Source: https://m.openjurist.org/399/f2d/106
Timestamp: 2020-04-08 23:13:20
Document Index: 217998212

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 641', '§ 2115', '§ 1361', '§ 371', '§ 2312', '§ 641']

399 F2d 106 Wangrow v. United States Czajkowski | OpenJurist
399 F. 2d 106 - Wangrow v. United States Czajkowski
399 F2d 106 Wangrow v. United States Czajkowski
399 F.2d 106
Henry Kenneth WANGROW, Appellant,
UNITED STATES of America (two cases).
Daniel Edmund CZAJKOWSKI and Mark Edward Murphy, Appellants,
J. Earl Cudd, Asst. U. S. Atty., Minneapolis, Minn., for appellee; Patrick J. Foley, U. S. Atty., Minneapolis, Minn., on brief.
The appellants were each charged by information with possession of stolen government property (18 U.S.C. § 641). In a single indictment, each appellant was charged with: Count I — forcibly breaking and entering a post office (18 U.S.C. § 2115); Count II — destruction of government property (18 U.S.C. § 1361); and Count V — conspiracy to break and enter a post office (18 U.S.C. § 371.) Counts III and IV charged transportation of a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce (18 U.S.C. § 2312) — Count III named Wangrow and Murphy and Count IV named Czajkowski.
We will consider only the validity of the convictions for violation of §§ 641 and 2312 since sentences on the other convictions were concurrent with them. Barnes v. United States, 197 F. 2d 271 (8th Cir. 1952).
Karzas and the appellants were seen leaving the motel at 3:00 p. m. on October 8th. They returned at 9:10 p. m. They were then observed transferring what appeared to be burglary tools and an acetylene tank from the car they had been driving to the parked car. The cars were the ones fictitiously registered and previously observed in Chicago.
Prior to trial, the appellants moved pursuant to Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for relief from prejudicial joinder. The supporting affidavit alleged both misjoinder1 and prejudicial joinder of the Dyer Act counts with the others.2 The trial court determined that the offenses and the appellants were properly joined and that no prejudice was shown. The motion was denied subject to a motion at trial if prejudice or jury confusion developed.
Here, the appellants sought to demonstrate, by a pretrial affidavit, that prejudice would occur if the Dyer Act counts were tried together on the grounds that the "evidence concerning the two auto thefts was in many respects different:" the alleged thefts occurred at different times; the automobiles were transported across state lines on different days (October 6 and October 7); and proof as to the transportation by Czajkowski was direct and as to Wangrow and Murphy, only circumstantial. The appellants contend that further prejudice occurred during trial when the court permitted evidence seized during the search of the LaPorte garage to be received in evidence against Czajkowski. (A mutilated license plate, a key cutting machine and articles of personal property subsequently were traced to a stolen automobile.) The trial court denied the appellants' motion to reject this evidence as prejudicial, but ruled that it was only admissible to prove Czajkowski's intent since the garage was rented to him.3 Appellants Murphy and Wangrow argue that since such evidence was inadmissible against them, they were prejudiced by the joinder.
74 Yale L. J. 553, 561 (1964). Accord, Hanger v. United States, 398 F.2d 91, pp. 99, 100 (8th Cir. June 28, 1968).
The appellants do not challenge the propriety of including within the overt acts of the conspiracy the transportation of the two stolen vehicles. Thus, consistent with the conspiracy count, each appellant could have been charged with both Dyer Act violations. Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946). If the appellants had been so charged, joinder would have been proper, e. g., Pegram v. United States, 361 F.2d 820 (8th Cir. 1966), and evidence as to one would have been admissible as against all, Hanger v. United States, supra 398 F.2d 91 at pp. 99, 100. Thus, the appellants' argument of prejudice is based, in part, on the fact that they were not charged with both violations, a ground which we find unpersuasive. Cf., Ibid.; Yale L.J. 553, 561 (1964). Finally, we note that the court particularly instructed the jury in regard to the evidence seized at the Chicago garage at the time of its reception:
The District Court, in an unpublished memorandum, based its finding as to probable cause on the following facts: (1) The Chicago police were informed by an informant, whose reliability was not established, that Karzas had recently committed a post office burglary and intended to commit another. They placed him under surveillance and observed him meeting with the appellants. (2) Karzas was known by the police officers as a felon who participated in previous post office burglaries and as an expert safe-cracker. The appellants were known to the police as convicted felons. (3) The Chicago police determined that three of four cars being used by Karzas and the appellants were fictitiously registered. (4) The Chicago police observed one of the fictitiously registered cars leaving Chicago on the evening of October 7th. They followed it to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they lost it. Thereafter, they continued to Minneapolis, where they located the car they had lost at Eau Claire and another of the fictitiously registered cars at the Thunderbird Motel in Bloomington, Minnesota. (5) The Chicago police related the above information to local law enforcement officers, and one of them was placed on surveillance in the Thunderbird Motel, where two of the four persons were registered under assumed names. (6) The officer observed the appellants and Karzas return to the motel in one of the cars at approximately 9:10 p. m. on October 8th, and park alongside the other car which had remained under surveillance. He observed them transferring an orange acetylene tank and what appeared to be burglary tools from the trunk of the first to the second car, and entering the room of the motel.
When the Chicago officers placed Karzas under surveillance, they did so on a suspicion, see Pigg v. United States, 337 F.2d 302 (8th Cir. 1964) (see cases cited in Footnote 4), based on the past criminal record of Karzas and information from an informant of undetermined reliability, see, United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), that he intended to burgle a post office. The officers continued their surveillance and learned that the suspects: used cars registered under fictitious names; drove these cars from Chicago to Minneapolis; falsely registered at the Thunderbird Motel; left the Thunderbird Motel late in the afternoon in one of the cars and returned at approximately 9:10 p. m., dressed in "work jackets" and transferred an orange acetylene tank, and what appeared to be burglary tools, from the trunk of the car they had been driving to one that remained in the parking lot.
"At 9:10 p. m. * * * Holmes informed me by phone of the arrival of one of the cars * * *. He told me that a dark colored car pulled into the parking area from the East and parked next to the other car that we had under surveillance. He told me that four men got out of the car and opened the trunk of [that] * * * car * * * and * * * the trunk of the other car * * *. * * * [T]hat one of the suspects removed an orange-colored object which he thought to be an acetylene [sic] tank, * * * from the [first] car * * * and [put] it in the trunk of the [second] * * *. * * * [T]hat one of the men carried a leather bag, 3 or 4 feet long, which appeared to him to be some kind of a tool carrying case. * * * [T]hey put several other objects in the trunk of the car parked there which they took from the car they had been using[,] [and] * * * closed the trunk of both cars, * * *, and went into the motel.
"The four suspects were arrested at 9:25 p. m. and we found in their possession articles which were subsequently determined to have been taken in a burglary that occurred that same evening. After arresting these men, a 1966 Bonneville 4-door, Illinois license number VT 6016, and a 1965 Oldsmobile 98, 4-door, Illinois license number SJ 8611, were impounded and towed to the Bryant Police Station."
"Previous testimony has put the three [defendants] in company with Eugene Karzas, 34, identified by a Chicago detective as a `highly proficient' safe-cracker who was arrested along with the trio in Bloomington several hours after the burglary.
We would additionally note that the trial court properly instructed the jury that the longer the interval, the weaker the inference. See, Travers v. United States, 335 F.2d 698 (D.C.Cir. 1964) (two months not too long as a matter of law). See generally, Minor v. United States, 375 F.2d 170 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 882, 83 S.Ct. 131, 19 L.Ed.2d 177 (1967).
The trial court considered the motion as having raised the issue of misjoinder even though it was titled as a motion for relief from prejudical joinder. We agree that the supporting affidavit fairly alleges both issues and consider both here. Compare, Haggard v. United States, 369 F. 2d 968, 972-973 (8th Cir. 1966)
It appears that at the time of the motion, the information had not been consolidated with the indictment for trial pursuant to Rule 13 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
Appellant Czajkowski complains that the evidence was generally inadmissible as to him because of inadequate foundation. In Johnson v. United States, 356 F.2d 680 (8th Cir. 1966), this Court held that reference to prior offenses must be "clear and cogent." Accord, Boyd v. United States, 142 U.S. 450, 454, 12 S.Ct. 292, 35 L.Ed. 1077 (1892). InJohnson, this Court noted that that test must be applied on a case-by-case basis. The appellant argues that the foundation is inadequate because the prior theft "is alleged to have taken place sometime before." However, in Weiss v. United States, 122 F.2d 675 (5th Cir. 1941), the Court stated: "The length of time over which an inquiry as to other offenses may extend is within the sound discretion of the trial court [footnote omitted]." Id. at 682. The appellant makes no attempt to establish abuse of discretion. He also contends that his recent and exclusive possession was not established. We reject this argument. Czajkowski rented the garage from month-to-month and there was no clear evidence that Karzas or anyone else (the owner excepted) had access to the garage other than in Szajkowski's presence.