BACKYARD `GARDEN' POT CROP FOUND BEFORE HARVEST.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Weeds grew in the front flower beds, and ``weed'' in the backyard.

Tipped off by a citizen, sheriff's deputies seized more than 100 marijuana plants growing in a backyard, visible from the yards and two-story houses around it.

``You could see them from the backyards behind here. Looking through the gate, you could see them,'' sheriff's Sgt. Kyle Bistline said. ``This is a brand-new neighborhood, a brand-new tract.''

When full-grown, the 104 plants would produce marijuana worth $100,000 sold on the street, deputies said. These were mostly less than half-grown, two or three feet tall, some only about two weeks old.

The plants had been growing in pots lined up along the side yard and beside a retaining wall and inside a portable greenhouse in the backyard, deputies said.

Deputies arrested homeowners Martell Hall, 36, and Sandy Hall, 30, on suspicion of conspiracy to cultivate marijuana, marijuana cultivation and child endangerment.

Los Angeles County social workers were called in to determine whether the couple's children, ages 2, 5 and 8, should be placed in foster homes.

The child-endangerment charge was based on the presence of the marijuana at the home, Bistline said. Deputies believe the family had been in the house less than one year, and that this was the first crop.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color; 2 -- ran in AV and SAC editions) Above, sheriff's Sgt. Kyle Bistline, left, takes marijuana plants over a fence as Deputy Paul Murphy carries more plants from a backyard on Boxwood Court in Palmdale on Wednesday. Left, Murphy adds more plants to the growing collection.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer