Court Opinion

ID: 9482902
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:04:17.52017+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:16.570471
License: Public Domain

RYAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Count II of the indictment in this case charged the defendant, Donald Wayne Goodman, with conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 659 by “... willfully ... stealing] ... a load of aluminum molding ... which was moving as a part of an interstate shipment of freight ... from the State of Tennessee to the State of Massachusetts.” (Emphasis added.)
The majority properly cites the legal standards governing claims of insufficient evidence in criminal cases. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). In my judg-*132merit, however, no reasonable juror could conclude, on the evidence presented, that the load of aluminum in the semi-trailer was “moving” in interstate commerce. The requirement that the contraband be “moving” as of the date of the theft is not a pleading technicality or a legal fiction; it is an essential element of the offense charged and the basis for federal jurisdiction. See Winer v. United States, 228 F.2d 944, 947 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 351 U.S. 906, 76 S.Ct. 695, 100 L.Ed. 1442 (1956). I believe the government’s failure to prove that the aluminum was moving in interstate commerce as of May 27, 1989, is fatal to this prosecution for conspiracy to violate section 659.
The majority opinion cites no evidence from the record to support its conclusion that the contraband, when stolen, was “moving” in interstate commerce. It simply concludes that “there was ample evidence” of the required movement. Yet a careful review of the evidence presented at trial establishes several reasons why no reasonable juror could come to the conclusion that at the time of the theft, in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 27, 1989, the contraband was “moving as ... a part of ... an interstate ... shipment of freight.”
Pendex Transportation Company is a common carrier that had the contract to haul goods from the Neilsen-Bainbridge plant during May of 1989. Pendex assigned one of its employees, Louis D. Robinson, to the Neilsen-Bainbridge plant and his duty was primarily to verify that loads Pendex was to carry contained the proper goods in the correct amount. It was Robinson’s responsibility, after inspecting the load, to sign a bill of lading certifying that the load was complete and ready for shipment, and designating its final destination. The trailer doors could then be closed and sealed, and a tractor hooked up to the trailer. The entire rig would then be driven to a holding area some distance from the loading dock and remain there until an over-the-road driver was assigned.
In this case, few, if any, of these preliminary steps had been taken at the time the trailer and its contents were stolen from the Neilsen-Bainbridge loading dock. The facts presented at trial establish that the Neilsen-Bainbridge employees completed loading the trailer at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, May 26. The trailer remained at the Neilsen-Bainbridge loading dock, inside the fenced Neilsen-Bainbridge property, and the loading crew left work for the Memorial Day weekend. The trailer doors remained opened and, of course, unsealed. No one had verified the contents of the load. The bill of lading had not been signed authorizing the release of the goods, and since the shipment was not scheduled to leave Gainsboro, Tennessee for three days, no tractor had been hooked up to the trailer. These facts clearly establish that Neilsen-Bainbridge had not yet turned over control of the trailer to Pen-dex. Shortly after midnight, the thieves hooked a tractor to the open and unattended trailer and drove it away.
In my judgment, no reasonable juror could conclude that the unattended, open, unsealed trailer sitting at the shipper’s dock, without a tractor attached and before a bill of lading had been executed verifying the contents of the load and authorizing its departure, was “moving” in interstate commerce.
Consequently, I respectfully dissent.