Lile v. United States

• Decision Date: 31 October 1958
• Docket Number: No. 15808.,15808.
• Citation: 264 F.2d 278
• Parties: Thomas R. LILE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

264 F.2d 278 (1958)

Thomas R. LILE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 15808.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

September 2, 1958.

Rehearing Denied October 31, 1958.

Taylor & Taylor, Fairbanks, Alaska, Richard A. Haley, Hollywood, Cal., Thomas R. Lile, in pro. per., San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

George M. Yeager, U. S. Atty., Jay A. Rabinowitz, Asst. U. S. Atty., Fairbanks, Alaska, for appellee.

Before HEALY and FEE, Circuit Judges, and JAMES M. CARTER, District Judge.

JAMES ALGER FEE, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Lile was indicted with other persons for the crime of conspiracy. The charge of the indictment is set out in full as follows:

"That John David Whiles, Thomas B. Morgan, Paul Ferguson, and Joe White, also known as Thomas Robert Lile, on or about the 20th day of August, 1954, did feloniously conspire to commit an offense against the laws of the United States, to-wit, did conspire to transport, in interstate commerce, stolen property and things of the value of more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), in violation of Section 2314 of Title 18 of the United States Code, and one or more of such defendants did, in the Fourth Judicial Division, District of Alaska, an act to effect the object of the conspiracy, to-wit, did transport from Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Fourth Judicial Division, District of Alaska, to Seattle, Washington, said stolen property and things of the value of more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), knowing said property and things to have been stolen, in violation of Section 371 of Title 18 of the United States Code."

Defendant Ferguson entered a plea of guilty in California, pursuant to Rule 20, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C. Lile and Morgan went on trial in Alaska and were convicted by verdict of a jury. Judgment was entered, and a sentence of one year, together with a fine of $300 and one-half the costs of trial, was imposed upon Lile. The sentence of Lile was suspended, and he was placed on probation from the imprisonment. Motion for new trial was then denied, and Lile alone appealed.

The proof showed that Morgan, Whiles and Ferguson drove to Alaska in a car purchased by the former. Lile gave Morgan $500 at the time of the purchase and $100.00 additional to pay for the trip when the three above named drove to Yosemite Park to consult with Lile before departure for Alaska. According to the plan, to which all agreed, these three were to go to Fairbanks and acquire a pick-up truck. The government contends that the purpose of acquiring the truck was to haul back black market gold. The evidence indicates that there was a criminal purpose in the trip, which Lile knew of and to accomplish which he contributed money. However, defendants were not indicted for such a crime. The enterprise was not consummated, apparently because the three failed to acquire the pick-up truck in Fairbanks. Morgan then called up Lile and told him the pick-up truck could not be located, and the original scheme was then abandoned. Morgan and Whiles decided to return to Los Angeles. Thereafter, Ferguson, and perhaps Morgan, stole some diamond and other rings from a store in Fairbanks. The three then decided to fly with the rings to Seattle, Washington. In accordance with this design, transportation by air was obtained. The boxes in which the rings were contained were discarded and the objects were fastened on a string, which Morgan carried inside his trousers. Before they left Fairbanks, none of these three communicated to Lile either that they had stolen the rings or that they were bringing them to Seattle. While in Fairbanks, Morgan sent a telegram to Lile in San Francisco asking for $400.

The goods thus stolen were transported in interstate commerce to Seattle, and the overt act charged in the indictment was thus committed. There was the testimony of Douglas O. Maddux, owner of the jewelry store at Fairbanks, from which the rings were stolen, that the cost price was $4,300 or $5,300, and that the market value of the rings was just about double the cost and would have been in retail a good $8,000. There was some corroboration of this value in the reports which he gave to officers at the time of the robbery. There were stolen more than eighty-three individual rings, or forty sets of rings, consisting of wedding bands, diamond engagement and dinner rings. Whiles, one of the three original conspirators, testified that in Fairbanks Ferguson called off the numbers which were written on the price tags of these rings and Whiles wrote them down. As well as he could remember, the total was $5,120 or $5,210 or $5,220. Afterward, the rings, recaptured at Los Angeles, were of a much less value than $5,000. However, it is a certainty that all the rings were not recovered, and some rings which were found with those stolen could not be identified.

From this record, the jury could have found that Morgan, Ferguson and Whiles entered into a conspiracy to transport in interstate commerce these rings, which were stolen property, and things of value of more than $5,000, and that one or more of these three committed the overt act charged and transported such property from Fairbanks to Seattle. By their verdict, the jury found all these essential elements against Morgan. And they also found each of these against Lile.

But, before these findings would permit the conviction of Lile, two other cardinal facts must have been proved. First, it must have been shown that the conspiracy continued in existence after Morgan, Whiles, Ferguson and the rings arrived in Seattle. Second, it must have been proved that, during a period while the original conspiracy was in existence, Lile became a knowing and willful participant in the original criminal combination and acted in concert with the three to accomplish the illegal design.

The proof established beyond a reasonable doubt that the three original conspirators went in an automobile from Seattle, Washington, to San Francisco, California, and then flew to Los Angeles. A number, but not all, of the rings stolen were found in the hands of one Abe Martini in Los Angeles. It may well have been found that the original criminal design encompassed the transportation of the rings to Los Angeles, from whence the three conspirators had originally set out and where Morgan and Whiles had homes. Thus the conspiracy was proven to have existed until the arrest of Morgan on September 9, 1954, and the recapture of some of the rings on that day.

We have only then to deal with the question of the participancy of Lile at a time before the conspiracy had ended. It must, of course, be established that he had...