Opinion ID: 386012
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: claims of carcone

Text: 38 The indictment named Thomas Carcone as a person who allegedly committed the crimes charged. The Government arrested and brought to trial appellant Gaetano Carcone, also known by the nickname Tommy. Gaetano and Thomas are rough linguistic equivalents. However, Gaetano at the times alleged had a brother named Thomas. Appellant Carcone claims he is not the person named in the indictment and the Government brought the wrong person to trial. 39 The Government bears the burden of showing that appellant was the person named in the indictment, not his brother, since an indictment is returned against a person, not simply a name. United States v. Fawcett, 115 F.2d 764, 767 (3d Cir. 1940). In the words of Judge Learned Hand: 40 The jurors do not indict the man who committed the crime, but him described in the evidence before them. They may select another and an innocent man, though the person arrested be guilty. If so, the prosecution fails on the issue of identity, which must be settled before that of guilt becomes relevant. Thus the only person who can be removed is the person whom the jurors mean to indict. Their meaning is to be ascertained, like any other, from the words they use, not from what is in their minds; but the meaning to be attributed to their words may, in case of doubt, be found by looking at the circumstances under which they are uttered. This is a universal canon. Now the only circumstances relevant to the words used are the evidence before them when they find the indictment, for it is from these alone that they get any acquaintance with the subject. They are to be understood, therefore, as indicting the persons described in the testimony, if doubt arises. Hence, if it be shown that the witnesses described the person arrested, he is the person indicted. United States ex rel. Mouquin v. Hecht, 22 F.2d 264, 265 (2d Cir. 1927), cert. denied, 276 U.S. 621, 48 S.Ct. 301, 72 L.Ed. 736 (1928). 41 The question before us, therefore, is whether appellant Gaetano Carcone, also known as Tommy Carcone, was the person described before the grand jury. That Gaetano Carcone may have been the man who in fact committed the acts alleged is of no significance. We must look to the description of the man which was put before the grand jury. 42 Matilde Galvez testified before the grand jury that, after receiving from Harry Schwartzbach the phone number, 728-3814, of a person named Tommy from whom she could buy airline tickets, she telephoned Tommy at that number, and arranged to buy airline tickets from him at a 60% discount on a number of occasions. The tickets were personally delivered to her by Tommy. At the later trial it was established that the telephone number 728-3814 was listed to the second floor of 3407 Broadway and Galvez identified appellant as the Tommy from whom she made the ticket purchases. Indeed, it was stipulated by appellant's counsel that appellant lived at 3407 Broadway. There is no suggestion, much less evidence, that appellant's brother had the telephone number called by Galvez or that he lived at the address for which it was listed. 43 Were the foregoing the only evidence before the grand jury, there would be no question about its intent to indict appellant. However, the witness Harry Schwartzbach identified before the grand jury a photo of appellant's brother as the man whom he knew as Tommy Carcone in his neighborhood and to whom he had rented automobiles on a couple of occasions. However, Schwartzbach did not testify that he had ever had any airline ticket dealings with appellant or with the person whose photo he selected from the spread. He simply acted as a conduit in passing along to Galvez the name Tommy and the phone number 728-3814 which Galvez used to communicate with appellant and arrange for the purchase of tickets. At trial Schwartzbach testified that his identification of the photo of appellant's brother was a mistake and that he meant to refer to appellant, not his brother. 44 From this record it is clear that the grand jury intended to indict the Tommy reached at telephone number 728-3814, to whom Galvez was referred by Schwartzbach and from whom she made ticket purchases, and that it charged that person, who was identified by Galvez, with unlawful sales of tickets to Galvez. There is nothing to indicate that the grand jury intended to indict appellant's brother for these transactions with Galvez or, for that matter, for participation in any other illegal transactions. If Schwartzbach had testified before the grand jury that Galvez or he had arranged for the purchase of tickets from the person whose photo was selected by him there might then be some support for appellant's claim that the jury intended to indict that person for the unlawful activities alleged. But there was no such evidence before the grand jury. Nor does appellant dispute the extrinsic evidence offered at trial to show that the phone number 728-3814, to which Galvez was referred, was listed to appellant. See United States ex rel. Curtis v. Warden, 329 F.Supp. 333, 336 (E.D.N.Y. 1971). 45 Under these circumstances we reject appellant's argument that the grand jury indicted the wrong man. The grand jury indicted the Tommy living on the second floor of 3407 Broadway, with a phone number 728-3814. This was the appellant, not his brother. Although the grand jury's intent would have been clearer if Galvez had before the grand jury identified appellant by photograph, the evidence is nevertheless sufficient to indicate an intent to indict appellant, not his brother. 46 Carcone next claims that the district court erred in denying his motion for a new trial under Rule 33, F.R.Cr.P., based on his post-trial discovery of a letter by Schwartzbach, submitted two years before trial in connection with sentencing of appellant on a different violation, attesting to Schwartzbach's acquaintanceship for three years with a Gaetano Carcone, which is appellant's correct name, to whom Schwartzbach had rented automobiles. At trial Schwartzbach had testified that he did not recall any occasion when Carcone had used the name Gaetano in their dealings. Appellant contends that the letter would have enabled him to impeach Schwartzbach's credibility as a Government witness against him. 47 In our view the trial judge's ruling was correct and in accordance with our repeated instructions that such a motion should be granted only with great caution and only upon a showing that the evidence could not with due diligence have been discovered before or during trial, that the evidence is material, not cumulative, and that admission of the evidence would probably lead to an acquittal. United States v. Stofsky, 537 F.2d 237, 243 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 819, 97 S.Ct. 65, 50 L.Ed.2d 80 (1976); United States v. Slutsky, 514 F.2d 1222, 1225 (2d Cir. 1975); United States v. Costello, 255 F.2d 876, 879 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 357 U.S. 937, 78 S.Ct. 1385, 2 L.Ed.2d 1551 (1958). 48 Here there was no showing that the new evidence could not have been uncovered earlier through exercise of due diligence. At trial appellant offered evidence of parking tickets and accident claims issued in the name of Gaetano Carcone for violations with respect to autos rented by appellant from Schwartzbach. Other evidence introduced at trial indicated Schwartzbach was aware that appellant was sometimes referred to as Gaetano. Since appellant was apparently aware of the letter during trial he could just as easily have obtained it then as after his conviction. 49 Regardless of appellant's lack of due diligence the letter was at most cumulative and not exculpatory. Although it could have been used to impeach Schwartzbach on a collateral issue, his knowledge that appellant sometimes used the name Gaetano (which was argued by appellant's counsel to the jury), it would not have affected his testimony, corroborated by Galvez, that he had referred her to the telephone number of appellant who admittedly used the name Tommy. Thus the evidence would not have led to an acquittal. 50 Appellant Carcone's other claims are equally meritless. The prosecutor's reference in rebuttal summation to Carcone's previous arrest record, which showed that he used the name Tommy, was permissible. Carcone had introduced the evidence by calling Detective Miceli as a defense witness in an effort to show that police records referred to appellant as Gaetano, only to be met with testimony that he had used the nickname Tommy. Nor did the trial judge commit reversible error in refusing to give Carcone's request for an instruction that accomplice testimony should be examined with great caution. Judge Nickerson's instruction to the jury that it should carefully scrutinize all of the testimony given and consider with caution and great care the testimony of witnesses who had been promised immunity by the Government (which includes the witnesses Galvez and Schwartzbach, who testified against Carcone) was adequate under the circumstances, in view of the objection by Peraino to Carcone's requested instruction.