Mount v. United States

• Decision Date: 09 November 1964
• Docket Number: No. 20167.,20167.
• Citation: 333 F.2d 39
• Parties: J. C. MOUNT and Burton Edward Ellis, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

333 F.2d 39 (1964)

J. C. MOUNT and Burton Edward Ellis, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 20167.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 18, 1964.

Rehearing Denied July 21, 1964.

Certiorari Denied November 9, 1964.

Charles W. Tessmer, Dallas, Tex., J. C. Mount, Fort Worth, Tex., for appellants.

Barefoot Sanders, U. S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., for appellee.

Before BROWN, WISDOM and BELL, Circuit Judges.

Certiorari Denied November 9, 1964. See 85 S.Ct. 188.

GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judge.

Mount and Ellis appeal from judgments of conviction entered on jury verdicts of guilty after a joint trial on a one count indictment charging a conspiracy against the laws of the United States consisting of an agreement to defraud by counterfeiting $100 Federal Reserve notes in violation of Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 471,¹ and to buy, sell, transfer, receive and deliver counterfeit $100 Federal Reserve notes with the intent that they be passed, published, and used as genuine in violation of Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 473.² They were alleged to have conspired in this regard with Harold Ainsworth, Gus Raymer and Robert L. Keller and the statement of facts will demonstrate the role of each. The conspiracy is alleged to have commenced on or about March 1, 1956 and continued until September 1, 1956.

The overt acts alleged included a conversation between Keller and Ainsworth in Fort Worth, Texas on March 1, 1956 concerning the acquisition of the counterfeit notes; a conversation on June 1, 1956 between Ainsworth and Raymer, a printer, in Odessa, Texas relating to the printing of the notes; and the printing by Raymer in Odessa, on or about June 30, 1956 of approximately $450,000 in counterfeit $100 notes which were delivered to Ainsworth. They also included a conversation on or about July 1, 1956 between Mount and Ellis, appellants here, and Ainsworth concerning monetary shortages in business enterprises in which Mount and Ellis had an interest; and a telephone conversation on August 20, 1956 between Ellis in Fort Worth and Ainsworth in Las Vegas, Nevada. The only material variance between the proof and the overt acts alleged is in the fact that the conversation between Mount, Ellis and Ainsworth took place at an earlier date and prior to the printing of the money.

The evidence as adduced on the trial, when considered in the light most favorable to support the verdict, Glasser v. United States, 1943, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680; Strauss v. United States, 5 Cir., 1963, 311 F.2d 926 is substantially as follows. A Texas Justice of the Peace investigated the crash of an airplane on August 5, 1956 in Nueces County, Texas. The bodies of the passengers in the plane, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Keller and Henry West, were found at the scene. Nine $100 bills and one $5.00 bill identified as having been on the person of Mr. Keller were found at the scene. Mr. Keller was a Fort Worth lawyer. The plane was headed for Monterey, Mexico. The $100 bills appeared genuine to the Justice of the Peace and to bank personnel in Corpus Christi and to an F.B.I. agent. Secret Service Agents and the Federal Reserve Bank in San Antonio identified the bills as being counterfeit. It is undisputed that they were a part of the batch made by Mr. Raymer, and here in issue.

Mr. Ainsworth testified that he was asked by Mr. Keller on March 1, 1956 to attempt to obtain $450,000 to $500,000 in counterfeit money for clients of his. Keller offered to pay $50,000 for the money and gave Ainsworth an advance of $500. The money was to be used to cover a shortage in an insurance company, and Mr. Keller stated that it would not be put in circulation. Mr. Ainsworth made contact with Gus Raymer, a printer in Odessa, and offered him $25,000 to print the money. Raymer refused and continued to refuse the assiduous and continuous requests of Ainsworth over a period of two to three weeks but was finally persuaded. Ainsworth obtained the necessary paper and either two or three new genuine $100 bills from Keller for Raymer.

This took place in April 1956 and about the middle of May Raymer reported to Ainsworth that he had started the job but had determined not to go through with it. This was reported by Ainsworth to Keller, who in turn told Ainsworth that he had some people he wanted him to meet. Keller made a telephone call in the presence of Ainsworth and asked for a person by the name of "J. C.", talked with that person and then told Ainsworth to go to Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth and ask for J. C. Mount.

Ainsworth proceeded to the Ridglea Country Club, asked for J. C. Mount, was shown to his table, and there met Mount and Burton Edward Ellis, the other appellant herein. Mount did most of the talking, explaining to Ainsworth that they were in a difficult position as to examinations coming up on Texas insurance companies, that they had assets but not in the form of cash, and that they needed some time. They stated to Ainsworth that they would appreciate any help or cooperation on his part through Keller to help them straighten out their difficulty. Counterfeiting as such was not mentioned.

Ainsworth then returned to Odessa and again contacted Raymer, but Raymer remained adamant in his refusal to print the money. This was reported to Keller who said he would send someone to Odessa to persuade Keller. Later that day J. C. Mount and Burton Edward Ellis arrived in Odessa by private plane. Ainsworth and Ellis went to see Raymer at his home where Ellis was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Raymer under another name. Ellis told Mr. Raymer that he needed the counterfeit money to cover a shortage in an insurance company but that it would not be placed in circulation. Ainsworth then took Mount and Ellis to the airport, and the next day again saw Raymer who agreed to go forward with the printing.

The job was finished during June 1956 and Ainsworth picked the money up late one night, offered to pay Raymer the $25,000, which was refused, returned to Fort Worth and turned the money over to Keller. The $25,000 was returned to Keller at the time save for $2,000 which Ainsworth kept for himself for expenses.

Ainsworth testified that he saw Mount and Ellis a considerable number of times during the summer of 1956, and that he received a telephone call from Ellis while in Las Vegas in August 1956. The substance of the call was a report from Ellis that some Federal people were inquiring around Fort Worth about some of the business that Ainsworth had with Keller and that "the business" had been found in an airplane that Keller was killed in. Ellis sought the advice of Ainsworth as to what they should do with "it". Ainsworth told him that it should be burned. He immediately returned by automobile to Fort Worth, and there met Mount who stated that the business that had been discussed over the telephone between Ainsworth and Ellis "was all taken care of".

Raymer substantiated the testimony of Ainsworth and added that Ellis was introduced to him at his home as Bill Edwards. He made a deliberate error in the counterfeiting in that the serial numbers were not lined up in the normal way. He had burned the plates which had been used to print the money. He identified the nine $100 bills taken from the body of Keller as being of the group made by him. Mrs. Raymer testified that she heard Ellis ask Mr. Raymer to print the counterfeit notes.

There was other testimony regarding $47,000 in counterfeit $100 bills out of this same batch being found in or near a creek bed in the vicinity of Weatherford, Texas, some fifty miles from Fort Worth. Most of it was found by a farmer who turned it in to a bank. Some of these bills showed evidence of an attempted burning.³ Ainsworth testified that he had another conversation with Mount in November 1956 at the Ridglea Country Club wherein he asked Mount if the money that was found near Weatherford, the finding of which had been publicized, had any relation to what he said he had burned. Mr. Mount replied that it did and that he had not had time to burn it all and that he had taken it and buried it in a tree near Weatherford.

A Secret Service Agent testified in regard to an interview which he had with Mount on August 17, 1956 at the Guaranty Abstract Company in Fort Worth. Mr. Mount was president of the company and Keller was its secretary and treasurer. Mount stated to him that Keller formerly had an office at the abstract company but had moved. They were business associates because of Keller having helped Mount purchase the company.

There was other testimony with regard to a fire in the office of Mount on August 20, 1956. The fire was discovered because of smoke entering a shoe store under the office of Mount and someone in the shoe store sounded the alarm. Mount met the fire captain when the engine arrived at the premises and told him he had had a fire in a wastebasket which caused the smoke but that the fire was out. The fire captain went into Mount's office and noticed that the wastebasket was covered with a coat, but he did not remove the coat or in any way examine the contents of the wastebasket.

Mr. Mount, a former lawyer, represented himself on the trial while Mr. Ellis was represented by counsel of his choice. Their briefs on appeal are filed jointly, and assign a multitude of errors, some of which are worthy of more than per curiam consideration. In passing, and by way of elimination, we may say that one that does not rise to this level is based on the contention that the court erred in failing to grant motions for judgments of acquittal. A mere reading of the statement of facts demonstrates the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant convictions. The others, in the main, consist of questions involving the admissibility of evidence, errors of omission and commission in the charge, claimed misconduct on the part of the prosecutor in the trial, and whether the court erred in failing to dismiss the indictment or in the imposition of...