People v. Prieto

191 Cal. App. 2d 62, 12 Cal. Rptr. 577, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2026
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 10, 1961
DocketCrim. 3822
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 191 Cal. App. 2d 62 (People v. Prieto) 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. Prieto, 191 Cal. App. 2d 62, 12 Cal. Rptr. 577, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2026 (Cal. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

TOBRINER, J.

We shall consider each of appellant’s contentions on appeal: (1) that the police illegally executed a warrant, which purported to grant authority to search appellant’s home during the nighttime; (2) that the court improperly refused to permit appellant to show the falsity of the averments in the affidavit supporting the warrant in that the court incorrectly held that appellant’s failure to pursue sections 1539 and 1540 of the Penal Code precluded him from so doing; (3) that, in any event, the affidavit did not state, as a matter of law, sufficient facts to demonstrate probable cause for the issuance of the warrant; (4) that the evidence did not justify the court in submitting to the jury the issue of appellant’s knowledge and possession of the narcotic. After describing the factual background of the case we shall elucidate our reasons for rejecting these arguments.

On the afternoon of September 13, 1959, one of the officers at the Richmond Police Department received a telephone call from an anonymous young woman who suggested that if he would check a designated phone booth in that city he would find a marijuana cigarette. A second officer investigated the booth and discovered a partially smoked, hand-rolled cigarette. The same anonymous young woman again called the station, inquiring if the cigarette contained marijuana. The officer informed her that it had not been tested but that a criminologist was in the course of analyzing it. She stated she would call back later, and, if the cigarette were found to contain marijuana, give to the officer the name and address of the party from whom she obtained it.

The criminologist for the police department determined that the cigarette contained marijuana. Upon the final call of the anonymous woman the officer informed her of the result of the tests; she then stated that she had obtained the cigarette on the 11th of September from a room in appellant’s home. She told the officer that he would find additional such cigarettes in a Kleenex box in the appellant’s bedroom at appellant’s residence.

*65 At about 5:30 to 6 p.m. the officers obtained a search warrant and proceeded to appellant’s residence. In the appellant’s absence, the officers displayed the warrant to appellant’s sister and undertook the search of his room. They found a Kleenex box in a night stand. The box contained a brown envelope covered by three Kleenex tissues and within the envelope there were three cigarettes. The department later determined that the cigarettes contained marijuana. When appellant returned to his home the officers placed him under arrest. Appellant denied any knowledge of the presence of marijuana cigarettes.

Appellant moved to dismiss the information “on the grounds that no probable cause was shown to hold the defendant.” The court denied the motion. At the commencement of the trial appellant objected to the trial “because of issuance of a search warrant without probable cause. . . .” The court overruled the objection and the trial proceeded.

Over appellant’s objection the prosecution introduced into evidence the three marijuana cigarettes. The jury returned a verdict of guilty; appellant moved for a new trial; the court denied the motion. The court ordered appellant admitted to probation for a period of five years upon condition, among others, of serving two months in the county jail. Appellant appeals from “the order denying a new trial” and “from the order granting probation. ...”

We turn to a consideration of the four points on appeal which we have set forth supra.

Appellant’s failure to urge at the trial his first contention forecloses him from successfully establishing it here. He argues that the warrant, “so far as its command was for search in the nighttime,” violated the provisions of section 1533 of the Penal Code, which prohibits a direction in a warrant to execute it during the nighttime, unless the “affidavits are positive that the property is on the person or in the place to be searched. ...” Since the affidavit in this instance did not positively aver that the cigarettes were on appellant’s person or at the place of search, the warrant erred in directing the service in the nighttime. Appellant’s failure at the trial to object to the introduction of the evidence upon the ground of the improper execution of the affidavit, however, constitutes a waiver of the point.

The cases hold that if the warrant is in fact executed in the daytime, a failure to insert a directive as to when it *66 is to be served, or, as in this ease, to limit its service to the daytime, is not fatal if the warrant is actually served in the daytime. (People v. Daily (1958), 157 Cal.App.2d 649 [321 P.2d 469]. See Johnson v. United States (6th Cir., 1931), 46 F.2d 7; Yeargain v. State (1940), 69 Okla. Crim. 98 [101 P.2d 273]; Farmer v. Sellers (1911), 89 S.C. 492 [72 S.E. 224].)

The trial court did not determine factually whether or not service was effected during the daytime because appellant did not draw the issue. Section 7, subdivision 13, of the Penal Code decrees that “ ‘daytime’ means the period between sunrise and sunset”; “ ‘nighttime’ means the period between sunset and sunrise; . . . ” Respondent concurs in appellant ’s request that the court “take judicial notice that the sun set at Richmond, California on the 13th day of September, 1959, . . . at 7:20 o ’clock P.M. ...” It is true that the testimony shows the service occurred about 7:30 p.m. But the burden of establishing the invalidity of the warrant rested with appellant (People v. Phillips (1958), 163 Cal.App.2d 541, 546 [329 P.2d 621]; People v. Acosta (1956), 142 Cal.App.2d 59, 62 [298 P.2d 29]), and appellant did not urge at the trial its deficient execution as to time.

Appellant’s first point meets its nemesis in the failure of presentation of the point in the trial court and in the consequent waiver. (Robison v. Superior Court (1957), 49 Cal.2d 186, 187 [316 P.2d 1].)

We turn to appellant’s second point: that sections 1539 and 1540 of the Penal Code do not apply to this ease. Upon the ground that appellant should have pursued his remedies under these sections, the trial court refused to permit him to show the alleged falsity of the statements in the affidavit supporting the search warrant. Appellant attacks the ruling of the trial court because, he urges, the sections frame a procedure for the reacquisition of property wrongfully seized, not for the suppression of evidence. We shall point out, however, that whatever the theoretical merit of appellant’s argument, it has been presently foreclosed by the decisions.

Sections 1539 and 1540 were enacted into the Penal Code in 1872, although originally derived from the Statutes of 1851, chapter 29, sections 658-660, page 285.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Johnson
104 Cal. App. 3d 598 (California Court of Appeal, 1980)
Theodor v. Superior Court
501 P.2d 234 (California Supreme Court, 1972)
People v. Senkir
26 Cal. App. 3d 411 (California Court of Appeal, 1972)
Frazzini v. Superior Court
7 Cal. App. 3d 1005 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)
State v. Dalrymple
458 P.2d 96 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1969)
People v. Benjamin
455 P.2d 438 (California Supreme Court, 1969)
People v. White
450 P.2d 600 (California Supreme Court, 1969)
Hacker v. Superior Court
268 Cal. App. 2d 387 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
People v. Scott
259 Cal. App. 2d 268 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
People v. Alvarado
255 Cal. App. 2d 285 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
Rideout v. Superior Court
432 P.2d 197 (California Supreme Court, 1967)
People v. Pineda
253 Cal. App. 2d 443 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
People v. Mills
251 Cal. App. 2d 420 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
People v. Kesey
250 Cal. App. 2d 669 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
People v. Stout
424 P.2d 704 (California Supreme Court, 1967)
People v. Butler
415 P.2d 819 (California Supreme Court, 1966)
People v. Pease
242 Cal. App. 2d 442 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)
People v. Blunt
241 Cal. App. 2d 200 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)
Saunders v. MUNICIPAL COURT OF VALLEJO JUDICIAL DIST.
240 Cal. App. 2d 563 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)
People v. Aguilar
240 Cal. App. 2d 502 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
191 Cal. App. 2d 62, 12 Cal. Rptr. 577, 1961 Cal. App. LEXIS 2026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-prieto-calctapp-1961.