Miller v. United States, 11958.

• Decision Date: 03 January 1944
• Docket Number: No. 11958.,11958.
• Citation: 138 F.2d 258
• Parties: MILLER v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

138 F.2d 258 (1943)

MILLER v. UNITED STATES.

No. 11958.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

October 21, 1943.

Writ of Certiorari Denied January 3, 1944.

Ben Shaver and Bert B. Larey, both of Texarkana, Ark., for appellant, Jessie William Miller.

Clinton R. Barry, U. S. Atty., of Ft. Smith, Ark., for appellee, United States.

Before WOODROUGH, THOMAS and JOHNSEN, Circuit Judges.

Writ of Certiorari Denied January 3, 1944. See 64 S.Ct. 429.

THOMAS, Circuit Judge.

At this time the only question presented in this case is whether there was evidence to support appellant's conviction. All other questions heretofore submitted have been determined.¹ He was indicted, tried and convicted for the crime of kidnaping under the Lindbergh Law, 18 U.S.C.A. § 408a, Act of June 22, 1932, as amended by the Act of May 18, 1934, Ch. 301, 48 Stat. 781.

The pertinent part of the statute reads:

"Whoever shall knowingly transport or cause to be transported, or aid or abet in transporting, in interstate or foreign commerce, any person who shall have been unlawfully seized, confined, inveigled, decoyed, kidnaped, abducted, or carried away by any means whatsoever and held for ransom or reward or otherwise * * * shall, upon conviction, be punished * * *."

The indictment charged that the appellant and his wife, Artilla Miller, kidnaped and abducted Dorthie Crawford Garner, then residing near DeQueen, Arkansas, by falsely representing to her that her grandfather, residing near Trenton, Texas, was seriously ill and wanted to see her; that defendants thereby persuaded Dorthie to accompany them from DeQueen to a point near McKinney, Texas, for the purpose of forcing her to labor for them; and that they forced her by means of threats and beatings to continue in servitude against her will from August 28, 1939, until February 29, 1940, when she escaped.

The reporter who took the stenographic notes of the testimony adduced at the trial has furnished the appellant without cost a complete transcript of his notes, and a bill of exceptions consisting of 682 type-written pages has been certified and filed.

The record shows that at the close of the evidence the appellant moved for a directed verdict on the ground that there was no substantial evidence of guilt. The court overruled the motion; and an exception thereto is the basis of this appeal. The indictment is not assailed; and there is no question about the transportation in interstate commerce. The appellant admitted that he carried Dorthie (called Dorothy in the testimony and hereinafter) in his automobile from Arkansas into Texas. The controversy is whether he unlawfully decoyed her away from her home and forced her to work in Texas.

In reviewing, on appeal, after a verdict of guilty has been returned by the jury an order overruling a motion for a directed verdict, we are required to consider the evidence in its aspect most favorable to the government. Walker v. United States, 8 Cir., 93 F.2d 383, 392, certiorari denied 303 U.S. 644, 58 S.Ct. 642, 82 L.Ed. 1103; Firotto v. United States, 8 Cir., 124 F.2d 532, 533; Culp v. United States, 8 Cir., 131 F.2d 93, 100. We neither weigh the conflicting evidence nor consider the denials of the defendant. Burton v. United States, 202 U.S. 344, 26 S.Ct. 688, 50 L.Ed. 1057, 6 Ann.Cas. 362.

The evidence discloses that Dorothy Crawford Garner is the illegitimate daughter of Artilla Crawford Miller. When Dorothy was about 18 months of age her mother married the appellant, Jessie William Miller. Dorothy was reared in the home of her grandfather at Trenton, Texas, except for a period of four years when she was at an orphans' home. In September, 1936, when Dorothy was 14 or 15 years of age she, with the consent of her mother, married Will Garner. Thereafter she lived with her husband on a farm about seven miles from DeQueen, Arkansas, at which place she was residing in August, 1939. At that time she had a baby a little less than a year old. In the early summer of that year she had visited her grandfather, who was then ill, at his home in Trenton, Texas.

Artilla Miller and the appellant with their three children lived in Texas. Their only home was an automobile and trailer. During the cotton picking seasons of 1937, 1938, and 1939, they went about from farm to farm picking cotton on contract at about 60 to 65 cents per hundred weight. In the latter part of the month of August, 1939, the appellant Miller had procured one or more contracts with farmers to pick cotton. On the evening of August 27th appellant with his wife and children left the trailer at a farm on which he had a contract to pick cotton near McKinney, Texas, and drove in his automobile approximately 200 miles to the home of Dorothy Garner in Arkansas, where they arrived about 4:00 o'clock on the morning of August 28th.

The first contention of the appellant is that the evidence of what occurred upon their arrival is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury that appellant decoyed or inveigled Dorothy, or aided or abetted in decoying Dorothy, to return to Texas with them. Upon this point there is the testimony only of Dorothy and her husband, Will Garner, and of the appellant and his wife Artilla. Their testimony is consistent that upon the arrival of the automobile in front of the house the Garners were not up and that it was still dark. Miller sounded the horn on his car, and a light soon appeared in the house. Artilla went immediately into the house and the appellant followed at a distance of 50 to 75 feet behind her. Dorothy testified on direct:

"Q. How did you come to leave with them? A. My mother said that my grandfather...