People v. Long CA3

DISCUSSION

I Defendant’s Conviction For Transporting Methamphetamine Must Be Vacated And The Case Remanded To Allow The People To Prove The Transportation Was For Sale At the time of defendant’s transportation of controlled substance conviction, Health and Safety Code section 11379, subdivision (a) provided that “every person who transports . . . any controlled substance . . . shall be punished by imprisonment . . . for a period of two, three, or four years.” Case law construed the statute to cover any transportation of a controlled substance with knowledge of its presence and illegal character, regardless of whether the defendant intended to sell the drug. (People v. Emmal (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 1313, 1317; People v. Eastman (1993) 13 Cal.App.4th 668, 676-677.) After defendant’s conviction, that section was amended by adding subdivision (c), which provides: “For purposes of this section, ‘transports’ means to transport for sale.” (Stats. 2013, ch. 504, § 2.) Defendant contends his conviction for transportation must be reversed because the People did not prove that he transported methamphetamine for the purpose of selling it.

3 “When the Legislature amends a statute so as to…