People v. Dickinson

Opinion

FLEMING, Acting P. J. Dickinson pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for sale (former Health & Saf. Code, § 11500.5, now § 11351). He appeals the judgment (sentence suspended and probation conditioned on six months confinement in the county jail), arguing that the search warrant which uncovered the narcotics had been issued without probable cause.

Facts

On 5 January 1973, a Los Angeles police officer, Charles F. Ripley, applied for a warrant to search an apartment on Hi Point Street in Los Angeles, a Mustang automobile and the person of Jone Trotochau (codefendant). For probable cause he set out the following information: A reliable informant told him on 2 January that six ounces of cocaine could be purchased for $5,400 from a woman who would appear at a particular location in Los Angeles. Informant was given funds, kept under surveillance, and was seen to meet for 30 minutes with Jone Trotochau and one John Welsey McCoy at the designated location. Informant reported to Officer Ripley that he had arranged to make the purchase at another location later in the day.

[1036]After the meeting Trotochau drove away and was followed by an officer to a four-unit apartment building at the Hi Point address. There, she left her Mustang automobile and disappeared from view near the entrance to Apartment 1. The entrance doors to the other apartments were visible to the officer but the door to Apartment 1 was not. An hour later she reappeared, went to the Mustang, appeared to take something from it, returned to the house, and again disappeared from view in the vicinity of Apartment 1.

Two days later informant in a monitored telephone call to McCoy contracted to buy an ounce of cocaine for $900 at McCoy’s residence, delivery to take place at exactly 2 p.m. that day. Informant arranged with Officer Ripley to telephone him as the supposed “money man” from the McCoy home if he saw cocaine on the premises. At 1:50 p.m. another officer saw Trotochau leave the Hi Point apartment, drive to the McCoy residence, and go inside. Within five minutes the informer telephoned Ripley to report he had seen cocaine in Trotochau’s purse. Informant and McCoy then left the house, ostensibly to get money for the purchase. Shortly thereafter Ripley arrested Trotochau in the McCoy residence and found an ounce of cocaine within five feet of her purse. In the officer’s opinion Trotochau kept a stock of narcotics in the Hi Point apartment, in the Mustang, and on her person.