People v. Riley CA2/3

BACKGROUND

Viewed in accordance with the usual rule of appellate review (People v. Ochoa, (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206), we find the evidence established the following. 1. Prosecution evidence. a. The informant’s drug buy. On April 2, 2013, at about 8:00 p.m., a narcotics team from the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating a house located at 323 West 89th Street. Officer Melissa Gonzalez and her partner set up a controlled drug buy in which they gave a recording device to their female informant, Sandy Charles, provided her with a pre- marked twenty dollar bill, and sent her to the subject house to purchase narcotics. The officers parked on the other side of the street from the house. Charles approached the front door of the house after going through a gate on the side of the house. From their vantage point, Gonzalez and her team were not able to see any of the drug transactions that transpired. Charles testified she walked up to a porch where the front door of the house was located. Although there were windows on either side of the front door, Charles could not see into the house. It was dark outside, but there was a porch light illuminating the porch and the front door…