People v. Shipstead

19 Cal. App. 3d 58, 96 Cal. Rptr. 513
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 8, 1971
Docket8549
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 19 Cal. App. 3d 58 (People v. Shipstead) 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. Shipstead, 19 Cal. App. 3d 58, 96 Cal. Rptr. 513 (Cal. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

19 Cal.App.3d 58 (1971)
96 Cal. Rptr. 513

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
LARRY DUANE SHIPSTEAD, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. 8549.

Court of Appeals of California, First District, Division One.

July 8, 1971.

*63 COUNSEL

Larry A. Jackson, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Thomas C. Lynch and Evelle J. Younger, Attorneys General, Gloria F. De Hart and Ira J. Ross, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

SIMS, J.

Defendant has appealed from a judgment sentencing him to state prison for possession of a restricted dangerous drug for sale in violation of section 11911 of the Health and Safety Code, and suspending sentence for simple possession of such a drug in violation of section 11910. He was convicted of those offenses after a trial by the court, a jury trial having been waived, on the evidence adduced at his preliminary examination and at a hearing on his motion to suppress. He contends that the restricted dangerous drugs which he was convicted of possessing were seized from him and a companion as a result of an arrest without probable cause, and that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress that evidence; that the court erred in denying his motion for the disclosure of the identity of an informant; that there is insufficient evidence as a matter of law to find defendant guilty of possessing the drugs for sale; that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel because he and his codefendant were jointly represented by the same attorney; and that he was erroneously convicted of both possession for sale and simple possession of a restricted drug, because the latter offense is included in the former. It is concluded that the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion for the disclosure of the identity of the informant. Since there is no other error in connection with defendant's conviction of possession of a restricted drug for sale, and the evidence sought may or may not affect the ruling *64 on the motion to suppress the evidence, the proceedings should be remanded with instructions to set aside the conviction for simple possession, which was concededly erroneous as a conviction of a lesser included offense, and to set aside the conviction for possession for sale, only if the evidence sought indicates that the information, upon which the officers acted, was secured as a result of a violation of defendant's constitutional rights.

I

Prior to May 4, 1969, the San Francisco Police Department had received information over a long period of time regarding a narcotics operation which was being conducted by the defendant, Larry Duane Shipstead, his codefendant, Tak Kusano, and one Larry Lee, between Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and Sacramento. Sergeant Christensen of that department testified that there were at least four informants who gave him information on different occasions, some of them just one time, some of them on more than one occasion. He indicated that he would rather not disclose the identity of those informants. It was brought out that the first informant who talked to the sergeant, who was designated as "Informant A," was a reliable informant who had previously furnished information which proved correct and accurate and had resulted in several arrests. Further inquiry along that line was interrupted by the attorney for the defendants who requested that the prosecution proceed to the information which resulted in the action taken on May 4 when the defendants were arrested. He left the courts' inquiry, "You don't have any quarrel with the reliability of the informants in general?" unanswered, except for his request to proceed with respect to the information which the officer received on the day of the arrests.

The sergeant testified that between 7:30 and 8 p.m. on the evening of May 4, 1969, an informant, designated as "Informant D," advised him that of the three suspects, whose names were discussed with the informant, two, but which two the informant did not know, would be on a designated flight from Portland to San Francisco, arriving at a specified time, with an amount of narcotics and dangerous drugs which were to be delivered to San Francisco that evening. The informant stated that he had been asked to either pick them up at the airport, or furnish transportation for someone else who would meet them at the airport. He said he had heard that the suspects were supposed to be bringing "a shipment of stuff" down from Portland. He was not to be the recipient of the drugs and did not know the quantity that would be bought. The sergeant, on the basis of his knowledge of the activities of the suspects, believed that it would be a large quantity — one pound, two pounds or three pounds. According to the officer the informant refused to furnish transportation for the suspects and was not at the airport that night.

*65 "Informant D" had never furnished any information prior to the time the sergeant received the foregoing telephone call,[1] and the prosecution did not contend that he or she, as the case might be, was an established reliable informant. On cross-examination the officer testified that to the best of his knowledge "Informant D" was not employed, and more particularly that he was not employed at a hotel to which one of the suspects had admittedly made a telephone call.

The sergeant further testified that prior to May 4, he knew all three suspects and what they looked like, and that he had arrested Shipstead and Kusano on previous occasions. He recognized and identified them in court. He stated that on November 4, 1968, he arrested Shipstead and charged him with five offenses, four apparently relating to violations of the Health and Safety Code, and that he was ultimately convicted of violation of section 11910, possession of a restricted dangerous drug, and two other offenses; that he again arrested Shipstead on January 8, 1969 for two violations of the Health and Safety Code, and for contributing to the delinquency of a minor; and that those charges were thereafter dismissed; that on April 23, 1969 he arrested Shipstead for violation of Penal Code section 496 and for violation of a local ordinance prohibiting possession of a dangerous weapon, and that those charges were dismissed; that he had arrested Shipstead apparently on April 23, 1969, as he was leaving Kusano's apartment; and that "he had in his possession a slip which indicated the sales of dangerous drugs amounting to twenty-four ounces over the previous three days, and also on this slip was the list of his expenses which included a plane ticket fare from Tak Kusano to Portland, Oregon, and return, in addition to monies which he had given to Tak." The defendant objected to the testimony last quoted because that arrest was allegedly illegal. The prosecutor withdrew the question, but it was never determined whether that arrest was illegal, and the sergeant's explanation of his prior knowledge concerning the relationship of Shipstead with Kusano was not stricken.

The officer testified that he had arrested Kusano about 3 a.m. on May 3, 1969 for possession of narcotic or dangerous drug paraphernalia, and possession of a laboratory (sic).

*66 Armed with the foregoing information and pictures of Shipstead and Lee, on May 4, 1969, Sergeant Christensen and two other officers from San Francisco went to meet the designated flight at 9 p.m. at the San Francisco airport in San Mateo County.

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Bluebook (online)
19 Cal. App. 3d 58, 96 Cal. Rptr. 513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-shipstead-calctapp-1971.