Court Opinion

ID: 9447315
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:31:30.307268+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:58.999874
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I agree that the evidence here was sufficient to permit a jury to find that Amedeo was a member of a conspiracy to transport a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce. I am not satisfied that, on the present record, Ricciardi and Mastrocola, the only co-conspirators named or indicated in the indictment, were shown to have acted with any awareness that an interstate transaction was involved. Thus, their joinder in the charged conspiracy seems not to be established. Cf. United States v. Crimmins, 2 Cir., 1941, 123 F.2d 271; Linde v. United States, 8 Cir., 1926, 13 F.2d 59. I conclude, therefore, that the proof showed a conspiracy of the kind charged between Amedeo and some unnamed person or persons but not of Amedeo and Ricciardi or Mastrocola.
This was a variance. But I think it was not a significant variance and does not afford sufficient reason for a reversal. It could have been avoided merely by charging that, in addition to Amedeo, Ricciardi and Mastrocola, “persons unknown” joined in the conspiracy. Cf. Linde v. United States, supra. I do not see any way in which this omission resulted in surprise or harm to Amedeo at the trial. No extrajudicial statements of Mastrocola or Ricciardi were used against Amedeo and there is no basis for believing or fearing that guilt was. attributed to Amedeo for their wrongdoing. Amedeo was shown to have conspired with someone to cause the interstate movement of the stolen vehicle in question and that was the essence of the charge against him.
Only if a variance affects “the substantial rights” of a party is it reversible error. 28 U.S.C. § 2111. With Berger v. United States, 1935, 295 U.S. 78, 55 S.Ct. 629, 79 L.Ed. 1314, compare Kotteakos v. United States, 1946, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557. And see Note, 57 Colum.L.Rev. 387, 398-404 (1957). This was not the case here.
Accordingly, I agree that the conviction of Amedeo should stand.