and said, “Open up, ‘Doggie.’ ” The officers forced their way in and searched the apartment. They found narcotic paraphernalia that is used in both dispensing and injecting heroin. In addition they found two gelatin capsules and a hypodermic syringe containing heroin. They also found two manila bags, later shown to contain marijuana, hidden in a console type of radio.