People v. Superior Court

Petitioner seeks a writ of mandate to vacate an order denying a motion for a special hearing to relitigate the validity of two searches.

By complaint, the district attorney charged Larry Van Williamson with three felony convictions of Health and Safety Code section 11378, possession of psilocybin for sale. Each of the counts involved the discovery of mushrooms of that substance at one of three locations *791 controlled by defendant: count one involved Bay No. 6, count two involved Bay No. 7 and count three involved Norman Court. Thereafter, at a preliminaiy hearing defendant’s motion to suppress evidence was denied as to Bay No. 6 but granted as to Bay No. 7 and Norman Court. Defendant was bound over for trial as to count one only. Three days later, the prosecutor filed a timely request for a special hearing pursuant to Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (j) to relitigate de novo the validity of the searches at Bay No. 7 and Norman Court. Subsequently, petitioner was charged by information as to count one only. The request for the special hearing was denied and this petition for a writ of mandate followed.

We denied the petition in the first instance. The Supreme…