How have the courts dealt with claims of error in denying a motion for a continuance?

[175 Cal.App.2d 376] The basic issue involved in the first claim of error is whether the lower court abused its discretion in denying the motion for continuance (People v. Mackey, 171 Cal.App.2d 513, 340 P.2d 688). The evidence establishes without contradiction that, although having previously introduced defendant to the officer and arranged a sale (not charged in the indictment) between them several days prior to March 26th, the informant had no part in the sales of March 26th or 28th. He made no arrangements for the meeting btweeen the officer and the defendant on the 26th or 28th, and neither participated in either meeting nor set up the sales arising therefrom. Indeed, the officer himself had no prior appointment with defendant for either of those days and the encounter in each instance appears to have been entirely unarranged. The informant was in no way a participant in, nor an eyewitness to, either sale charged in the indictment; he was not present with the officer and defendant on March 26th or March 28th and as far as we know was completely unaware of the two meetings; he had no independent knowledge of either offense; and was in no way responsible for pointing an identifying finger at defendant at either time or upon his arrest. Thus we are unable to appreciate how or in what manner the informer's testimony could have been material to the issue of defendant's guilt.