Crawford v. United States, 5584.
| Decision Date | 14 March 1947 |
| Docket Number | No. 5584.,5584. |
| Citation | 160 F.2d 629 |
| Parties | CRAWFORD et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Arthur E. Smith, of Roanoke, Va. (Mosby J. Williams, of Roanoke, Va., on the brief), for appellants.
R. Roy Rush, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Roanoke, Va. (Howard C. Gilmer, Jr., Acting U. S. Atty., of Pulaski, Va., on the brief), for appellee.
Before PARKER, SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
Appellants Crawford and Horne were convicted in the court below of the crimes of concealment and removal of distilled spirits, on which the tax had not been paid, in violation of the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. 26 U.S. C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2913. The questions raised by the appeal are the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction and the validity of the search of the person of Crawford and the house of Horne. We think that there is no substantial merit in any of the points raised.
Crawford and Horne, both of whom had a reputation known to the revenue officers for dealing in liquor and had been convicted on prior occasions, lived in a four room house belonging to Horne in the country near Roanoke, Virginia. Acting on complaints that whiskey was being sold at this place, officers concealed themselves near the house and kept it under observation for a period of about two and a half hours. During this time, they observed eight automobiles approach the place and drive away after their occupants had had some sort of dealings with the defendants. In the course of these dealings one or the other of the defendants was seen each time to leave the house and go towards a nearby place in the woods, at which liquor was later found buried in the ground in a fruit jar near holes from which fruit jars had obviously been removed a short while before. One of the persons who came by automobile to the house, a sailor, was seen to leave it carrying a bottle containing a liquid of some sort.
After the officers had had the place under observation for about two and a half hours, dogs began to bark and the two defendants emerged from the house armed with shotguns. When Crawford approached the place where two of the officers were concealed, they arose from their place of concealment, declared that they were federal officers and ordered him to drop his gun. Crawford stopped but did not drop the gun, whereupon the officers approached him and one seized the gun and the other a pistol which he had in his pocket. One of the officers...
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