P. v. Corral

Filed 7/6/06 P. v. Corral CA2/8

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

APPEAL from the judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Carol Koppel, Judge. Affirmed.

Dennis L. Cava, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Marc E. Turchin and Susan D. Martynec, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

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INTRODUCTION

After the trial court denied his motion to suppress evidence pursuant to Penal Code section 1538.5, appellant Carlos Corral pled no contest to one count of receiving stolen property. (Pen. Code, § 496, subd. (a).) On appeal, he contends the trial court improperly denied his motion because the evidence against him was the product of an unlawful detention. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY[1]

At around 6:30 a.m. on November 11, 2004, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs Bergo and Baker were on patrol in the City of Lancaster when they noticed a car parked in the parking lot of a medical office building located at Palmdale Boulevard and 15th Street East. The building was closed and the parking lot's lights were turned off. Bergo knew this was a high crime area because: a few weeks earlier, he had chased someone suspected of burglarizing a gun store down the street from the medical building; there was a known narcotics house behind the medical building; and he had stopped a stolen car across the street. Baker ran the license plate of the parked car, but found no information that the car was involved in any type of crime.

Bergo approached the passenger side of the car with his flashlight in his left hand while Baker approached the driver's side. As Bergo approached the car, he saw two occupants, appellant Carlos Corral in the driver's seat, and Corral's girlfriend, Sylvia Reyna, in the front passenger seat. They looked startled by the deputies' arrival. When Bergo shined the flashlight into the car, he saw that Corral â€