Court Opinion

ID: 9445462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:29:34.837935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:16.481840
License: Public Domain

HUXMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
It is conceded that appellant Gomer A. Evans did not transport the stolen Oldsmobile from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Fort Worth, Texas. He therefore stands charged with “causing” it to be so transported by Mrs. Jackson. To establish that offense it must be established that he induced her to transport the stolen car. In other words, the transportation by her must have been the result of an agreement or understanding between him and Mrs. Jackson that she would drive the car to Fort Worth and that he would thereafter appear there and help her dispose of it.
There is no evidence in the record, as I review it, to support the conclusion that Evans knew he was buying stolen cars when he bought these three cars from Thompson. There is nothing in the record to support a conclusion that he was other than a reputable dealer in second hand cars. It is true that when his brother Jerome Evans met Thompson in Albuquerque he told him they knew that he had sold them stolen cars, but the record clearly reveals that this information was not obtained until after Gomer Evans had purchased the three cars from Thompson.
Neither is there evidence in the record that Gomer Evans and Mrs. Jackson were at any time together alone while she was registered at the motel, either before Thompson and his wife registered there, during the time the Thompsons were registered there, or after the Thompsons had left. The fact that Mrs. Jackson and the Thompsons registered at the same motel on the night in question, so far as the record shows, was a mere coincidence. It could not have been planned. That is so because when Jerome Evans returned to Tulsa with the Thompsons in the early morning he suggested that they spend the rest of the night at his house, but they wanted to go to a motel, and Jerome then suggested the motel at which they registered. For approximately thirty hours he had been out of the city. He could not have known that Mrs. Jackson was in Tulsa staying at this motel. Neither did his brother Gomer know that he was taking the Thompsons to this motel.
After the Thompsons were in their cabin, Jerome used their telephone, called a number and carried on a conversation. Thompson did not know whom he called nor did he hear any of the conversation but obviously he called his brother Gomer, because after the conversation he took the Thompsons’ car and went to his home. The Thompsons then went to a nearby restaurant for something to eat *699and in about five minutes Gomer Evans appeared at the restaurant. Gomer could not have known where to find them had he not been informed by his brother Jerome.
As I read Thompson’s testimony, there is nothing therein which supports an inference that he saw Gomer’s Cadillac prior to the time he and Gomer left the cabin to cross the driveway and enter the car to go to the attorney’s home. It was then he saw the two cars parked in front of Cabin 45 which was occupied by Mrs. Jackson. His testimony seems clear to me that when he first saw Mrs. Jackson she was in her cabin, not standing in the door. He was asked, “Q. You saw her right there at the motel? A. Yes, sir. Q. In the cabin in front of which Gomer’s Cadillac was parked * * * ? A. Yes, sir.” He testified that he did not go into the cabin but that “she came to the door” and that he saw her standing in the door. The exact language of Gomer in his conversation with Mrs. Jackson, testified to by Thompson was “ * * * we was going out and get a lawyer, and that we would be back later on.” The “we”, of course, referred to Thompson and Gomer Evans. That was the sum total of the only conversation Gomer Evans ever had with Mrs. Jackson as far as the record shows. That was the only time, according to the record, that Gomer Evans and Mrs. Jackson were together prior to the time she returned to her home in Fort Worth. Certainly this conversation is wholly insufficient to sustain the conclusion that it was there arranged that she should drive her car to her home in Fort Worth and that he would then come down later and help her dispose of it. If we want to give free rein to our imagination or speculation we can surmise a number of things not supported by the record.
Neither is the remark by Gomer Evans that “we would be back later on” sufficient to sustain a conclusion that upon his return he had an opportunity to see Mrs. Jackson and arrange for her to drive the car to her home in Fort Worth. It is without dispute that when Thompson and Gomer Evans left in the Cadillac they went to the attorney’s home to prepare the legal papers to transfer title to Thompson’s home to Evans as security; that they prepared these papers and together with the attorney returned to Thompson’s cabin, got Mrs. Thompson, and that the four then returned to the attorney’s home where the papers were executed. Thompson and his wife then got their own car at Jerome’s home, returned to their cabin, got their things and were on their way. There is a complete dearth of any evidence that Gomer Evans and Mrs. Jackson had any further contacts or communications with each other prior to her leaving for her home in Fort Worth, Texas.
To sustain the conviction we must infer that there was another meeting between Mrs. Jackson and Gomer Evans before she returned to Fort Worth. We must infer that at such other meeting, of which there is no proof, it was agreed that she should transport her car to Fort Worth. We, thus it seems to me, pile inference upon inference in order to find evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict and the judgment based thereon.
The evidence would be sufficient to sustain a finding that Gomer Evans assisted Mrs. Jackson in disposing of a stolen car in Texas, knowing it to have been stolen. But that was not the offense with which he was charged. Neither does the fact that she later sold the Mercury she acquired in Fort Worth to another Tulsa dealer and thereafter repurchased her original Ford supply the missing link necessary to establish the indispensable fact that prior to her going to Fort Worth Evans arranged with her for the transportation of the car in interstate commerce. These were subsequent events having no bearing on what occurred prior to her going to Fort Worth. Furthermore, there is not even a suspicion in the record that Evans was with her at these times, aided her in these transactions, or even knew of them. It is my conclusion that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty or a judgment based thereon. I would accordingly reverse.