U.S. v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 12 May 1975
• Docket Number: No. 74-1913,74-1913
• Citation: 516 F.2d 913
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Theodore EDWARDS, Jr., and Richard J. Bates, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 913

516 F.2d 913

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Theodore EDWARDS, Jr., and Richard J. Bates, Appellants.

No. 74-1913.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted April 15, 1975.

Decided May 12, 1975.

Lawrence J. Fleming, St. Louis, Mo., for appellants.

Richard Heidenry, Asst. U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for appellee.

Before MATTHES, Senior Circuit Judge, and ROSS and WEBSTER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This case is here on an appeal by Theodore Edwards, Jr., and Richard J. Bates from their conviction following a bench trial of violating 18 U.S.C. § 2314. Judge Wangelin, the trial judge, filed extensive findings of fact and a memorandum opinion, which are reported at 394 F.Supp. 1288 (E.D.Mo.1974). We have reviewed the transcript of the evidence with painstaking care and are satisfied that Judge Wangelin's findings reflect the relevant facts. We therefore adopt those findings.

The statute under which appellants were prosecuted provides in pertinent part:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transports or causes to be transported, or induces any person to travel in, or to be transported in interstate commerce in the execution or concealment of a scheme or artifice to defraud that person of money or property having a value of $5,000 or more; * * *

Shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

The essential elements of the offense are (1) the devising of a scheme or artifice to defraud or obtain money by false pretenses or representations and (2) causing or inducing an intended victim to travel in interstate commerce with intent to defraud that person of money or property having a value of $5,000 or more. United States v. Scoratow, 434 F.2d 1288 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 955, 91 S.Ct. 976, 28 L.Ed.2d 239 (1971); United States v. Reina, 446 F.2d 16, 17 (9th Cir. 1971). The Reina court observed that cases under the Mail Fraud Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1341, which prohibits the devising of a scheme or artifice to defraud and use the mails in connection therewith, support this conclusion. See the cases cited at 446 F.2d 18. Although the facts are delineated in the district court's findings, we review them briefly because of the claim of appellants that the Government's evidence failed to bring the case within the provisions of § 2314.

The evidence showed that in accordance with arrangements made in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Herbert Siebels, the victim of the fraudulent scheme, was taken by appellants in a rented automobile to the bank in Bloomsdale, Missouri, on or about June 2, 1972. Siebels purchased a cashier's check at the bank with funds drawn from his checking account. Apparently, Siebels was induced to withdraw the $15,000 by reason of a wager by a companion of appellants, one Johnnie Lee Oliver, to pay Siebels $1,000 if Siebels could obtain $15,000 from his bank.

After obtaining the $15,000 cashier's check, appellants transported Siebels to East St. Louis, Illinois, in the Edwards automobile. There they met Oliver, who insisted that Siebels would not win the bet unless he actually produced $15,000 in cash. This was accomplished by the appellants taking Siebels in the Edwards automobile from East St. Louis, Illinois, to the First National Bank in St. Louis, Missouri, where Siebels cashed the cashier's check and obtained $15,000 in currency. Siebels was then transported back to East St. Louis, where appella...