People v. Morales CA2/8

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In July 2013, 12 balloons containing heroin were found in Manuel M. Morales’s car after he consented to a search of the car following a traffic stop by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Morales was charged with one count of transporting heroin and one count of possessing the drug for sale. A jury trial began in January 2014. Morales was convicted of transporting heroin (Health & Saf. Code, § 11352, subd. (a)), acquitted of possession for sale, and convicted of the lesser included offense of simple possession. He was sentenced on the transportation charge to the midterm of four years, to be served in county jail. Sentence on the simple possession count was stayed. (Pen. Code, § 654.) Morales contends the trial court erred by not instructing the jury that in order to find him guilty of transporting heroin it also had to find he transported the drug for sale, pursuant to a recently effective amendment to Health and Safety Code section 11352.

DISCUSSION

Effective January 1, 2014, Health and Safety Code section 11352 was amended to add subdivision (c), which provided that a conviction for transporting drugs also requires proof that the defendant…