Opinion ID: 1505311
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of Defendant's Motion for Bill of Particulars.

Text: It was not claimed by the government that the defendant was present when the robbery was committed. The claim was that he knowingly aided the actual perpetrators of the robbery. In advance of trial, the defendant moved for a bill of particulars which would inform him of the acts or words which the government claimed constituted the basis for the charge that he had aided in the commission of the robbery, together with the time, place and persons present when and where the acts were committed or the words said. The record does not contain the arguments which were made upon the hearing of the motion. The record shows that the defendant then had in his possession a transcript of the testimony adduced at the trial of Orville Garrison, a co-defendant, who had been tried in November, 1937, and that this transcript showed that the co-defendant Karatasos had testified that Hewitt had assisted in planning the robbery and that on or about the 24th day of June, 1937 all of the defendants met at Hewitt's place of business in Kansas City, Missouri, and discussed the proposed robbery of the bank. Upon the assumption that the defendant Hewitt had obtained from the transcript of the evidence given at the trial of Garrison all the information with respect to the charge which he needed in order to prepare himself for trial, the court denied the motion for a bill of particulars. The rule is that if a defendant is not sufficiently informed by an indictment of the nature and cause of the accusation made against him and is fearful that upon trial he will be surprised by the evidence of the government, he can apply for a bill of particulars, which the trial court, in the exercise of a sound legal discretion, may grant or refuse, as the ends of justice require. [4] It necessarily follows that a clear abuse of judicial discretion in denying an application for a bill of particulars must be shown in order to justify a reversal. Wong Tai v. United States, 273 U.S. 77, 82, 47 S.Ct. 300, 71 L.Ed. 545. There was no such abuse of discretion shown in this case. The only basis for the present claim that the court abused its discretion is the fact that, upon the trial of Hewitt, Karatasos testified that the defendants met at Hewitt's place of business on the night of June 28, 1937, instead of testifying, as he had at the trial of Garrison, that the meeting took place on or about the 24th day of June, 1937; and the fact that Hewitt was unable to recall or to show where he was on the night of the 28th of June. The importance of the evidence tending to show that a meeting of all the defendants occurred on June 28, 1937, we think has been greatly exaggerated. It was merely one item of evidence tending to show that Hewitt had associated himself with the other defendants in aid of the commission of the robbery.