## Facts

- A police officer stopped Tommy Gastello on a bicycle for lacking a light and observed signs suggesting drug influence.
- The officer arrested Gastello for being under the influence of a controlled substance and transported him to jail in handcuffs in a police car.
- Gastello did not choose to go to jail and did not transport himself there.
- During the booking search, jail staff found a small bag of methamphetamine on his person.
- A jury convicted Gastello of methamphetamine possession, being under the influence, and bringing a controlled substance into a jail (Penal Code § 4573); he received an aggregate seven-year sentence.
- Gastello appealed only the § 4573 conviction, arguing insufficient evidence.

## Issues

1. Whether Penal Code § 4573 is satisfied when a defendant enters a jail with drugs solely because officers arrest and transport him there in custody, rather than by any voluntary act of taking drugs into the facility.

## Decision

- The court reversed the conviction for bringing a controlled substance into a jail under Penal Code § 4573.
- The court held the evidence was insufficient because Gastello’s entry into the jail with drugs resulted from involuntary custodial transport, not a voluntary act of “bringing” drugs into the jail.
- The court left the remaining convictions intact and remanded for resentencing.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal liability generally requires a voluntary act (actus reus) corresponding to the charged offense.
- Penal Code § 4573, as applied to “bringing” controlled substances into a jail, requires a voluntary act of introduction attributable to the defendant, not mere possession at the time of arrest followed by involuntary transport into the facility.
- Intent to possess drugs before arrest does not, by itself, establish the distinct act and mental state required for “bringing” drugs into a custodial facility when the entry is not voluntary.

## Conclusion

Because Gastello was taken into the jail involuntarily after arrest, his presence in the facility with methamphetamine did not constitute the voluntary act required to prove he “brought” drugs into jail under Penal Code § 4573, so that conviction was reversed and the case remanded for resentencing on the remaining offenses.


People v. Gastello, 149 Cal. App. 4th 943, 57 Cal. Rptr. 3d 293 (Ct. App. 2007)