Bellande v. United States

• Decision Date: 19 April 1928
• Docket Number: No. 5094.,5094.
• Citation: 25 F.2d 1
• Parties: BELLANDE et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

25 F.2d 1 (1928)

BELLANDE et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 5094.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 27, 1928.

Rehearing Denied April 19, 1928.

Chandler C. Luzenberg, of New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs in error.

W. G. Borah, U. S. Atty., and E. E. Talbot, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of New Orleans, La.

Before WALKER, BRYAN, and FOSTER, Circuit Judges.

BRYAN, Circuit Judge.

The defendants, Cook, Glynn, Bellande, and Normandale, were convicted upon an indictment which charged them with conspiracy to rob a carrier of United States mail, in violation of section 197 of the Criminal Code (18 USCA § 320).

Actual robbery was shown by the undisputed evidence. The trial court submitted to the jury two overt acts, which the indictment alleged were committed to effect the object of the conspiracy: The first that, two or three days before the robbery, Bellande and Normandale had a Cadillac automobile repaired for the purpose of using it in committing the robbery; and the second that, on the day of the robbery, but after it was committed, the same two defendants removed the mail bags and their contents from a negro church in New Orleans, where they had been placed by the other defendants, Cook and Glynn. Uncontradicted evidence was to the effect that the substantive offense was committed at St. Rose, La., by two men in a Cadillac car, who immediately thereafter drove the car to New Orleans, a distance of 15 to 18 miles; that the car broke down, and was abandoned in New Orleans near a negro church; that the mail sacks were removed from the church by two men who were using a Ford car. Less than two hours elapsed from the time of the robbery to the time of the removal of the mail from the church.

The evidence was in conflict as to the identity of the parties who committed the robbery and brought the mail to New Orleans and of the parties who removed it from the church. Witnesses for the government identified Cook and Glynn as the actual participants in the robbery and the occupants of the Cadillac car. They also identified Bellande and Normandale as the parties in the Ford car who removed the mail from the church.

Bellande testified that he and Normandale had the Cadillac repaired as alleged, but stated that their purpose was to use it on an innocent mission. He also admitted that, as soon after the robbery as he learned that the car was broken down, he directed the man who had previously repaired it to remove it from the street. Before the repairman could...