Linde v. United States

• Decision Date: 12 April 1926
• Docket Number: No. 7025.,7025.
• Citation: 13 F.2d 59
• Parties: LINDE et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

13 F.2d 59 (1926)

LINDE et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 7025.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

April 12, 1926.

William G. Rice, of Deadwood, S. D. (Charles J. Buell, of Rapid City, S. D., J. S. Wishart, of Deadwood, S. D., Harry P. Atwater, of Sturgis, S. D., and Philip E. Winter, of Casper, Wyo., on the brief), for plaintiffs in error.

P. J. Tscharner, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Rapid City, S. D. (S. W. Clark, U. S. Atty., of Redfield, S. D., and E. D. Barron, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Sioux Falls, S. D., on the brief), for the United States.

Before KENYON and VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judges, and YOUMANS, District Judge.

VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge.

Julius E. Linde, Karl Winter and Grant O. Brown were indicted in the district of South Dakota for having conspired together and with divers other persons to the grand jurors unknown to commit acts made an offense against the United States by the Act of Congress of October 29, 1919, commonly known as the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, §§ 10418b-10418f), and all acts amendatory thereof; that is to say: "That they, the said Julius Linde, Karl Winter, and Grant O. Brown, should and would then and thereafter wrongfully, unlawfully, and feloniously receive, conceal, store, barter, sell, and dispose of, and cause to be received, concealed, stored, bartered, sold, and disposed of, certain motor vehicles which had been transported in interstate commerce to and into the state and district of South Dakota, and within the Western division thereof, which certain motor vehicles had theretofore been stolen, and the said defendants, Julius Linde, Karl Winter, and Grant O. Brown, or one or more of them, would receive, conceal, store, barter, sell, and dispose of, and cause to be received, concealed, stored, bartered, sold, and disposed of, the said motor vehicles which had been so stolen and driven and transported in interstate commerce to and into the city of Rapid City, in the county of Pennington, in the state and district of South Dakota, and in the Western division thereof."

Thereafter in the indictment followed a detailed statement of the overt acts alleged to have been done in pursuance of and to effect the object and purpose of this conspiracy. The trial resulted in a conviction of all the defendants. Upon the defendants Linde and Brown was imposed a sentence of fine in the sum of $1,000 and imprisonment in the penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., for a period of two years, and upon the defendant Winter imprisonment for a period of two years, the same to run concurrently with a like term of imprisonment imposed upon this defendant under a previous conviction for a substantive offense.

The facts and circumstances involved in the conspiracy are, in large measure, set out in our opinion in cause No. 7024 (13 F.2d 53), decided at this term, in which the said Karl E. Winter was plaintiff in error and the United States defendant in error, reference to which is hereby made. Briefly, one William Dilger, real estate dealer at Rapid City, S. D., one Clarence Bordwell, formerly of Denver, Colo., and one Dell Willis, of Sioux City, Iowa, are shown by the record to have made an arrangement to bring stolen automobiles from the states of Iowa, Minnesota, and elsewhere, into the state of South Dakota, and more particularly to Rapid City and its vicinity, there to be received, sold, and disposed of in violation of this federal statute. The defendant Karl Winter, as shown by the evidence, was a party to this plan, and was to be one of the active agents in receiving and disposing of such stolen cars. Some others were probably connected with this unlawful confederation. Dilger, Bordwell, Willis, and one George McCoy, a garage man, had already pleaded guilty to this conspiracy charged under another indictment, and were serving sentences in the penitentiary as a result thereof. The defendant Winter had already been convicted of the substantive offense of receiving one of these cars, and that judgment of conviction has now been affirmed by this court.

In this indictment Linde, Brown, and Winter alone are named. It would appear that at the time it was returned the full scope of the conspiracy was not fully known; but in the indictment others, whose names were to the grand jurors unknown, were alleged to be parties to this conspiracy. One of the main assignments of error is that the evidence was insufficient to connect these three defendants with the conspiracy, and with knowledge that the stolen cars involved were, or were to be, transported in interstate commerce. With respect to the defendants Linde and Brown we think the point is well taken. A careful consideration of the entire record convinces us that it fails to disclose any further connection with the scheme, although the existence of such a scheme and plan is abundantly established, than the receipt of a car by each of these defendants for personal use, and without proof of knowledge of the interstate...