Opinion
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County No. TA085322, Arthur M. Lew, Judge.
Jennifer Peabody, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle and Tannaz Kouhpainezhad, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution.
Following the denial of his motion to suppress evidence, Kevin Janeau pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon. On appeal Janeau says police found the gun during an unlawful detention. We affirm.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Joe Iberri was on routine patrol in Compton. Iberri has experience in identifying marijuana. He drove into a public parking lot and saw Janeau about 15 feet away. Janeau attracted Iberri’s attention on account of the “blunt” behind Janeau’s ear. The defense cross-examination tried to shake Iberri’s account:
“Q: And in your report, you say you saw a cigar; is that correct?
“A: I saw a blunt, yes, sir.
“Q: Now, you called it a blunt, a marijuana filled cigar?
“A: Yes, sir.
“Q: But what you saw was a cigar; is that correct?
“A: No, sir. I saw a blunt.
“Q: Did it look like a cigar?
“A: It looked like a blunt, sir, which is a marijuana filled cigarette.
“Q: Was it a cigar?
“A: Sir, this is semantics, I guess, but it appeared to me to be a blunt, and a blunt is a marijuana filled cigar.
“Q: What made you believe it was a blunt?
“A: Based on its shape, size, length and color.”
Iberri also said the thing “was much like a long pencil sticking behind his ear and through the back because it is handrolled. There is no end, no closed end on either side. So you could see green substance inside of it.” Iberri arrested Janeau for possession of marijuana, patted him down, and found a loaded semi-automatic.
Iberri had ample probable cause to arrest Juneau for marijuana possession (Michigan v. Long (1983) 463 U.S. 1032, 1049-1051 [marijuana in plain view]) and to search him incident to arrest. (Gustafson v. Florida (1973) 414 U.S. 260, 263-266, United States v. Robinson (1973) 414 U.S. 218, 225-236.) The suppression motion was properly denied.
The judgment is affirmed.
We concur: WOODS, Acting P. J. ZELON, J.