253 F.2d 319 (2nd Cir. 1958), 236, United States v. Paradise

• Docket Nº: 236, 24510.
• Citation: 253 F.2d 319
• Party Name: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. William PARADISE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Case Date: March 26, 1958
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals, Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Page 319

253 F.2d 319 (2nd Cir. 1958)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,

v.

William PARADISE, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 236, 24510.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

March 26, 1958

Argued Feb. 7, 1958.

Page 320

William J. Cantwell, New York City, for appellant.

Paul W. Williams, U.S. Atty., for Southern District of New York, New York City (Fioravante G. Perrotta, Lynbrook, N.Y., and Mark F. Hughes, Jr., Asst. U.S. Attys., New York City, of counsel), for appellee.

Before MEDINA, WATERMAN and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant was convicted on all four counts of an indictment charging: in Counts 1 and 2, wilful 'receiving, possessing, concealing and facilitating the transportation and concealment' of 108 grains of heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 173, 174, and possession of the same quantity of heroin and not paying the special tax and registering as required by law, in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 4724(c) and 7237(a); also in Counts 3 and 4, violation of the same laws with respect to a separate quantity of 417 grains of heroin. All these offenses were alleged to have been committed on October 23, 1956. Upon proof of appellant's prior conviction of having had dealings in narcotics he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on Counts 1 and 3, and five years imprisonment on Counts 2 and 4, all the sentences to run concurrently.

The facts are simple and may be briefly stated. Having information, apparently obtained from narcotics addicts and perhaps others, that appellant was peddling heroin, agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics kept appellant under surveillance. On the afternoon of October 23, 1956, one of the agents working with another agent in the vicinity, having been told that appellant would soon arrive with narcotics on his person, waited near the corner of Riverside Drive and 87th Street, in New York City, and soon thereafter a cab drew up at the curb and appellant emerged. He was immediately placed under arrest and four packages containing 108 grains of heroin were found in his pocket. As he had previously been seen to go and come from an apartment house at 2727 Palisade Avenue in Riverdale, where the agents suspected more narcotics would be found, the agents proceeded to drive there with appellant.

Page 321

The conversation between appellant and the agents in the automobile was to this effect: he...