McClain v. United States

• Decision Date: 30 June 1955
• Docket Number: No. 15195.,15195.
• Citation: 224 F.2d 522
• Parties: Elijah McCLAIN and Margie Mae McClain, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

224 F.2d 522 (1955)

Elijah McCLAIN and Margie Mae McClain, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 15195.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 30, 1955.

Ernest D. Jackson, Sr., Jacksonville, Fla., for appellants.

Thomas A. Larkin, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., James L. Guilmartin, U. S. Atty., for appellee.

Before TUTTLE, Circuit Judge, and DAWKINS and SIMPSON, District Judges.

SIMPSON, District Judge.

On the morning of February 23, 1953, Detective Sergeant Runyon and uniform Sergeant Anderson of the Jacksonville, Florida Police Department, visited the home of Elijah McClain, also known as Lige McClain, and Margie Mae McClain, his wife, in the sparsely settled northwest section of that city. Elijah was sitting on his back porch, and gave the officers permission to look around his yard and inside his house. No one else was there. The officers found nothing of interest, but noticed a dark blue 1940 Mercury sedan parked just off the dirt street behind Elijah's house.

In the early afternoon of the same day, the same two officers were patrolling north on Moncrief Avenue, near 15th Street in a Chevrolet police cruiser, with Anderson driving and Runyon as front seat passenger. This location is in the northwest section of the city, but considerably closer to downtown than the McClain home, and Moncrief Avenue is a main arterial street leading to the outskirts of the city. Here they met and recognized Elijah McClain driving south in the blue Mercury seen earlier in the day. Both officers recognized car and driver. Anderson recognized McClain's wife, Margie Mae McClain as being in the right front seat, and noticed that there was a third person in the car, seated either on the front seat also or on the rear seat. Runyon noticed that there were other persons in the car but did not, at this time, know their identity.

Traffic was light and the police car made an immediate U-turn and followed the Mercury south, about a block to halfblock behind, at the same speed, but keeping the Mercury always in sight. At first, the Mercury was travelling slowly, but soon speeded up, to the extent that the officers decided to make a speeding or reckless driving arrest, but first to continue observation of the car and its occupants (actually no traffic arrest was ever made). After proceeding 10 or 12 blocks, the Mercury suddenly turned off into a side street, further increased speed, and began turning at each corner, circling and back-tracking over unpaved streets.

Alas, for Elijah, and alike alack, his steed, to his misfortune, was Mercury in name, but not in fact, and proved no match for the doughty police Chevrolet in pursuit. Further, Elijah possessed none of the miraculous powers of his illustrious namesake, so stirringly recounted in Kings and Chronicles.

Shortly, with the police car gaining steadily, and now almost on top of the Mercury, the Mercury slowed suddenly in the sand ruts of an unpaved street, and its occupants speedily abandoned ship. Margie Mae McClain and one Peter Thornton fell or jumped out the right side of the Mercury. Officer Runyon alighted and collared Peter Thornton and when Margie Mae stumbled and fell in the sand he apprehended her also. If Elijah was without miracles, he was not without speedy foot and stout wind, and in about a block through backyards, under clotheslines and over fences, he outdistanced and eluded Sergeant Anderson, who had taken out after him. Anderson gave up the chase and rejoined Runyon. The officers found two 5-gallon jugs filled with non-tax-paid moonshine whiskey between the front and rear seats of the Mercury. One jug was covered with a burlap bag and one was in plain view. A check of the records showed the Mercury registered to one Henry Williams at a different address than Elijah McClain's, and Henry was never found.

A few days later, Internal Revenue Agents "adopted" the case, Elijah McClain being arrested on a Commissioner's warrant. The three occupants were indicted and went to trial before a jury in the Court below on pleas of not guilty to a 1-count indictment, charging each with possession of the contraband whiskey, in violation of Title 26 U.S.C.A. § 2803(a).¹ The government proof was substantially as above set forth, and at the close of the government's case, and again at the close of all the evidence, motions for judgment of acquittal by each of the McClains were denied by the District Judge.

Elijah's defense was a denial of presence in the Mercury car and denial of possession or any knowledge of the moonshine whiskey. Margie Mae took the stand and accounted for her presence in the car by stating that it was driven by Henry Williams, that she and Peter Thornton bought vienna sausage and a loaf of bread at the market at Moncrief Avenue and 8th Street (a point between 15th and Moncrief, where the officers spotted the car, and 4th and Johnson Streets, where the chase ended); she testified she and Thornton entered the front seat of the car at that point, being picked up by Henry Williams; she denied connection with, or knowledge concerning the moonshine whiskey in the Mercury, asserting that she had no occasion to look in the tonneau of the car.

The officers, in rebuttal, testified that the Mercury made no intermediate stops after they...