People v. Valdez CA3

FACTS

Angelique Hewitt lived in Lathrop with her partner Janice Johnson, Johnson’s two children, and Hewitt’s young son. Hewitt’s older son Lloyd Galtney visited often from the Bay Area. Defendant Valdez had become friendly with Hewitt after he and his brothers stopped someone from attacking Hewitt’s young son. Valdez came by often and drank beer and smoked marijuana with Hewitt. On April 2, 2006, Galtney was visiting his mother when Valdez called and said a friend wanted to buy some marijuana. Galtney drove to a location about five minutes away to make the sale. He met Valdez and defendant Delphin and sold Delphin a half of an ounce of marijuana for $125-$150. Delphin was not happy with the sale; he weighed the marijuana and believed it was a few grams short. He wanted to go talk to the man who sold it. Valdez called Galtney and told him Delphin was not satisfied. Valdez told Galtney that Delphin wanted to talk to him and show him the marijuana. Galtney was not going to do anything; in his view it was a “done deal.”

2 About 30 minutes later, Delphin arrived at Hewitt’s with Gary Hansen. Delphin approached Galtney while Hansen stayed back. Delphin had the marijuana and a scale.…