People v. Smith

Appellant Richard Darryl Smith (Smith) was charged by information with a felony violation of Health and Safety Code section 11358, the planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying and processing of mar ¡juana. Following hearing, Smith’s Penal Code section 1538.5 motion to suppress evidence was denied. Thereafter, Smith entered a plea of no contest and was found guilty as charged.

Smith was sentenced to two years in state prison. His sentence was suspended, however, and he was placed on probation for 36 months. This appeal followed.

I

On November 4, 1982, Lake County Deputy Sheriff Roger Whitchurch and a few other officers from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office were in an airplane conducting aerial surveillance for marijuana in semirural areas of Lake County. The flight was one of many routine overflights conducted during the marijuana season. Deputy Whitchurch testified at the suppression hearing that he specifically flew over Smith’s property during the course of this flight because he had received information that a methamphetamine lab was being operated in an underground bunker beside a garage and near a mobilehome. While looking for this lab. Deputy Whitchurch observed…