People v. Quintana
Decision Date | 15 September 1975 |
Docket Number | No. 26181,26181 |
Citation | 189 Colo. 330,540 P.2d 1097 |
Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert QUINTANA, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
J. D. MacFarlane, Atty. Gen., Edward G. Donovan, Sol. Gen., John P. Moore, Atty. Gen., John E. Bush, Deputy Atty. Gen., James W. Wilson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dale Tooley, Dist. Atty., Brooke Wunnicke, Chief App. Deputy Dist. Atty., Denver, for plaintiff-appellee.
Flynn Kimerer, Thinnes & Galbraith, John J. Flynn, Tom Galbraith, Phoenix, Ariz., Dennis Blewitt, Denver, for defendant-appellant.
This opinion is announced simultaneously with People v. Ciari, Colo., 540 P.2d 1097 and People v. Broncucia, Colo., 540 P.2d 1101.
The defendant was convicted of perjury and conspiracy to commit perjury. He and Ciari were tried together. The filed separate appeals and, while these were consolidated for oral argument, we write separate opinions. We affirm.
The gist of the evidence against the defendant is: that the defendant and others agreed to testify falsely at an extradition hearing of one Griswold; that extradition of Griswold was sought by Nevada on criminal charges resulting from an alleged 'diamond switch' there committed by Griswold; that, in exchange for defendant's testimony, Griswold agreed to testify at an apparently unrelated hearing involving the defendant; that Quintana met with Griswold, Tomeo, and several other alleged conspirators before the extradition hearing; and that contacts between them continued up to the time of that hearing.
Defendant's major contention is that there was a variance between the charge contained in the indictment and the proof. He asserts that although one conspiracy, involving all the alleged perjurers, was charged, the prosecution proved at least four conspiracies, only one of which involved the defendant. He contends that this variance resulted in prejudice to him. Although the evidence would have been admissible in the proof of a single conspiracy, at least some of the evidence would have been inadmissible in the proof of multiple conspiracies. He relies upon Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).
The conspiracy in Kotteakos was interpreted to be a 'wheel,' or 'spoke' conspiracy. One Brown applied for loans under the National Housing Act on behalf of several individuals who did not know or have any contact with one another. The court found that, though only one conspiracy was charged, eight separate conspiracies with similar objects were made out by the evidence. The court speaking of Kotteakos in a later case stated:
Blumenthal v. United States, 332 U.S. 539, 68 S.Ct. 248, 92 L.Ed. 154 (1947).
The facts of the instant case are otherwise. Although this too is clearly a spoke conspiracy, that fact does not preclude the finding of one conspiracy. See W. LaFave and A. Scott, Criminal Law § 62 (1972). Here, there was a single overall plan with a common object--to prevent the extradition of Griswold. The success or failure of the conspiracy depended upon the successful linkage of each member's testimony. The perjury of one person was not and could not have been an end in itself as in Kotteakos, supra.
The trial court, in this case, considered Kotteakos, but found that the testimony was sufficient to establish circumstantially a single conspiracy to commit perjury involving all these defendants. See also People v. Incerto, 180 Colo. 366, 505 P.2d 1309 (1973).
The defendant stresses that he was unfamiliar with Ciari's testimony, and that he did not meet all the alleged co-conspirators. This alone does not merit a reversal of the trial court's finding of one conspiracy. The United States Supreme Court in Blumenthal v. United States, supra, stated:
See also, United States v. Jackson, 482 F.2d 1167, Cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1159, 94 S.Ct. 918, 39 L.Ed.2d 111 (1973); and Anderson v. Superior Court, 78 Cal.App.2d 22, 177 P.2d 315 (1947).
In our view there was no fatal variance.
Defendant next argues that he was...
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...recordings, and its finding will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of a clearly insufficient foundation. People v. Quintana, 189 Colo. 330, 540 P.2d 1097 (1975); Sandoval v. People, 172 Colo. 383, 473 P.2d 722 The petitioner's second argument concerning the tape recordings is that......
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