Court Opinion

ID: 9453662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:20:03.559883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:44.942282
License: Public Domain

BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I must dissent. This defendant-appellant and the majority have not convinced me that the evidence is insufficient to support a submission to the jury.
The one count indictment charged Rideout, Pippins, and the appellant Baker with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2312, that is, with transporting and wilfully causing to be transported a certain automobile from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Saint Louis, Missouri, knowing the motor vehicle to have been stolen. It is of course well settled that, although an indictment does not refer to the aider and abetter statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2, proof of aiding and abetting sustains the charge of the principal act itself. Jin Fuey Moy v. United States, 254 U.S. 189, 41 S.Ct. 98, 65 L.Ed. 214 (1920); Collins v. United States, 20 F.2d 574, 578 (8 Cir. 1927); United States v. Provenzano, 334 F.2d 678, 691 (3 Cir. 1964), cert. denied 379 U.S. 947, 85 S.Ct. 440, 13 L.Ed.2d 544; Nye & Nissen v. United States, 168 F.2d 846, 855 (9 Cir. 1948), aff’d 336 U.S. 613, 69 S.Ct. 766, 93 L.Ed. 919 (1949); United States v. J. R. Watkins Co., 127 F.Supp. 97, 101 (D.Minn. 1954).
It seems clear that the elements of the crime described by § 2312, and which the government must prove, are (a) that the vehicle was a stolen one; (b) that it was transported in interstate commerce; (c) that the transportation was by the defendant; and (d) that the defendant during the interstate transportation knew that the vehicle was stolen.
It is here admitted by the defense (a) that the automobile was stolen; (b) that it was driven from Little Rock to Saint Louis; (c) that Baker was a willing occupant on that long drive; and (d) that throughout that interstate movement Baker knew the automobile was stolen. Thus, three of the four essentials of the crime are conceded, namely, a stolen vehicle, interstate movement of that vehicle, and knowledge. This leaves unadmitted only the element of Baker’s participation in the transportation.
Baker would deny the validity of his conviction on the ground that he did not transport the vehicle. Instead, he necessarily takes the position that, despite his being a passenger, despite his knowledge, acquired in Little Rock at the very inception of the drive, that the car was stolen, and despite his willing enjoyment of the benefit of the ride from Little Rock, where he had been briefly working, to his father’s home in Saint Louis, he was only an “innocent” six hour passenger in an automobile transported by others who are the really guilty ones. To hold, as the majority do, that this does not create a jury issue is too much for me to accept. Baker should have no such easy avenue of escape from responsibility for participation in a federally proscribed act.
Baker was not an innocent hitchhiker or invited passenger who was unaware of the hot character of the automobile or who became aware of its stolen status only when it was too late for him to disassociate. He testified: He had been working as a stock and delivery boy in Little Rock for about three weeks; he *373had, however, known his co-defendant Rideout “a pretty good while”, that is, “a year or so”; when he got into the automobile in Little Rock he learned forthwith that it was stolen, for he knew “it was stolen when [he] rode in it from Little Rock to St. Louis”; and it took six hours to make that drive. It is true that Baker also testified that he had no funds; that he did not drive; that he bought no gas; that he paid no part of the expense of the trip; that he did not steal the automobile or help steal it; and that he did not see the car stolen. But, to repeat, he had known Rideout, he knew all the time that the car was stolen, he had a purpose in getting to Saint Louis, he had the benefit of the ride, and he sat there willingly for hours.
It seems to me that these facts afford adequate support for the jury to conclude that Baker indeed participated or aided and abetted in the transportation of the stolen automobile interstate.
I would regard the authorities cited by the majority as quite beside the point. Baker’s case is not one of those where the evidence is that the defendant was found in a vehicle only while it was stationary in one state but which had been stolen in another state and subjected to interstate movement. That is the fact situation in Julian v. United States, 891 F.2d 279 (9 Cir. 1968), where the defendant, who was found asleep in the automobile, could have climbed into it after the journey had been completed. It is also, the fact situation in Allison v. United States, 348 F.2d 152 (10 Cir. 1965), so heavily relied upon by the majority. This is emphasized in United States v. Battles, 276 F.Supp. 795 (N.D. Miss.1967), where the court noted, p. 796, that in the Allison case “there was no evidence to put the defendant in Missouri at any time”. Baker, unlike Julian and Allison, and like Battles, is placed at both ends of the interstate movement.
Those Dyer Act cases, such as Garrison v. United States, 353 F.2d 94 (10 Cir. 1965), Wheeler v. United States, 382 F.2d 998 (10 Cir. 1967), and many others, which have placed stress on such things as the defendant’s purchase of gasoline, his taking a turn at driving, his assistance in changing a tire, and the like, are all cases where knowledge is not conceded; where, therefore, the government must prove such knowledge; and where these factors necessarily bear upon the knowledge issue. Here the requisite guilty knowledge is conceded.
Lambert v. United States, 261 F.2d 799 (5 Cir. 1958), which the defense at oral argument described as “close” to the present case, seems to me to be appropriate authority. That defendant, too, knew the car was stolen and the Fifth Circuit said, p. 802,
“The jury could reasonably infer that Donald and the appellant were jointly in possession of the stolen automobile, or that the appellant aided and abetted in its transportation.”
I fail to perceive the factual distinction whch the majority would draw, with their reference to - “poásibly by acting as a lookout * * * or * * * had formed a conspiracy * * * to steal the car”. I regard their holding here as in conflict with Lambert.
Baker’s conviction deserves to be affirmed.