Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/24/661.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 16:17:36+00:00

Document:
Paul Halvonik and Quin Denvir, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, State Public Defenders, Gary S. Goodpaster and Ezra Hendon, Chief Assistant State Public Defenders, Mark L. Christiansen and Richard G. Fathy, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.
Evelle J. Younger and George Deukmejian, Attorneys General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Arnold O. Overoye, Assistant [24 Cal. 3d 663] Attorney General, Robert D. Marshall, Marjory Winston Parker and James T. McNally, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Defendant was convicted of violation of Health and Safety Code section 11355. fn. 1 The judgment must be reversed.
[1a] Defendant contends the trial court erred in instructing the jury that one violates section 11355 if he offers to sell a controlled substance and then offers to deliver another substance in lieu thereof. The case law, defendant asserts, requires actual delivery of the substitute. This contention lacks merit. The statute expressly provides that the crime defined by it is committed by one who offers to sell a controlled substance "and then ... offers ... to have ... delivered" any other substance. fn. 2 The cases interpreting the statute, as we shall explain, do not hold otherwise.
While driving an unmarked car one evening two undercover narcotics officers were asked by the driver of a passing car whether they wanted to buy some "acid." Officer Willey replied affirmatively and asked the price. Because the cars were moving and the four occupants of the passing vehicle were all talking at once, the response was not clearly understood. However, "$25" and "$2 a 'hit'" were mentioned. Directing the driver of the other car to follow him, Willey drove into an alley, parked, and approached the other car on foot.
Defendant's fellow passengers advised Willey he would be doing business with defendant. Willey asked defendant how much he wanted for a "hit" and was told $2. When Willey insisted on seeing what was being offered for sale, defendant walked to a lighted area where he showed Willey a clear plastic bag containing approximately 10 slips of yellow paper with blue dots, which Willey recognized as a common method of packaging LSD. After again determining the price was $2 a "hit," Willey identified himself as a police officer and advised defendant he was under arrest.
While Willey struggled with defendant in an attempt to wrest the plastic bag from him, defendant moved the bag toward his face. After subduing defendant, Willey secured the bag and discovered there was no longer anything in it. He searched the area but failed to find the contents of the bag.
Subsequently, Pat Macardican, one of defendant's companions, gave Willey a cigarette box containing 126 slips of paper similar to those defendant had exhibited. It was stipulated at trial that if a criminalist for the Department of Justice were called, he would testify the dots on the slips of paper given to Willey by Macardican did not contain LSD.
Obtaining a waiver of Miranda fn. 3 rights, Willey asked defendant what had happened to the slips of paper defendant had exhibited. Defendant refused to answer, but said the substance Willey had received from Macardican was "bunk," and that the police did not "have him on anything."
Testifying in his own behalf, defendant admitted offering to sell LSD to Willey, but denied showing him slips of paper or making the statement [24 Cal. 3d 665] concerning "bunk." Defendant claimed he had not had anything -- either LSD or "bunk" -- to deliver. His scheme, he testified, was simply to "rip off" would-be customers by obtaining money without leaving his car and then driving away without making a delivery. He concluded by claiming he was being "framed" by the police.
A motion for judgment of acquittal under Penal Code section 1118.1 was timely made based on the absence, conceded by the People, of evidence of delivery. The court denied the motion with the following observation: "I would want to point out that the central issue appears to be whether or not there must be a delivery. We have had an opportunity to look at the books. It would appear to me that a delivery in fact is not necessary, but under the status of the evidence at the present time, the jury could believe beyond a reasonable doubt that after an offer to [sell] LSD was made, that there was a subsequent offer to deliver a substance in lieu of a controlled substance, and I want to spell that out, because if I'm in error, then the defendant would have a good record upon which to appeal."
Consistent with this ruling, the judge instructed the jury: "Every person who agrees, consents, or offers to unlawfully sell, furnish, administer, or give away any controlled substance, and then offers to deliver, furnish, administer, or give away any other substance in lieu of a controlled substance is guilty of a crime."
[1b] We first consider defendant's contention that cases interpreting section 11355 have engrafted a delivery requirement onto the statute. Four cases bear examination regarding this contention: People v. Shephard (1959) 169 Cal. App. 2d 283 [337 P.2d 214]; People v. Brown (1960) 55 Cal. 2d 64 [9 Cal. Rptr. 816, 357 P.2d 1072]; People v. Hicks (1963) 222 Cal. App. 2d 265 [35 Cal. Rptr. 149]; and People v. Ernst (1975) 48 Cal. App. 3d 785 [121 Cal. Rptr. 857]. In none of these cases did the court hold -- on facts showing no delivery of a substance in lieu of the proffered controlled substance -- delivery of a substitute was a necessary element of the crime.
In 1959 section 11502 was renumbered as section 11503. (Stats. 1959, ch. 1112, §§ 1, 6.) The defendant in People v. Brown, supra, 55 Cal. 2d 64 was convicted of offering to sell narcotics in violation of former section 11501 (now § 11352). He contended section 11501 did not encompass his conduct, which consisted in offering to sell an undercover agent narcotics, taking the agent's money, and then failing to deliver anything. He contended that a specific intent to sell narcotics was an essential element of the crime defined by section 11501, and that this intent could not be inferred from the offer alone.
Taken in context, this court's statement in Brown that former section 11503 "makes it a crime to sell a narcotic and then deliver a substitute" was clearly not intended to imply that delivery of a substitute was a necessary element of the crime.
The factual context of this statement and the italicized qualification combined to make clear the Hicks court was not holding that delivery of a substitute was an essential element of the crime.
In People v. Ernst, supra, 48 Cal. App. 3d 785, undercover agents, after prolonged negotiations for the purchase of cocaine, went to the home of one of the defendants and were shown a substance represented to be cocaine. Shortly after an agent accepted a defendant's invitation to sample the substance, other agents arrived, arrested the defendants and seized the substance, which was not cocaine. The trial court set aside the information charging the defendants with violation of section 11355 on the ground there "was no delivery, and, therefore, a necessary element of 11355 is missing." On appeal by the People, the Court of Appeal reversed.
[2b] We now turn to the general/specific intent question. When a charge of violating section 11355 rests on evidence of an offer to sell a controlled substance and an offer to deliver a substitute, must the jury be instructed that the latter offer must be made with specific intent of delivering a substitute? An affirmative answer to this question is dictated by our prior decisions in People v. Daniels, supra, 14 Cal. 3d 857 and People v. Brown, supra, 55 Cal. 2d 64.
By parity of reasoning, on the evidence presented here a specific intent to deliver a substance other than the particular controlled substance proffered for sale is required for violation of section 11355. People v. Lechlinski (1976) 60 Cal. App. 3d 766 [131 Cal. Rptr. 701] and People v. Haines (1975) 53 Cal. App. 3d 496 [125 Cal. Rptr. 735] are not inconsistent with this conclusion. Lechlinski presented the question whether on the facts there presented section 11355 required a specific intent to deliver a substitute. Haines presented essentially the same question with regard to the parallel statute dealing with restricted dangerous drugs. (§ 11382.) In each case the Court of Appeal resolved the question in the negative on facts showing an offer to sell a controlled or restricted substance and delivery of a substitute.
Bird, C. J., Tobriner, J., Mosk, J., Richardson, J., Manuel, J., and Newman, J., concurred.
FN 1. Section 11355 provides: "Every person who agrees, consents, or in any manner offers to unlawfully sell, furnish, transport, administer, or give any controlled substance specified in subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 11054, specified in paragraph (10), (11), (12), or (17) of subdivision (d) of Section 11054, or specified in subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 11055 or, any controlled substance classified in Schedule III, IV, or V which is a narcotic drug to any person, or offers, arranges, or negotiates to have any such controlled substance unlawfully sold, delivered, transported, furnished, administered, or given to any person and then sells, delivers, furnishes, transports, administers, or gives, or offers, arranges, or negotiates to have sold, delivered, transported, furnished, administered, or given to any person any other liquid, substance or material in lieu of any such controlled substance shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison."
All statutory references will be to the Health and Safety Code unless otherwise indicated.
FN 2. See footnote 1, ante.
FN 5. Proposed section 11509 was not enacted.
FN 6. We therefore need not address defendant's ex post facto argument, for it assumes that prior cases have added a delivery requirement to the statute, and then argues that it would be a violation of the ex post facto prohibition not to interpret the statute in a similar fashion here.

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