People v. Lenear

WOOD, P. J. Defendant John Lenear, Jr., and Margaret Lowe were accused of unlawfully possessing heroin. In a jury trial, Lowe was found not guilty, hut no verdict was reached as to Lenear and a mistrial was declared as to him. In a later jury trial he was found guilty. His motion for a new trial was denied and he was sentenced to state prison. He appeals from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

Appellant contends that he was denied a fair trial in that the court erred in receiving certain articles in evidence (milk sugar, box of capsules, eyedropper, and needle). He also asserts that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict.

On April 26, 1962, Officer Cooper, who had been in the narcotics division of the Los Angeles Police Department for 16 years, was assigned to make an investigation at 5011% South Central Avenue in Los Angeles. He arrived there about 3 p.m., and after he had kept the place under surveillance about 10 minutes, he saw a woman enter the premises. She was Margaret Lowe, known to him as a narcotic addict and prostitute. About 15 minutes thereafter he went to the door and knocked, and after a short period of time defendant Lenear opened the door. He told defendant he was a police officer conducting a narcotics investigation and would like to talk with him. Defendant said: “Come in. I'm clean,” opened the door for him to enter, and directed him to his room about 10 or 12 feet down a hallway. The door of this room was open, and Officer Cooper, preceding defendant, saw Mrs. Lowe in the room holding in her hand a spoon which she later laid down. He first.talked with defendant and Mrs. Lowe, obtaining defendant’s permission to search the room. He observed that the spoon which Mrs. Lowe had been holding was blackened on the bottom. He searched a chest of drawers standing against a wall of the room, and in the second drawer from the top he found a cardboard-type can filled with a white substance, the top of the can indicating it was milk sugar; a green box of clear empty gelatin capsules marked “Number 5”; and five measuring spoons. In a corner behind the foot of the bed he found a small paper “bindle” package in which were five capsules containing white powder, a number 26 needle in a paper match box, and [735]an eyedropper syringe. He also observed “track,” a series of sear tissue marks, on Mrs. Lowe’s arm, which indicated she was a user of narcotics. He did not find any needle marks on defendant’s arms. Officer Cooper testified that he knew the paraphernalia used in narcotics addiction, and the blackened spoon indicated that narcotics had been heated in the spoon before injection by holding a burning match under the spoon, and that the needle and eyedropper were used in injecting the narcotics. He conversed with defendant in his room and on the way to the police station, and defendant told him he kept the sugar to give to children in the neighborhood and he owned the box of empty capsules and the five measuring spoons, but he denied ownership of the things found behind the bed—the eyedropper, needle, and five filled capsules. He said he had occupied the room two and one half or three weeks. Officer Cooper identified the contents of a large manila envelope, marked People’s Exhibit 1, which contained: the green box of empty gelatin number 5 capsules, five measuring spoons, and the can of milk sugar, all of which he had found in the chest drawer; the articles he had found behind the bed—the remaining three and one half capsules of the original five which contained the white substance, the needle in the matchbox, and the eyedropper syringe; and the blackened spoon which he had seen in Mrs. Lowe’s hand when he entered the room and later recovered from the top of the chest of drawers. There was also a smaller envelope which contained one of the original five capsules found behind the bed. This capsule had been analyzed by a police chemist and found to contain heroin.