Court says sentence increase for meth was fair

FAIRFIELD

Court: Sentence increase fair

Tony Low was arrested for driving a stolen truck and found himself charged with bringing drugs into jail - a baggie of methamphetamine that a guard found in one of Low's socks during a booking search.

Hit with a four-year increase in his sentence, Low claimed the law, which dates from 1941, was aimed at dope smugglers - visitors, guards and inmates who intended to carry a stash to boost their spirits or their income behind bars. It surely couldn't have been intended to punish someone who had no intention of going to jail in the first place, Low's lawyers argued.

Sorry, the state Supreme Court told Low on Thursday, but you chose to carry the meth in the first place and didn't mention it to the guard before he searched you.

As Justice Marvin Baxter put it in the unanimous ruling, "Nothing supports (Low's) suggestion that he was forced to bring drugs into jail, that commission of the act was engineered by the police, or that he had no choice but to violate" the law.

Low was arrested in Solano County in June 2005 by a sheriff's deputy who saw him driving on Interstate 80 at speeds of up to 100 mph, the court said. As he passed the officer's car, Low, for unexplained reasons, waved a water bottle that carried a law enforcement emblem.

The deputy checked his computer, learned that the truck had been reported stolen and caught up with Low on a dead-end street.

A jury convicted Low of driving the truck without the owner's consent and carrying meth into jail. He's serving a sentence of seven years and eight months in prison.

- Bob Egelko

SAN FRANCISCO

Attorney serves as murder juror

An unusual memo came out of the San Francisco public defender's office last week. It advised the staff lawyers not to talk to a longtime defense attorney, Tony Tamburello.

Turns out that Tamburello is sitting as a murder case juror at the Hall of Justice.

Of course, he can't talk about it. But the advocate will soon be in a position to serve as a judge of the facts in a May 8, 2009, Tenderloin apartment slaying in which the defendant, Mikel Harris, says he "cut" Andre Fluker as a "reflex" after Fluker slapped him.

Harris lived in the Turk Street apartment, and Fluker had stored property there and was retrieving it at the time of the fatal clash.

Tamburello, despite his history as a defender of murder suspects and other defendants, told everyone he could be fair.

"It's unusual to see in a murder trial," said Chris Gauger, who handles complex litigation and appeals for the San Francisco public defender's office.

Prosecutor Asit Panwala did not object to Tamburello's service, nor did defense attorney Kleigh Hathaway or Judge Garrett Wong. District attorney's spokeswoman Erica Derryck said she would not comment about the decision to leave Tamburello on the panel, other than to note that all the seated jurors had said they could be fair and impartial.

Tom Rogers, chief deputy district attorney in Alameda County, said it's unusual but not unheard of to have working defense attorneys serve as jurors. He added that he had not objected in one instance in which a defense attorney turned up in a jury pool.

"I kept him, and it was a successful verdict," Rogers said, noting that the defendant was convicted of setting off a series of bombs targeting city officials in Fremont. "It was a risk, but both sides have to take risks."

- Jaxon Van Derbeken

This article appeared on page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle