United States v. Baltrunas, 204-69.

• Decision Date: 10 October 1969
• Docket Number: No. 204-69.,204-69.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stanley BALTRUNAS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

416 F.2d 401 (1969)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stanley BALTRUNAS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 204-69.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

October 10, 1969.

William D. Goodbar, Colorado Springs, Colo., for defendant-appellant.

Leonard Campbell, Asst. U. S. Atty., Denver, Colo. (James L. Treece, U. S. Atty., Denver, Colo., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, BREITENSTEIN and HICKEY, Circuit Judges.

HICKEY, Circuit Judge.

This is a direct appeal by appellant Baltrunas from a jury conviction of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641, sale of government property.

Baltrunas presents three issues for review:

(1) The sufficiency of the evidence.

(2) Error in the instructions given the jury.

(3) Erroneously admitted evidence offered pursuant to the shop book rule under 28 U.S.C. § 1732 or § 1733.

Baltrunas is a civil servant employed as a locksmith at the Ft. Carson military installation near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The facts disclose that a combination safe located in the pharmacy department of the hospital became inoperable because of a defect in the combination lock. Military procurement procedures were instituted late in 1967 which culminated in the purchase of a new combination lock from Henley, who operates a key service shop in Colorado Springs. The new lock was received by Henley on January 16, 1968 and was picked up on that date and ultimately, through channels, delivered to Baltrunas for installation at the pharmacy lab. The records indicate that the installation started on January 18, 1968, and on January 23, 1968, the job was inspected and accepted. The government paid Henley $120.00 for the lock on February 19, 1968, from appropriated government funds.

On September 21, 1968, Baltrunas, with his son, appeared at the Henley Key Shop in Colorado Springs and offered to sell two locks for $15.00. Henley, the proprietor, purchased the locks. He subsequently examined one lock and found an identifying mark made by him at the time he initially sold the lock to the government. The identification prompted him to conclude that he had repurchased the lock delivered to the government on January 16, 1968. He notified the military procurement personnel and later delivered the lock to the F.B.I.

An investigation disclosed that the lock on the safe in the pharmacy had not been replaced, but instead had been repaired. The records disclosed Baltrunas had received the lock for replacement on January 18, 1968.

Baltrunas was arrested and an information was filed charging him with selling without authority a combination safe lock, property of the United States of a value in excess of $100.00.

At the trial Baltrunas admitted receiving the lock and repairing the safe in the pharmacy, however, he testified that he had disassembled the lock and used parts of it to repair three separate locks at the military installation including the pharmacy safe. He testified the locks sold to Henley were locks he brought from St. Louis some seven or eight years before which had been surplus in a private shop he operated there. His son corroborated the St. Louis story and admitted being with his father at the time of sale to Henley.

A jury convicted Baltrunas and found...