People v. Morante

• Decision Date: 17 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. S063446,S063446
• Citation: 975 P.2d 1071,84 Cal.Rptr.2d 665,20 Cal.4th 403
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 975 P.2d 1071, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3583, 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 4585 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Isabel MORANTE, Defendant and Appellant

Page 665

84 Cal.Rptr.2d 665

20 Cal.4th 403, 975 P.2d 1071, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3583,

1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 4585

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Isabel MORANTE, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S063446.

Supreme Court of California

May 17, 1999.

Rehearing Denied July 21, 1999.

Kopeny & Powell, John W. Powell and William J. Kopeny, Irvine, for Defendant and Appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren and Bill Lockyer, Attorneys General, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Carol Wendelin Pollack, Assistant Attorney General, Linda C. Johnson, James William Bilderback II, Susan D. Martynec, David L. Polsky and Kent J. Bullard, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

GEORGE, C.J.

In this case we decide whether California courts have jurisdiction over the criminal prosecution of a defendant for conspiracy to commit an offense where the defendant, within the State of California, both entered into an agreement to commit the offense and committed acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, but the offense that is the object of the conspiracy was committed in another jurisdiction. We also decide whether California courts have jurisdiction over the criminal prosecution of a defendant for committing an offense based upon a theory of aiding and abetting the commission of that offense, where the defendant has committed acts in California that aided and abetted the commission of the offense, but the offense was committed in another jurisdiction. We conclude that our courts do have jurisdiction to criminally prosecute a defendant both for in-state conspiracies to commit offenses out of state, and for in-state aiding and abetting of the commission of offenses out of state.

I

The prosecution's case was presented primarily through the testimony of an investigating officer as well as through the testimony of a participant in the commission of the offenses. In 1990, City of Newport Beach Police Officer McKnight was assigned to the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, a task force comprised of 60 investigators from local police departments, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Customs Service. The purpose of the task force was to investigate drug trafficking operations of various Colombian cartels in the United States.

The task force obtained authorization from the Los Angeles Superior Court to place a wiretap on the telephone line of Robinson Suarez (also known as Rob and Tony Vasquez), a Colombian national, 28 years of age, residing in Los Angeles, and known to be a high-level member of a drug trafficking operation. Within the operation, Mr. Suarez had the task of supervising the importation of cocaine into the United States, collecting the proceeds from sales of the cocaine, and transferring those moneys out of the United States.

On December 27, 1993, the task force arrested Margarita Molina, a courier for the drug trafficking operation who was responsible for collecting proceeds from the sale of drugs and transporting the moneys as directed by her superiors. The task force recovered $675,000 in cash from her vehicle, $9,000 in cash from her residence, and a number of pay-owe ledgers recording the proceeds thus far collected and the balances outstanding for various drug transactions.

On December 30, 1993, through the wiretap placed on the telephone at Suarez's residence, the task force heard Suarez telephone defendant Isabel Morante, with whom Suarez apparently had an ongoing relationship, at her residence in Los Angeles. In that conversation, Suarez complained about the recent arrest of Molina. Both Suarez and defendant wondered aloud from what source the police had obtained the information leading to the arrest and seizures, and they discussed the possibility of examining Molina's police records to ascertain the source of that information. During the conversation, Suarez stated, "This is the kind of life that we chose to lead. So what can we do about it?" Defendant responded, "Uh-huh." When Suarez concluded, "Take the good with the bad," defendant chuckled.

On January 13, 1994, defendant contacted Rafael Flores, also known as Rafa, who previously had worked with defendant in a clothing business. Defendant told Flores that she had work for him and arranged to meet with him at her residence. At that meeting, defendant informed Flores that she could provide work for him transporting kilograms of cocaine, for which he would earn $8,000, and from which amount defendant would retain 25 percent. Flores agreed to do the job. Defendant told Flores that he would travel to Houston, Texas, and meet certain individuals. She warned him that the police were following her, and therefore Flores was not to telephone her at her residence. Defendant stated that instead, from a public telephone, Flores must telephone her pager number and she would return the page. She explained that if she and Flores followed that procedure, the police would be unable to record their telephone conversations.

On January 14, 1994, defendant drove Flores to the airport and paid cash for his airline ticket. Flores then boarded a flight to Houston and in that city checked into a Days Inn hotel, from which location he paged defendant, who remained in California. She telephoned in return and instructed Flores to page her again in one hour. Previously it had been agreed that Flores would not learn the identity of Suarez and would communicate solely with defendant. Accordingly, on that day, Suarez (who also remained in California) telephoned defendant at her residence, and when she told him that Flores had arrived in Houston, Suarez instructed her to give Flores a particular pager number and tell him to contact "Flip," using the code number 42.

Suarez then telephoned a number in Houston and spoke to an unidentified man. Suarez explained that Flores had arrived and would page the man, identify himself as number 42, and ask for Flip. Suarez instructed the man to give Flores the cocaine "raw" because Flores knew how to "mask" it to avoid detection by drug-sniffing dogs. The man asked Suarez whether Flores knew where to go, and Suarez replied that defendant would inform Flores. Suarez and the man then agreed "to do Motown" (Detroit, Michigan) first.

In a telephone contact between Flores and defendant later that day, defendant gave Flores the pager number he was to telephone. Flores telephoned that number but received a busy signal, and subsequently informed defendant what had happened. Defendant then telephoned Suarez, informed him that Flores was at the hotel, and received a different pager number.

In her next telephone contact with Flores that day, defendant told Flores that two men would meet him at his hotel room. When the men arrived, they initially paged defendant, receiving her assurance that Flores was the correct contact. They gave Flores $2,000 and ten kilograms of cocaine. Flores packaged the cocaine in Ziploc bags layered with mustard and fabric softener sheets in order to prevent detection by drug-sniffing dogs. Thereafter, Flores contacted defendant, telling her that he had received the cocaine. She instructed him to contact her in one hour to learn his destination. When Flores did so, he was instructed by defendant to travel to Detroit.

That evening, conducting surveillance, Officer McKnight and other officers, including a female who had dark curly hair and wore glasses, travelled in an unmarked vehicle to the vicinity of defendant's residence and parked. The officers observed Suarez enter defendant's residence, where he remained for a brief time.

On January 15, 1994, pursuant to defendant's instructions, Flores flew to Detroit, checking into a Comfort Inn hotel on the outskirts of the city. Flores then contacted defendant, and she instructed him to wait until noon when she would contact him.

Later on the morning of January 15, Suarez telephoned defendant, who was at a public telephone in Los Angeles. Suarez asked defendant whether she saw anything that "looked strange." Defendant responded that nothing looked strange, that there were fewer automobiles near her residence, and that she did not see the vehicle containing the small woman with short curly dark hair and glasses whom she and Suarez had observed from the residence the previous evening. Defendant gave Suarez a room number and a telephone number that proved to be the telephone number of a business located in a suburb of Detroit.

Suarez telephoned defendant again, asking whether she was at a public telephone. Initially, defendant responded affirmatively, but subsequently admitted she was at a friend's residence. Suarez told defendant that after he learned the location at which Flores was to deliver the cocaine, Suarez would page defendant and simply record that three-digit room number. Suarez instructed defendant that when Rafa arrived at the room, he was to ask for "Captain." Suarez told defendant to inform him when the delivery had been completed by paging him and recording the same three-digit room number. Subsequently, as planned, Suarez paged defendant and recorded the room number for Flores's meeting.

Defendant then contacted Flores, instructed him to proceed to a specific room number at the same hotel, knock three times, listen for three knocks in return, and deliver the cocaine to the occupant who answered the door. Flores made the delivery as instructed and departed. From a public telephone, Flores contacted defendant, telling her that the delivery had been completed. Defendant instructed him to return to Houston.

On January 16, 1994, Flores departed from Detroit and arrived back in Houston, where he checked into a Ramada Inn hotel. On January 17, 1994, Flores contacted defendant, who instructed him to contact her in 90 minutes. Flores did so, and defendant instructed him to wait in the hotel room for another delivery of 10 kilograms of cocaine....