People v. Lavalle CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

On January 11, 2012, Officer James Scott of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) pulled Lavalle over south of Ukiah after measuring the speed of the pickup truck she was driving as 78 miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone. Lavalle was the driver of the truck and its only occupant. As he was talking to Lavalle, Officer Scott smelled

1 Lavalle was convicted under Health and Safety Code section 11360, subdivision (a). All further statutory references are to the Health and Safety Code unless otherwise noted.

1 marijuana in the passenger compartment, and he asked her if she was carrying any of that drug. She responded that “she had a little,” at which point Officer Scott ordered her out of the truck. He then picked up “a garbage bag that was behind the driver’s seat that looked full” and felt “individual packages inside about the size of a football,” which he knew was a common way to package marijuana. He opened the garbage bag and saw individual bags that contained “green marijuana . . . [¶] . . . [¶] . . . in bud form.” The bags were not labeled, and this indicated to Officer Scott that the marijuana inside was most likely for “commercial…