Valencia

A jury found Denise Valencia guilty of possessing a sawed-off shotgun in violation of Penal Code section 12020, subdivision (a). Her sole contention on appeal is that the prosecution failed to prove that she knew the object was a sawed-off shotgun. We conclude that the prosecution was not required to prove such knowledge. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment.

Facts

Detective Thomas Leary testified that on November 9, 1987, acting under a warrant, he and other officers searched the El Sobrante home shared by appellant and the man she described at trial as her “common law husband.” On top of a hutch in a bedroom shared by appellant and her ’’husband,” officers found a weapon wrapped in a sock. The weapon was an Interarms 410-gauge side-by-side double-barrel shotgun with the stock and barrel cut off. It measured 19 ¥2 inches overall; the barrel was 10% inches long.

When officers showed the gun to appellant, she asked what they intended to do with it. They said they were going to seize it. She said that they couldn’t, “that she was keeping it because it belonged to her deceased brother.”

Appellant testified that the last time she had seen the gun before being shown it by…