Opinion ID: 326091
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: terry lee carter, jr.

Text: 139 Appellant Carter asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction under Count 2-receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle moving in interstate commerce-in that there was no proof that the car in question had been stolen. 140 The involved car was a 1968 Cadillac Eldorado. William Miller testified that he, together with appellants Shad and Byrd, stole the car in Champaign, Illinois, in June or July of 1969, and thereafter sold it to appellant Carter (who had previously ordered it from Miller). The sale was for $1,000, a sum which Miller estimated as at least $3,000 below the true value of the car. Carter was aware that Miller filled orders for cars by means of thievery, and that the specific Cadillac that Miller obtained for him was stolen. On September 12, 1969, appellant Carter was arrested by the Covington, Kentucky police while driving the stolen vehicle. 141 The sum of Carter's contention is that the Government attempted to prove that the 1968 Cadillac had been stolen from its owner, Gene Smith Auto Sales in Champaign, Illinois, but failed to do so, because the last entry on the title documents kept by the Illinois Secretary of State showed one Robert DeLong, rather than Gene Smith Auto Sales, as the owner of record. This assertion is specious. 142 It is true that the Secretary of State's record showed DeLong as the last registered owner of the vehicle; but business records admitted into evidence showed that on June 6, 1969, DeLong had traded the car in to Gene Smith Auto Sales for a newer model. Moreover, the owner of the dealership testified that, in Illinois, assignments of automobile titles to dealers are not submitted to the Secretary of State for recording until the automobile is resold to an individual purchaser. 143 Thus, the testimony and documentary evidence clearly established that Gene Smith Auto Sales owned the 1968 Cadillac (which was the subject of Count 2 of the indictment) when it was stolen.