Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

While a past conviction, can have an effect on a subsequent offense, the mere fact of a prior conviction, based on the facts you delineated, wouldn't be "Evidence of the crime in this instance". I can't think of any relevance of the prior cultivation conviction to the validity of the charge here. You should speak more thouroughly to a qualified criminal defense attorney, in or near your area, to discuss the matter more fully. I wish you well. David Wallin

"Past record" is not evidence of a crime, nor chargeable as a new offense. He has already done his time. But past record can be a 'strike' and a 'prior' for sentence enhancement in new charges. And, past record means that law enforcement will scrutinize him carefully in any stop once they ID him. Past record may also mean parole or probation with 'waiver of 4th' so that he can be stopped and searched anytime, anywhere. If police recognize him on sight, they can pull him over and search without 'probable cause'. Those are the consequences of his past conduct and convictions. The bearing on your current facts is that he is probably charged with conspiracy or some offense related to the growing and transportation mentioned. Saying he "had no idea" is not going to fly well as a defense.

Of course he can fight the charges. When arrested or charged with any crime, the proper questions are, can any evidence obtained in a test, search or confession be used against you, and can you be convicted, and what can you do? Raise all possible defenses with whatever admissible and credible witnesses, evidence, facts and sympathies are available for legal arguments, for evidence suppression or other motions, or at trial. If you don't know how to do these things effectively against an experienced prosecutor intending to convict, then hire an attorney that does, who will try to get a dismissal, diversion, reduction or other decent outcome through plea bargain, or take it to trial if appropriate. If serious about hiring counsel to help in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me. I�ll be happy to help you, using whatever defenses there may be.