People v. Mitchell
| Decision Date | 30 November 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. G013424,G013424 |
| Citation | 30 Cal.App.4th 783,36 Cal.Rptr.2d 150 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Christine MITCHELL, Defendant and Appellant. |
Christine Mitchell appeals her conviction for possessing over $100,000 obtained from drug sales and conspiracy to commit that crime, contending: (1) Health and Safety Code section 11370.6 is unconstitutional; (2) the trial court erred by failing to grant her motion to dismiss at the end of the prosecution's case; (3) section 11370.6 and CALJIC No. 12.37 unconstitutionally affect the burden of proof; (4) the trial court committed numerous instructional errors; (5) her statements to the police should have been suppressed on Miranda 1 grounds; (6) her trial counsel was incompetent for allowing her statements to come into evidence without proof of the corpus delecti; (7) the trial court prejudicially denied her the right to discharge her counsel after trial but before sentencing; (8) the trial court erroneously denied her motion to suppress evidence; and (9) the trial court erroneously denied her motion to disclose the identity of a confidential informant. We affirm.
* * * * * *
On March 29, Mitchell opened 13 bank accounts at Great Western Bank in Huntington Beach, depositing $2,000 to $8,000 in each account. The funds were comprised of $92,000 in $20 bills Mitchell produced from a duffel bag she had in her car. She told bank employees she needed multiple accounts for several investors, and told the manager she was a broker for an aircraft business in Central America.
The next day the bank manager told Mitchell she must file a currency transaction report with the Internal Revenue Service, which is required when a deposit of over $10,000 is made. After receiving this advice, Mitchell placed all the money in one account and closed the other 12.
The same day Mitchell spoke with an aircraft broker and salesperson about buying a Rockwell Turbo Commander, an aircraft popular with drug smugglers. She had obtained a tax permit to buy aircraft without paying sales tax, although the State Board of Equalization and Federal Aviation Administration would be advised of the sale. Her husband Vincent McKinney was learning how to pilot the Rockwell Commander, purportedly to use in his steel building business before reselling it.
Five days later, Mitchell deposited $180,000 in the Newport Beach branch of Great Western, where she had been an account holder for four years. The money was carried in several shoe boxes and was comprised of $20 bills bundled in $10,000 increments. She claimed the money came from a grandmother in another state who had kept it in her house. Mitchell said she was working on a deal, and if it were successful, she would deposit more. A currency transaction report was filled out and bank employees called the police.
After the police arrived at the bank a trained narcotics dog alerted on Mitchell's cash, which had been placed in a cabinet, indicating the money or its container had been in contact with some quantity of cocaine.
Almost three weeks later, Mitchell and McKinney met with the aircraft broker and the plane's owner to examine and test fly the Rockwell Commander. The parties agreed on a $425,000 purchase price and went to the bank to wire a $25,000 deposit to the broker's bank account. After taking the broker and McKinney to the airport, Mitchell removed a laundry detergent box from a duffel bag in the trunk of the car and put the bag in the passenger compartment of the car. She drove to her bank and deposited $85,000 in $20 bills, filling out the required transaction reports. Bank staff again contacted the police, and the narcotics dog alerted on the money.
The next day Mitchell and McKinney left their motel room and drove McKinney's car to an apartment. As they left the apartment McKinney put something in the trunk, and Mitchell drove him to the airport. On the following day, the police arrested Mitchell and McKinney. In McKinney's car, they found $97,980, mostly in $20 bills, in a laundry box inside a blue overnight bag. A briefcase in the back of the car contained $7,980 in small denominations. McKinney had $3,500 on him. A search of the motel room yielded $10,000 in cash, maps of South America, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and handbooks for an airplane. Several days later the police found $97,310 in the apartment McKinney and Mitchell had visited before their arrest.
After her arrest, Mitchell told the police "Manny," a male Latin, provided the money to buy the airplane, which he intended to use for commercial purposes. The money purportedly came from investors and family members. She intended to sell the Rockwell Commander to Manny for $500,000, making a $75,000 profit as well as a commission. She and McKinney had gone to the apartment complex to pick up money. A male Latin placed a bag containing $8,000 at her feet and walked away. She had also been given money by other unknown male Latinos at various locations. She had deposited a total of $485,000. She assumed the money was from drug sales and the plane would be used to smuggle cocaine. 2
At trial Honoracio Marco, an undercover officer who had infiltrated Latin American drug trafficking organizations, testified how drugs are manufactured and shipped to the United States by airplane and large vehicles. He explained how "facilitators" obtain housing, storage areas, cars, beepers, and telephones for the traffickers, and assist in purchasing assets, smuggling narcotics in airplanes, and transporting money. Facilitators pick up money, usually in $20 denominations, at gas stations, laundromats, and apartment buildings, carrying the loot in shoe boxes, workout bags, laundry bags, detergent boxes, and toy boxes. Marco believed Mitchell was a facilitator.
Mitchell testified her family had been in the aviation industry all her life. Her brother and husband were pilots, and her father was a mechanic. She had purchased aircraft in the past and obtained her license to sell and broker planes shortly before her arrest. In April 1991, Manny Freyes, the husband of a friend, offered her the opportunity to buy four large aircraft for his small commercial airline. She told Freyes she and McKinney had just purchased an airplane for use in McKinney's prefabricated building business, and McKinney flew Freyes to Mexico in exchange for Freyes's help in finding clients for McKinney.
Mitchell began to look for aircraft and decided to buy the Rockwell Commander for $425,000. She made the cash deposits for that purpose. She borrowed approximately $100,000 from an amino acid tablet manufacturer, and placed the cash in a storage locker before depositing it. She opened separate accounts for each investor, deciding with a bank employee to make out separate deposit slips. She was not concerned about the deposits, although she knew cash transaction forms would be required and the government would be informed. She lied to an assistant manager by saying one deposit came from her grandmother, but told several employees she was in the aircraft business.
She denied asking the assistant manager whether the "feds" were involved. She denied telling the police she knew the plane would be used for smuggling drugs or that the money came from drug proceeds. She claimed her statements to them were consistent with her trial testimony.
Vincent Guadinino testified as a defense expert about drug dealers' money laundering operations. He claimed people in the drug trade would not make a deposit of $100,000 at one time, even in separate accounts because they would know transaction reports would be prepared for the government. Another defense expert, Glen Richards testified the Rockwell Commander was not a good plane for drug smuggling because it requires a long, smooth and clean runway. He opined aircraft are often bought for cash because a better price can be obtained.
Mitchell contends Health and Safety Code section 11370.6, defining the crime of which she stands convicted, is unconstitutional for several reasons. Section 11370.6 provides in relevant part:
Mitchell complains the statute violates her rights to equal protection and due process, and is vague and overbroad. None of these claims has merit.
Mitchell reasons the statute deprives her of equal protection under the law because persons possessing over...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
People v. Bush
...expert's opinion on an ultimate issue of fact is admissible, and may constitute substantial evidence"].)In People v. Mitchell (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 783, 36 Cal.Rptr.2d 150, the Court of Appeal found less evidence—a trained narcotics dog alerting to money in defendant's possession, packaging......
-
People v. Hardin
...change to statutes imposing different penalties for possession for sale of cocaine base and cocaine powder]; People v. Mitchell (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 783, 796, 36 Cal.Rptr.2d 150 ["[d]etermining gradations of culpability ... does not implicate the strict scrutiny test for equal protection p......
-
People v. Bell
...did not require the courts to subject all criminal classifications to the strict scrutiny test. (Ibid.) In People v. Mitchell (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 783, 36 Cal.Rptr.2d 150 (Mitchell ), the court considered whether equal protection was violated by the provisions of Health and Safety Code sec......
-
People v. Fryman
...154 Cal.Rptr. 817 [there is a rational basis to classify cocaine as a narcotic rather than a stimulant]; People v. Mitchell (1994) 30 Cal.App.4th 783, 795-796, 36 Cal. Rptr.2d 150 [there is a rational basis to criminalize possessing over $100,000 to purchase drugs]; People v. Bell (1996) 45......