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Parties Involved:
Julian Colon
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

r 

FILED 

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

Unit.ed Stat.es Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit 

MAR O 61989 

ROBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

v. 

JULIAN COLON, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

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No. 87-2712 

(D.C. No. 86-CR-l0SG) 

(D. Utah, Central Div.) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

Before MOORE, BALDOCK, and McWILLIAMS, Circuit Judges. 

In the first count of a three-count indictment, Julian Colon 

and two others were charged with conspiring to enter a federally 

insured bank in Salt Lake City, Utah, with an intent to commit 

larceny, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), and theft of bank 

funds, in violation of 18 u.s.c. § 2113{b). In Count 2, the three 

were charged with entering that federally insured bank with an 

intent to commit larceny, in violation of 18 u.s.c. § 2113{a). In 

Count 3, they were charged with the taking and carrying away, with 

an intent to steal, approximately $68,178.00 in foreign currency 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall not 

be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of the case, 

res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 3~.3. 

Appellate Case: 87-2712 Document: 010110024501 Date Filed: 03/06/1989 Page: 1 
.. 

travelers checks belonging to 

violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(b). 

co-defendants were disposed of 

the federally insured bank, in 

The charges against Colon's two 

without trial. Colon, however, 

went to trial and a jury convicted him on all three counts. Colon 

appeals his convictions and the sentences imposed thereon. We affirm. 

Briefly stated, the government's evidence showed that Colon 

and his two co-defendants entered the First Security Bank in Salt 

Lake City, Utah. Colon and one of his co-defendants then engaged 

a teller in conversation about exchanging foreign currency, while 

the other co-defendant remained near the entrance and acted as a 

lookout. According to the government's theory of the case, when 

the teller turned her back, so to speak, Colon stole the travelers 

checks and all three left the scene. In any event, when the 

teller returned to her cage, the travelers checks were missing, 

and Colon and his friends were gone. Several hours later Colon, 

his two co-defendants, and two others were arrested at Kennedy 

Airport when they were deplaning from a fli_ght from Salt Lake .. 

City. The travelers checks taken from the First Security Bank 

were found on one of Colon's traveling companions. Colon's 

fingerprints were found on some of the stolen travelers checks. 

In the investigative stage of this case, the teller from whom 

the travelers checks were taken was shown a photo array of six 

different individuals, from which she identified Colon as one of 

the men who tried to exchange money with her on the day of the 

theft. We do not find in the record before us any formal pretrial 

motion to suppress the teller's in-court identification of Colon 

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Appellate Case: 87-2712 Document: 010110024501 Date Filed: 03/06/1989 Page: 2 
on the ground that the photo array was impermissibly suggestive. 

We do find that moments before the first government witness was 

called, trial counsel, who does not represent Colon on this 

appeal, made an objection to the use at trial of the photo array, 

which objection was, in effect, withdrawn when the prosecutor 

- indicated he did not intend to offer the array as an exhibit. At 

trial the teller, without objection, identified Colon as one of 

the two men who engaged her in conversation about currency 

exchange immediately before the travelers checks disappeared. 

On appeal, appointed counsel argues that the district court 

erred in denying Colon's motion to suppress the teller's in-court 

identification of Colon in light of the teller's previous photo 

identification with the "impermissibly suggestive photo array.'' 

The photo array is a part of the record on appeal, though 

apparently it was never offered into evidence at trial. Be that 

as it may, and disregarding the procedural barriers to this 

argument, trial counsel did not establish that the photo array was 

impermissibly suggestive and, if so, whether the identification 

was unreliable in view of thi totality of circumstances. Johnston 

v. Makowski, 823 F.2d 387, 391 (10th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 108 

S. Ct. 750 (1988)(citing Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 

384 (1968)). Certainly suggestiveness is not established by a 

mere viewing of the photo array. See Simmons v. United States, 

390 U.S. at 383; Baca v. Sullivan, 821 F.2d 1480, 1481-82 (10th 

Cir. 1987). 

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Appellate Case: 87-2712 Document: 010110024501 Date Filed: 03/06/1989 Page: 3 
To our eye, the photo array does not look suggestive. All 

six depicted were male Hispanics, all have a considerable head of 

hair (no bald ones!), and all had mustaches. Although some were 

obviously older than others, and some had curly hair as opposed to 

straight hair, such does not in itself make out a case of 

'impermissible suggestiveness. See generally United States v. 

Shoels, 685 F.2d 379, 384-85 (10th Cir. 1982), cert. denied, 462 

U.S. 1134 (1983)(seven photos of black men with facial hair not a 

suggestive photo array when eyewitness described accused as black 

man without facial hair); United States v. Borrelli, 621 F.2d 

1092, 1095-96 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 956 

(1980)(different racial heritage of men depicted in photo array is 

irrelevant when five of six men have similar appearance); United 

States v. Munn, 507 F.2d 563, 569 (10th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 

421 U.S. 968 (1975)(no suggestiveness with seven caucasian males 

of same general age with considerable hair, but four clean shaven 

and three unshaven). Having determined that counsel did not 

make out a case of impermissible suggestiveness, we need not 

pursue this matter any further. 

The only other ground urged here for reversal is that the 

government's evidence is insufficient to prove a violation under 

Count 1, the conspiracy charge, or the substantive counts set 

forth in Counts 2 and 3. This argument is based on a belief that 

although the government's evidence may have showed that Colon and 

his associates took the checks, the evidence does not establish, 

prima facie, that the defendants conspired outside the bank or 

that at the split second they entered the bank they had an intent 

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Appellate Case: 87-2712 Document: 010110024501 Date Filed: 03/06/1989 Page: 4 
to steal. Counsel argues that any plan to steal first originated 

when the teller ''negligently" turned her back and thereby 

"fortuitously presented the defendants with the opportunity to 

steal." That is perhaps one way to look at the evidence, but 

certainly not the only one. See United States v. Hooks, 780 F.2d 

1526, 1529-32 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1128 (1986). 

The government's evidence shows that one of the three 

defendants, a female, who entered the bank with the other two but 

remained near the entrance, was acting as a lookout, and also that 

a confederate, who was later arrested with Colon in New York, was 

at the same time across the street perpetrating the same ''scam" on 

another bank. Also, Colon's fingerprints were found on some of 

the stolen checks. Accordingly, the evidence supports 

conviction under all counts. 

Judgment affirmed. 

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Entered for the Court 

Robert H. Mcwilliams 

Circuit Judge 

the 

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