Christopher Michael Houser and Forrest Susan Grubb v. James Geary, Sheriff of County of Santa Clara, Etc.

Habeas corpus. The District Court issued the writ and respondent custodian appeals. We reverse.

Houser was charged in the California Superior Court with possession of and planting and cultivating marijuana (Cal.Health & Safety Code §§ 11530, 11530.1). He originally pled not guilty and moved to set aside the information and to suppress the evidence found in and on the premises where he resided. (Cal.Pen.C. §§ 995 and 1538.5). The motions were denied. Houser then pled guilty to the first count (§ 11530) of the information. The second count was dismissed. Houser’s appeal, permitted by Cal.Pen.C. § 1538.5 (m), raised solely the issue that the motion to suppress should have been granted. The California Court of Appeal affirmed in an unpublished opinion.

Houser’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus also raises but one issue, the sufficiency of the search warrant that underlay the search. We quote the affidavit supporting the warrant and pertinent parts of the warrant in the margin.

Pursuant to the warrant, all four structures were searched. Marijuana was found in the house, where Houser and a friend were living, in the room over the garage, where one Hook was living, and in the…