U.S. v. Grey, 75--1897
| Decision Date | 09 April 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75--1897,75--1897 |
| Citation | 531 F.2d 933 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. William Lewis GRAY, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
David M. Nissenholtz, Cofman, Nissenholtz & Weinstein, St. Louis, Mo., filed typewritten briefs for appellant.
William Lewis Gray, Leavenworth, pro se.
Donald J. Stohr, U.S. Atty., and Frank A. Bussman, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., filed printed brief for appellee.
Before LAY, ROSS and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges.
William Lewis Gray appeals from his conviction after a trial to the court of causing a forged security to be transported in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314. On appeal he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and the admissibility of certain evidence. We affirm.
The evidence at trial showed that on October 31, 1974, a black male cashed a check of the Ogonoski Funeral Home at a National Food Store in St. Louis, Missouri. The check was payable to and on the reverse side carried the endorsement of 'William Gray'. After photographing the check and the man who presented it with a Regiscope camera, the cashier cashed the check. The check passed through regular bank clearing channels to the Union National Bank of East St. Louis, Illinois, on which it was drawn. The check was dishonored since the Ogonoski Funeral Home account on which it was drawn had been closed five years earlier. Mrs. Frances Ogonoski, whose signature the check purported to carry, testified that she had been owner of the Ogonoski Funeral Home, but the business had closed in 1969. She testified that the check was similar to those used by the business but that she had neither signed nor authorized the signature of this check. An FBI handwriting expert compared the endorsement with several samples of the defendant's handwriting and testified that in his opinion, the defendant had endorsed the check.
Defendant Gray urges that the government failed to prove that he caused the check to be transported interstate since no proof was offered as to how the check passed from the National Food Store in Missouri to the Union National Bank in Illinois. We disagree. It is well settled that proof of negotiation of a check drawn on an out-of-state bank is sufficient to show that the check was caused to be transported in interstate commerce, since the check will be routed through banking channels to the out-of-state bank on which it is drawn. See Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 9, 74 S.Ct. 358, 363, 98 L.Ed. 435, 444 (1954); United States v. Buckles, 495 F.2d 1377, 1379 (8th Cir. 1974); Amer v. United States, 367 F.2d 803, 804 (8th Cir. 1966); Halfen v. United States, 324 F.2d 52, 55 (10th Cir. 1963).
Second, defendant contends that there was insufficient proof that he knew the check to be forged when he cashed it. This argument is without merit. Mrs. Ogonoski testified that she was acquainted with the defendant and that from 1967 until 1969, he had telephoned her daily at the funeral home to get obituary information for a local newspaper where he was then employed. She testified that she had seen Gray frequently after she closed the funeral home in 1969 and began working for the Model Cities Agency of East St. Louis. Since defendant's newspaper job required him to contact local funeral homes on a daily basis, the court could properly conclude that in October, 1974 when defendant cashed the check, he knew that the Ogonoski Funeral Home had been closed for years and that the check drawn on its account and dated October 31, 1974, was a forgery. 1
Defendant complains that the Regiscope photograph taken at the supermarket when the check was cashed was admitted without proper foundation. The photograph in question shows in a single print both the check and the person who presented it. The operation of the Regiscope was described in detail by the supermarket cashier and by the owner of the Regiscope Check Control...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Pulphus
...substantive evidence as well as merely demonstrative evidence. United States v. Stearns, 550 F.2d 1167 (9th Cir.1977); United States v. Gray, 531 F.2d 933 (8th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 841, 97 S.Ct. 117, 50 L.Ed.2d 110 (1976); United States v. Taylor, 530 F.2d 639 (5th Cir.1976), c......
-
Bergner v. State
...as the individual depicted and a showing of the proper functioning of the camera and processing of the photograph. United States v. Gray, (1976 8th Cir.) 531 F.2d 933; Barker v. People, (1965) 158 Colo. 381, 407 P.2d 34; Sisk v. State, (1964) 236 Md. 589, 204 A.2d 684 (expressly adopting si......
-
State v. Berky
...it joined an overwhelming majority of other jurisdictions, citing United States v. Gordon, 548 F.2d 743 (8th Cir.1977); United States v. Gray, 531 F.2d 933 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 841, 97 S.Ct. 117, 50 L.Ed.2d 110 (1976); Stearns, supra; Taylor, supra; United States v. Pageau, 52......
-
State v. Moyle
...(4th Cir. 2003) ; U.S. v. Taylor, 530 F.2d 639, 641–42 (5th Cir. 1976) ; U.S. v. Sivils, 960 F.2d 587, 597 (6th Cir. 1992) ; U.S. v. Grey, 531 F.2d 933, 935 (8th Cir. 1976).4 Among these discussions of the "silent witness" theory, we find the following observations of the Supreme Court of C......
-
Digital Eyewitnesses: Using New Technologies to Authenticate Evidence in Human Rights Litigation.
...into evidence without such a showing so long as there is independent evidence of accuracy."). (217.) See, e.g., United States v. Gray, 531 F.2d 933, 935 (8th Cir. 1976) (per curiam) (holding that testimony describing the operation of a Regiscope, an automated system used to validate checks,......