People v. Edmundson

FORD, J. The contention raised by the defendants on this appeal from the judgments of conviction of the crime of possession of marijuana (Health & Saf. Code, § 11530) is that the evidence was obtained as the result of an illegal search and seizure.

Each defendant waived a trial by jury. Joe Lesnick, a deputy sheriff of the County of Los Angeles assigned to the narcotic detail, testified that on January 24, 1962, he went to an apartment building in West Hollywood at approximately 11 p.m. Three other deputies were with him. Part of his testimony was as follows: “I went to the door of apartment 1, knocked on the door. A female voice stated, ‘Who is it?’ I stated, ‘It’s Joe.’ She stated, ‘Joe who?’ I stated, ‘Joe Les-nick. ’ A couple of seconds later the front door was opened by defendant Paz. I displayed my badge and identification, advised her that I was a sheriff’s narcotics officer. At this time she—defendant Paz screamed, turned around and ran to the east through the combination living room-bedroom, stopped at a door leading into the kitchen. I followed her to this door where she stopped and had a conversation with her. . . . He [defendant Edmundson] was sitting up in the bed which was directly next to this doorway, located against the east wall ... I asked her [defendant Paz] why she ran, [and] she said she was scared. I said, ‘We are police officers, why are you scared?’ She said, ‘There is some marijuana around the corner on the kitchen table.' ” Officer Lesnick stepped into the kitchen and in a candy box and in a bouillon-cube container he found part of the marijuana which was received in evidence at the trial. A general search of the premises ensued and more marijuana was found, part of it being recovered from the bedspread on the bed in which the defendant Edmundson was reclining.

About one month prior to the date of the entry into the apartment, an informant had given Officer Lesnick “information as to a past residence of these two defendants, and that they both used marijuana.” About an hour and a half before the entry, the officers had talked to the manager of a “coffee house” and had been given the defendants’ address. The manager said that Edmundson was not at work that evening but was ill at home.

[783]The officers had no search warrant. They were not in uniform and were dressed in an informal fashion. At the time Officer Lesnick knocked on the door of the apartment, two of the other officers “were down on the ground in front of the apartment” and one “was on the stairway leading up to the second floor.” When Officer Lesnick told the defendant Paz that he was an officer, he had his badge and identification card “directly in front of her face.” She had opened the door about “18 inches to two feet.” When she screamed and ran, Officer Lesnick “just walked through the door and walked over to her.” The defendants were placed under arrest after Officer Lesnick “recovered the candy box and the bouillon cube container. ’ ’