People v. Doremus CA3

BACKGROUND

For several weeks prior to December 2022, law enforcement surveilled defendant and his girlfriend, codefendant Jennifer Castro, observing them coming and going from an apartment in Chico located approximately 300 to 400 feet from an elementary school. On December 1, 2022, Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force Detective Douglas Patterson served a search warrant at the apartment. After knocking and announcing, officers received no response, and they forced entry through the front door, which had

1 been barricaded from the inside. Defendant and codefendant Castro were detained inside the apartment in handcuffs while officers executed the search warrant. During the search, officers located a pouch with methamphetamine, 24 pounds of marijuana, a complete butane honey oil lab, which is used to make a highly volatile and illegal form of concentrated cannabis, two rounds of ammunition, a digital scale with methamphetamine residue, baggies, and packaging materials. Officers found another complete butane honey oil lab in the garage. In one of the bedrooms, officers found codefendant Castro’s purse and driver’s license, a small amount of methamphetamine, and a ticket from the…