Ureta v. Superior Court In and For Monterey County

• Decision Date: 31 January 1962
• Citation: 18 Cal.Rptr. 873,199 Cal.App.2d 672
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Joseph URETA, Petitioner, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California IN AND FOR the COUNTY OF MONTEREY; The People of the State of California, Respondents. Civ. 20258.

Page 873

18 Cal.Rptr. 873

199 Cal.App.2d 672

Joseph URETA, Petitioner, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California IN AND FOR the COUNTY OF MONTEREY; The People of the State of California, Respondents.

Civ. 20258.

District Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

Jan. 31, 1962.

Hearing Denied March 28, 1962.

Henry B. Fulton, of Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Fulton, Salinas, for petitioner.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen. of California, Albert W. Harris, Jr., Edward P. O'Brien, Deputy Attys. Gen., San Francisco, for respondents.

BRAY, Presiding Justice.

Petition for writ of prohibition to restrain the Superior Court of Monterey County from proceeding further in the prosecution of a charge of violation of section 187, Penal Code (murder).

QUESTION PRESENTED.

Is the corpus delicti proved by showing merely that the death was caused by morphine poisoning?

RECORD.

Petitioner was charged with the crime of murder. After being held to answer at the preliminary examination, petitioner moved the superior court, under section 995, to set aside the information. On the denial of his motion petitioner filed his petition herein.

Disregarding, as we must, in determining whether there was probable cause shown that the death was caused by the criminal agency of another, the admissions of petitioner (People v. Cullen (1951) 37 Cal.2d 614, 624, 234 P.2d 1), the sole evidence in the case is as follows:

Around midnight on June 6, 1961, one Joseph Cota was found dead in room 3 of a certain Salinas apartment house by a policeman admitted to the room by petitioner, who unlocked the door. This room had been rented by petitioner on March 31 and occupied by him ever since. The room contained one bed, a dresser, and several chairs. It had only one entrance from the hallway. Deceased was lying on the floor on the opposite side of the bed. In a bureau drawer was a capsule containing white powder. ¹

Dr. Crellin, who performed an autopsy on Cota's body, testified that the cause of death was pulmonary edema and congestion resulting from morphine poisoning. He found a recent puncture wound on deceased's right arm inside the elbow. There was no other evidence produced except the testimony as to petitioner's acts and extrajudicial statements.

This testimony shows that petitioner entered the police department and reported that there was a dead man in his room. Petitioner accompanied officers to his room which he unlocked for them. He then stated to them that deceased had been sleeping on the floor and had died at that particular location. Petitioner stated that he had found the capsule on the floor alongside deceased and had put it in the drawer. Later petitioner stated that he first met deceased in Chinatown, where deceased was looking for narcotics. Eventually he and deceased purchased four small tablets containing a quarter grain of morphine. Petitioner then shot three of these into deceased's arm and one into his own. Later in the day they purchased two more tablets of a narcotic which petitioner thought was morphine. They then borrowed a hypodermic needle and after cooking the stuff each shot himself in the arm. After dozing for a while petitioner noticed that deceased was getting cold. He then laid him on the floor and applied wet towels to his face in an effort to bring him around. At that time he noticed blood beginning to ooze from deceased's nose. Petitioner then lay down on the bed. Eventually feeling that deceased was dead, he left the room, placing a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door to prevent the landlord from coming in as he did not want deceased to be discovered. He then went out on the streets to try to borrow money so that he could leave town. He also tried to find someone to help in removing the body. Several persons advised him to go to the police, and eventually he reported the incident.

There is no contention that if petitioner's acts and admissions were admissible, sufficient probable cause was not shown to justify holding petitioner to answer.

THE CORPUS DELICTI.

In a murder case the corpus delicti consists of two elements: the death of the alleged victim, and the existence of some criminal agency as the cause. Either or both of these elements may be proved circumstantially. (People v. Cullen, supra, 37 Cal.2d 614, 624, 234 P.2d 1.) It is not necessary that it connect the defendant with the commission of the crime. (People v. Leary (1946) 28 Cal.2d 740, 745, 172 P.2d 41.) The prosecution is not required to establish the corpus delicti by proof as clear and convincing as is necessary to establish the fact of guilt; rather slight or prima facie proof by circumstantial evidence is sufficient at least for admission of extrajudicial statements. (People v. Corrales (1949) 34 Cal.2d 426, 429, 210 P.2d 843.)

The evidence here, disregarding the extrajudicial acts and statements of petitioner, shows that deceased was found dead in petitioner's room, with a puncture wound on the inside of his right arm below the elbow. The death was caused by morphine poisoning.

Does this raise a reasonable inference that the death may have been caused by criminal agency? To determine this question it is necessary to point out that the furnishing, selling or administering of narcotics to another is a felony. (Health & Saf.Code, § 11501; Pen.Code, § 17; see People v. Graff (1956) 144 Cal.App.2d 199, 206, 300 P.2d 837.) 'Death resulting from the commission of a felony such as furnishing, selling or administering of narcotics * * * constitutes murder of the second degree.' (People v. Poindexter (1958) 51 Cal.2d 142, 149, 330 P.2d 763, 767.) The most reasonable inference is, not that deceased manufactured the narcotic which killed him himself, but that he procured it from another. Petitioner contends that assuming such inference, the most reasonable inference is that the furnishing or administering of the narcotic by another was legally done, such as by a physician under circumstances making it legal for a physician so to do. However, possession of a narcotic alone establishes a prima facie case of illegal possession under Health and Safety Code, section 11500; People v. Rodriguez (1955) 133 Cal.App.2d 49, 52, 283 P.2d 330; People v. Cucco (1948) 85 Cal.App.2d 448, 453, 193 P.2d 86; People v. Wallace (1952) 109 Cal.App.2d 676, 679, 241 P.2d 264. Legal possession under the statute is a matter of defense. (People v. Martinez (1953) 117 Cal.App.2d 701, 708, 256 P.2d 1028.

It is a reasonable inference that the narcotic was also furnished or administered to him illegally. (See People v. Roberts (1953) 40 Cal.2d 483, 487, 254 P.2d 501.) It makes no difference whether deceased or another actually injected the narcotic. The person who furnished him the narcotic is liable even though deceased did the actual administering of it.

Petitioner contends that to establish the corpus delicti of murder there must be evidence that the death be shown to have been caused by the criminal agency of a person with malice aforethought. Petitioner cites no cases to support this contention. While conviction of the crime of murder either in the first or second degree requires malice aforethought (Pen.Code, § 187; People v. Lewie (1959) 174 Cal.App.2d 281, 288, 344 P.2d 861), logically it is not required for proof of the corpus delicti, as malice aforethought as required by section 187 and defined in section 188 clearly relates to the state of mind of the person committing it. As the establishment of the corpus delicti does not require proof of the identity of the perpetrator of the crime (People v. Leary, supra, 28 Cal.2d 740, 172 P.2d 41), it necessarily follows that malice aforethought, which relates to the mind of the perpetrator, cannot be an essential element of the corpus delicti. (See People v. Cullen, supra, 37 Cal.2d 614, 624, 234 P.2d 1, holding that motive does not form any part of the corpus delicti.) Thus, to prove the corpus delicti, it is only necessary to show by prima facie evidence that death was caused by a criminal agency. Here the most reasonable inferences from the circumstances show that. 'To prove a prima facie case of the corpus delicti here, all that was necessary...