People v. Derouen CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 26, 2021
DocketE072796
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Derouen CA4/2 (People v. Derouen CA4/2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Derouen CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 5/26/21 P. v. Derouen CA4/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, E072796

v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF1604075)

CHAD EARL DEROUEN, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Bernard Schwartz, Judge.

Affirmed.

Eric E. Reynolds, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Michael Pulos and Teresa

Torreblanca, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

1 After hearing evidence the police found over 280 marijuana plants and an electric

meter bypass in Chad DeRouen’s home, the jury convicted him of unlawfully cultivating

marijuana and stealing utility services (a misdemeanor and a felony, respectively). On

appeal, DeRouen challenges his marijuana conviction on the ground the trial court

erroneously denied him an opportunity to present a collective cultivation defense under

the Medical Marijuana Program Act (MMPA). (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.7 et seq.)

He also raises two challenges to his sentence, arguing the trial court (1) incorrectly

determined he owed the electric company $46,148.96 in restitution and (2) violated his

due process rights as articulated in People v. Dueñas (2019) 30 Cal.App.5th 1157

(Dueñas) by imposing various fees and a restitution fine without first determining his

ability to pay. We conclude each of these arguments lacks merit and affirm.

I

FACTS

A. Prosecution’s Case

On August 16, 2016, two Riverside County deputy sheriffs executed a search

warrant at DeRouen’s Perris home based on information he might be running an indoor

marijuana grow operation. Inside his garage, the deputies found 220 marijuana plants,

several fans, a large appliance that was either an air conditioner or CO2 generator, and 16

grow lights with 1000-watt bulbs. The plants were between five and six feet tall and in

the final budding stage. Inside one of the bedrooms, they found 64 smaller marijuana

plants (three to five feet tall), fans, and grow lights. They didn’t find any evidence of

2 marijuana consumption (smoking devices or spent marijuana) but they did find a

surveillance system, digital scale, and several trash bags containing harvesting byproduct

(marijuana leaves and stems).

One of the deputies testified at trial. He said a single indoor plant typically yields

about a quarter to a half a pound of marijuana. He also said the trash bags full of leaves

and stems suggested DeRouen had been growing for a while, at least long enough to have

harvested a previous crop.

The same day the deputies executed the warrant, a revenue protection investigator

from Southern California Edison inspected DeRouen’s home. Inside the drywall in the

garage the investigator found an electric meter bypass, an illegal device that diverts

electricity around the meter so the customer receives electricity without the utility’s

knowledge. Using amp clamps to measure the electricity being fed to the home, the

investigator estimated DeRouen was receiving 323,712 undetected kilowatts of electricity

per day, which resulted in a loss of revenue to Edison of $3,010.50 a month. Based on his

review of the billing records for DeRouen’s home, the investigator concluded the bypass

had been running since August 2014, resulting in a total loss of $72,252.52.

The investigator testified that this wasn’t the first time he’d found an electrical

bypass at DeRouen’s home. He said about two years earlier, in August 2012, he

suspected something was amiss when Edison had received signals from DeRouen’s meter

on three separate occasions, despite the fact his electricity had been shut off the previous

3 month. Sure enough, when he inspected DeRouen’s home on August 24, 2012, he found

a bypass and removed it.

B. Defense Case

DeRouen testified that he suffered from narcolepsy, cataplexy, and migraines, and

a doctor had given him a medical marijuana recommendation to treat these conditions. He

said the doctor had also given him two grow recommendations—one for 15 plants and

another for 99 plants. At the time of his arrest, he was smoking about seven grams a day.

DeRouen said he had been growing 90 plants, not 284 as the deputies had claimed.

He said this was his first grow and he was doing it for his own personal use. He expected

his plants to yield only about six to eight pounds and had no intention of selling any of it.

He denied knowing there had been a bypass at his home in 2016. When he started

his operation in July 2016, he hired a man named Jeremy to set up the electrical wiring

for his grow rooms. He had noticed the bypass panel after Jeremy left but didn’t know

what it was. As for the 2012 bypass, he said his friend Kenny had installed it without his

permission when he wasn’t home. When he returned home, he saw what Kenny had done

and knew it was illegal, but didn’t know how to remove it, and the Edison inspector had

shown up the next day and taken it anyway.

A man named Giovanni who was employed by a heating and air conditioning

company testified that he’d performed work at DeRouen’s house in March 2015 and

didn’t recall seeing any marijuana plants.

4 William Britt, a patient advocate and expert on medical marijuana and indoor

grow operations, testified that he believed DeRouen was an amateur grower. He said that

after reviewing photographs of DeRouen’s operation, he had concluded there were less

than 284 marijuana plants. He explained that while an expert operation usually yields

about a pound of marijuana for every 1,000-watt grow light, amateurs produce much less

because they are inexperienced with preventing pests, mold, and other issues that

decrease yield. He said it takes an average of four months to grow a crop of plants, and

amateurs often grow more plants than they need for personal use because of the high loss

rate. Finally, he said a patient like DeRouen who smokes seven grams of marijuana a day

would consume about 5.6 pounds in a year.

C. Rebuttal

A Riverside County sheriff’s investigator testified as an indoor grow expert for the

prosecution. He disagreed with Britt’s opinion that DeRouen was an amateur grower. He

said that in 80 to 90 percent of the unlawful cultivation cases he’s seen, the grower had

been using an electrical bypass. In this case, DeRouen had a bypass in addition custom

electrical wiring and a significant amount of plants and lighting. He concluded

DeRouen’s confiscated crop would have yielded 142 to 284 pounds of marijuana and that

DeRouen had grown at least one previous crop. Finally, he said heavy marijuana users

consume about three to five grams a day.

5 D. Verdict and Sentencing

The jury convicted DeRouen of felony theft of utility services valued at more than

$950 (Pen. Code, § 498, subd.

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People v. Derouen CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-derouen-ca42-calctapp-2021.