Tierce

Defendant, Roger William Tierce, was charged with a violation of Health and Safety Code section 11358, planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, or processing marijuana.

Prior to the commencement of trial, defense counsel requested that Tierce be given diversion. The request was denied.

At trial, defense counsel moved to exclude testimony regarding certain of Tierce’s statements because a police officer had destroyed the notes he took when Tierce made the statements. The motion was denied. The jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Facts

On September 18, 1983, Tulure County Deputy Sheriff Reid Hopkins went hiking in the mountains looking for a marijuana plantation that had been reported. He was accompanied by Deputy Lutz. After hiking approximately four and a half miles they spotted Tierce some distance from the trail sitting between a table and a tent next to a fire ring at an unimproved campsite. Hopkins approached Tierce to talk to him and observed guns on the table. He walked around Tierce and from the outside of the tent he looked into the tent and saw what he thought was marijuana in four cans. He seized the marijuana, two books and one magazine from the tent. The…