Opinion ID: 396224
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mr. and Mrs. Hinds

Text: 6 Between December 21, 1979, and January 2, 1980, Turberville and Pierce stole approximately 280 aluminum pulleys 5 from the Redstone Arsenal and sold them to Hinds Salvage Company (the Company), of which Mr. Hinds was president and a member of the board of directors. 6 Although there was conflicting testimony, it appears that Hinds was present when Turberville and Pierce brought in the first load of stolen pulleys. After inspecting the pulleys, Hinds negotiated a price with them. Turberville testified that he told Hinds that the pulleys were stolen, and that Hinds replied that he would get rid of them. 7 Over a two-week period subsequent to this first transaction, Turberville and Pierce brought several loads of stolen pulleys to Hinds Salvage Company. Usually a Company employee, other than Hinds, would handle the transaction with Turberville and Pierce; in fact, Hinds was not present at the salvage yard on some of the days on which Turberville and Pierce delivered pulleys. 8 Each time that Turberville and Pierce delivered a load of the stolen pulleys to Hinds Salvage Company they were paid by Mrs. Hinds, who was the bookkeeper and cashier for the Company. She paid them by check, but instead of making the checks payable to Turberville and Pierce she made them out to false names such as Jimmy Jones and Jimmy Harris. Turberville testified that when the goods he sold to the Company were not stolen, Mrs. Hinds would use his real name on the checks, but when the goods involved were stolen she would ask Turberville what name he wanted to appear on the check. Additionally, two tellers from the Hindses' bank testified that in December, 1979, two men fitting the description of Turberville and Pierce attempted on several occasions to cash checks made payable to Jimmy Jones and Jimmy Harris. Since the checks were written on the Hinds Salvage Company's account and since the two men had no identification, the tellers called Mrs. Hinds to secure her approval to cash the checks; she always gave her consent. Finally, the government introduced into evidence several checks, all signed by Mrs. Hinds, some of which were made payable to Turberville and some, dated December, 1979, payable to Jimmy Jones and Jimmy Harris. 9 When first interviewed by the FBI on January 3, 1980, Mr. Hinds denied knowing how the stolen pulleys got on his property and said that he did not even know the pulleys were at his yard until the FBI inquiry. 7 However, in an interview with the FBI six days later, Hinds identified Turberville and Pierce as the two men who brought the pulleys into his yard, but he continued to deny that he ever personally handled any of the transactions with them. Hinds did tell the FBI that he had known Turberville for four or five years and that he knew that Turberville had stolen property previously. The FBI agent also testified that Hinds told him that there were X number of other junk dealers in town that would buy (stolen property) so, (Hinds) indicated he might as well buy it. 10 At trial, Hinds testified that he acted as a general supervisor at Hinds Salvage Company and spent little time directly purchasing scrap. He also testified that he did not buy any stolen pulleys from Turberville and Pierce and had never knowingly bought stolen merchandise. His testimony was corroborated by several relatives and employees of the Company. 11 Mrs. Hinds testified that she was merely the bookkeeper at the Company and was never directly involved in the purchase of any scrap. She further denied knowing Pierce and knowingly using false names on the checks paid to Turberville and Pierce; she just made the checks payable to the name the seller gave her.