Can an informant be a material witness on the issue of guilt?

There is absent in the record before us any showing that the informant could possibly be a material witness on the issue of guilt. While respondent need not produce evidence at the hearing on the motion to compel disclosure, but may rely upon reasonable inferences from the People's evidence (People v. Alvarez (1977) 73 Cal.App.3d 401, 406, 141 Cal.Rptr. 1), no such inferences of materiality can be made from the evidence here. Defense counsel presented only the bare unsupported assertion that the informant was a material witness on the issue of possession for sale, and would support the defense theory that the marijuana was possessed for personal use; yet defense counsel did not explain how this informant, whose last contact with the defendant was before November 3, and who did not even know the defendant's full name or address, would possibly be able to give evidence on defendant's reason for possessing marijuana on November 19, 1987.

"In sum, the present motion was but another of those unfortunately common instances wherein the defense confuses the fact that while it may sometimes be necessary to 'speculate' concerning the knowledge possessed by an informant [citations], it is never necessary for a defendant to 'speculate' concerning his own role in the scenario, something which is, of necessity, already fully known to him." (People v. Galante, supra, 143 Cal.App.3d 709, 711, 192 Cal.Rptr. 184.)