People v. Bryant
People v. Bryant
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
Defendant was convicted of possession of heroin (§ 11500.5, Health & Saf. Code); he appeals from the judgment. Before trial he moved to suppress the evidence (§ 1538.5, Pen. Code); the motion was submitted on the transcript of the testimony taken at the preliminary hearing and denied. At the outset of the trial the judge refused to permit defendant to renew his motion (§ 1538.5 subd. (h), Pen. Code) but at the conclusion of the People’s case defendant moved “to stike all exhibits” on the same ground — unlawful search and seizure; the motion was denied. Thus, on appellant’s argument here that the arrest and search were unlawful, our examination of the evidence also includes, as it should, that taken at the trial. Only Officer McClain testified at the preliminary hearing and trial; defendant did not take the stand and offered no defense.
In addition to the foregoing the informant told Officer McClain that he personally knew the people — Terry Gibson, the woman (Vera) and Little Joe or Joe Bryant (defendant) — in the apartment, and upon arriving at the address pointed out to Officer McClain the apartment in which defendant was staying (“This was the apartment pointed out to me by the informant, yes”); that the people in “this” apartment had narcotics for sale — -they “kept
For appellant’s position that there existed no probable cause to arrest him, he cites Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 [12 L.Ed.2d 723, 84 S.Ct. 1509] and People v. Hamilton, 71 Cal.2d 176 [77 Cal.Rptr. 785, 454 P.2d 681], to support the argument that the information possessed by Officer McClain immediately prior to his entry into the apartment would not have enabled him to obtain a valid arrest warrant. -It cannot be disputed that Officer McClain had no personal knowledge of defendant and his activities or of the other people in the apartment, thus any affidavit by him in support of an arrest warrant would have been based on hearsay, viz., the information given to him by the informant. Appellant says that this is insufficient because the officer’s testimony fails to disclose the source of the informant’s information; that Officer McClain did not expressly testify that the informant had personal knowledge that defendant had heroin in his possession.
“Following Aguilar [Aguilar v. Texas (1964) 378 U.S. 108 (12 L.Ed.2d 723, 84 S.Ct. 1509)], California courts have held that for an affidavit based on an informant’s hearsay statement to be legally sufficient to support the issuance of a search warrant, two requirements must be met: (1) the affidavit must allege the informant’s statement in language that is factual rather than conclusionary and must establish that the informant spoké with personal knowledge of the matters contained in such statement; and (2) the affidavit must contain some underlying factual information from which the magistrate issuing the warrant can reasonably conclude that the informant was credible or his information reliable. [Citations.]” (People v. Hamilton, 71 Cal.2d 176, 179-180 [77 Cal.Rptr. 785, 454 P.2d 681].) We
About 2 a.m., without knocking or announcing their presence or their identities as police officers, his partner forced the apartment door open while Officer McClain ran in with gun in hand. They found defendant lying on a couch in the living room and Terry and Vera in bed in the bedroom. A plastic container of heroin belonging to Terry and Vera was found under the sheet in the bed down about three-quarters of the way where Officer McClain saw Vera “push her hand under the sheets, pushing down”; narcotic paraphernalia was found on the night table near the bed and oh top of the dresser. At the head of the couch on which defendant was lying were a stack of clothes and a hat; of them defendant said, “They are mine”; when the officer picked up his hat a piece of folded plastic containing heroin fell off the brim; there were numerous puncture marks on defendant’s arms. Questioned about the marks defendant said he was just “chipping” and “didn’-t-have ahabit”; of the heroin he told the officers “he bought three spoons from a friend that cost $75.”
Appellant’s claim that the entry constituted a violation of section 844, Penal Code, and is reversible error, is without substance. Noncom
Conceding that he did not press for the identity of the informer, appellant argues not that he would have been a material witness on the issue of guilt,
“Q. [deputy district attorney] Do you know how he died?
“A. Yes.
“Q. How was that?
“A. Bullet wounds.
“Mr. Acosta [defense counsel] Your Honor, I object to the last two questions and two answers on the ground of immateriality,” and the objection was sustained. As to identity, at the preliminary hearing the court asked Officer McClain, “In view of the demise of the informant do you still wish to maintain your privilege as a police officer in withholding his identity?” and the officer answered, “Yes, I do.” Continuing, the deputy district attorney asked, “Is there some reason why you don’t wish to reveal the name of your informant?” and the officer answered, “Yes”; asked, “Why is that?” the officer replied, “He has a family.” The record establishes that defendant neither asked the officer the identity of the informant nor the court to require the officer to reveal his identity. At the preliminary hearing the court called this to defendant’s attention but it is apparent that he did not want the informant’s name.
Based on his complaint that he was incarcerated continuously for 267 days, there were a number of delays in bringing the cause to trial, the case was continued over his objection on November 4, 1968, and his motion to dismiss for failure to prosecute within 60 days was denied on November
The setting of bail is a matter within the trial court’s discretion (§ 1272 subd. 3, Pen. Code) and no abuse thereof is manifest in a record that shows defendant’s bail was set at $4,000 and then, only after he twice failed to appear, bail was forfeited and a bench warrant ordered and issued — April 22, 1968, and August 13, 1968.
Section 1382 subdivision 2, Penal Code, requires a dismissal unless good cause is shown why defendant is not brought to trial within 60 days after the filing of an information; when such an issue arises before trial, prejudice will be presumed from a defendant’s right to a speedy trial unless the People successfully meet their burden of showing good cause for delay. (People v. Wilson, 60 Cal.2d 139, 151 [32 Cal.Rptr. 44, 383 P.2d 452].) “Good cause” is established by a clear showing that the delay was the result of defendant’s own acts. Here bail was twice forfeited because of defendants’ failure to appear; he made six successful motions for continuance to permit him to obtain private counsel; when the public defender was appointed the plea was continued on defendants own motion; at the request of codefendants the trial was continued from July 2, 1968, to August 13, 1968, with defendant’s consent but on August 13, 1968, he failed to appear; later he made a motion under section 1538.5, Penal Code, and the hearing thereon was continued at his request; due to the absence of defense counsel the trial was continued to November 4, 1968; over his objection the trial on that day was continued to and commenced on November 7, 1968. The cause trailed another matter, and the three-day delay was the result of a congested court calendar; this last continuance was for good cause and did not constitute an abuse of the trial court’s discretion.
The judgment is affirmed.
Thompson, J., concurred.
On prior occasions the informer had given information to Officer McClain which had led to seven arrests and five convictions; on these seven occasions narcotics were found at all locations given by this informant. The informant died the Saturday before the preliminary hearing. There is ample evidence to support the trial court’s implied finding of reliability. (People v. Aguilar, 240 Cal.App.2d 502, 508 [49 Cal.Rptr. 584].)
“Q. Did this informant tell you that he had been in the apartment?
“A. [by Officer McClain] No.”
Later, on cross-examination, Officer McClain was asked, “Q. Did you say that your informant had been in the building before?" and he answered, “No. He did not.”
Nor could appellant successfully do so for he had not only failed but had made no effort to demonstrate “a reasonable possibility that the anonymous informant whose identity is sought could give evidence on the issue of guilt which might result in defendant’s exoneration.” (Honore v. Superior Court, 70 Cal.App.2d 162, 168 [74 Cal.Rptr. 233, 449 P.2d 169]; People v. Garcia, 67 Cal.2d 830, 839-840 [64 Cal.Rptr. 110, 434 P.2d 366].) The informant was dead and no testimony could have been expected of him. Moreover, defendant neither offered a defense nor took the witness stand; he made no assertion that someone else brought the narcotic into the .’apartment and laid it on the brim of his hat, in fact he told the officers that he bought the heroin from a friend; he made no claim the informer was in the apartment, to the contrary throughout his brief he claims the record shows the informant had never been there (this is not truly what the evidence shows); he does not claim that the informer was present at the time of entry or at the time of arrest and he makes no suggestion of any possibility that the informant could give evidence on the issue of guilt. Appellant vaguely argues that the informant’s testimony was material to establish probable cause and whether there was an illegal entry but he has not shown how knowledge of the deceased informant’s name and the time, place and manner of his death might possibly assist him now.
“The Court : You didn’t ask the officer what his identity was. You didn’t ask the court to require the officer to divulge his identity, if you were interested. He said he wished to have the identity of the deceased informant remain secret; that doesn’t mean that you can’t ask him. Unless you ask him and he refused • — ■
“Mr. Acosta [defense counsel]: Your Honor, we don’t necessarily want the identity of the informer, lf'tFie’informer is dead. We want his testimony.
“The Court: All right. You want the testimony because he is dead? Is that it?
“Mr. Acosta: No. I am saying that we are going to need his testimony to establish probable cause, to establish whether or not there was an illegal entry. We therefore move to suppress the evidence and to strike the testimony of the officer on these grounds.”
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent.
Since an officer cannot make a warrantless arrest on less information than that which he would need to obtain an arrest warrant (Wong Sun v. United States (1963) 371 U.S. 471 [9 L.Ed.2d 441, 83 S.Ct. 407], the crucial question is whether the information possessed by McClain immediately prior to the door of the apartment being kicked in would have enabled him to obtain a valid arrest warrant. Such a warrant could not properly have been issued if McClain’s affidavit therefor did not “establish
Before making a warrantless search or a warrantless arrest on information supplied by an informant, an officer must have had described to him “the accused’s criminal activity in sufficient detail that [the officer] may know that he is relying on something more substantial than a casual rumor circulating in the underworld.....” (Spinelli v. United States (1969) 393 U.S. 410 [21 L.Ed.2d 637, 89 S.Ct. 584].)
The court concludes from what the informant told McClain “that the informer . . . had seen [defendant] carry heroin on his person and knew defendant had heroin with him that morning.” I disagree. As I read the court’s opinion, those conclusions are based upon the wholly unsupported assumption that the informant had been in the apartment. Even the Attorney General does not indulge in this assumption, but rather admits in his brief that the “informant told Officer McClain that he . . . had never been in the apartment.”
With respect to the defendant here, the informant’s only personal knowledge was that he knew the defendant and that he “had seen the actual gun” which defendant allegedly possessed.
I do not understand it to be the law that personal knowledge of the informant of a criminal act of defendant may be inferred from the fact that the information of the informant proves to be correct after what would otherwise have been an unlawful search has occurred. Here the officers, except as mentioned in the next paragraph, had not verified a single fact told to McClain by the informant before they kicked in the door. They did not know from any independent source or from their own knowledge who lived at the apartment or to whom the automobiles pointed out by the informant belonged.
Spinelli characterizes Draper v. United States (1959) 358 U.S. 307 [3 L.Ed.2d 327, 79 S.Ct. 329] as “a suitable benchmark” which, as I understand it, means the minimum amount of information which an officer must
Since the California Supreme Court in People v. Hamilton (1969) 71 Cal.2d 176 [77 Cal.Rptr. 785, 454 P.2d 681] refused to infer personal knowledge of the informant on the basis of the affidavit in that case, I do not see how personal knowledge of the informant can be inferred from the testimony of the officer in the case at bench. Justice Mosk dissenting in Hamilton objected to requiring that “affidavits for warrants be drafted with the finesse of a Montgomery Street contract” because such affidavits “are prepared, generally hurriedly because of exigent circumstances, by laymen with limited legal background.” That objection does not lie in the case of a warrantless arrest. If the informant has in fact told an officer that he has personal knowledge of a crime committed by a person whom the officer
I think it was error to deny the motion to suppress the evidence and I would reverse the judgment.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied May 15, 1970. Peters, J., and Sullivan, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
It is interesting to note that the significance of the gun was that the informant told McClain that defendant “would carry the gun” on his person when “he was away from his car.” That proved to be incorrect because when defendant was arrested in the apartment, the gun was in the automobile.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JOSEPH CLEVELAND BRYANT, Defendant and Appellant
- Cited By
- 17 cases
- Status
- Published