People v. SUPERIOR COURT (CALAMARAS)

Sheriff’s officers with a search warrant seized a total of nearly half a ton of marijuana plants from three distinct garden plots on a single parcel of real property, saved samples undifferentiated as to garden plot, and destroyed the rest of the marijuana. Three residents of the parcel were accused by information of cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale; one of the three was also accused of a misdemeanor not directly related to the growing plants. The defendants moved to set aside the information on the ground (among others) tfiat the magistrate should have granted a motion to suppress evidence of the destroyed marijuana plants because the sheriff had not complied with Health and Safety Code section 11479. Respondent superior court granted the motion on the basis of its perception that the sheriff had not preserved a “representative sample” of the marijuana plants as required by section 11479. On the People’s petition for a writ of mandate, we conclude that the magistrate was not required to suppress the evidence: Whether or not the undifferentiated sample was sufficiently “representative,” it does not appear that the marijuana the sheriff…