United States v. Edwards, 24399.

• Decision Date: 02 February 1970
• Docket Number: No. 24399.,24399.
• Citation: 421 F.2d 1346
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Tommie EDWARDS, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

421 F.2d 1346 (1970)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Tommie EDWARDS, Appellant.

No. 24399.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

February 2, 1970.

Michael A. Bosco, Jr. (argued), Phoenix, Ariz., for appellant.

Joe Jenckes (argued), Daniel R. Salcito, Asst. U. S. Attys., Richard K. Burke, U. S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., for appellee.

Before BARNES, CARTER and HUFSTEDLER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant appeals from a conviction for violating the Dyer Act (18 U.S.C. § 2312). He contends that the District Court erred in denying, in part, his motion to exclude evidence illegally obtained and that the admissible evidence was inadequate to sustain his conviction.

On March 4, 1968, two police officers observed a Chevrolet automobile with Mississippi license plates parked off the highway in an uninhabited area within the city limits of Flagstaff, Arizona. The time was 2 o'clock in the morning. The windows of the automobile were rolled up, and the engine was running. The officers saw appellant and another man asleep in the car. Officer Stamper awakened appellant by rapping on the window. Appellant said that he owned the car and that his name was "Marion Stephens." He showed Officer Stamper a driver's license bearing that name, but the description of the licensee did not resemble appellant. Stamper asked appellant for his registration slip. As appellant leafed through his wallet, Stamper saw a black plate that looked like a vehicle identification number plate. Stamper asked if he might see the plate, and appellant gave it to him. Appellant could not produce a registration slip, but he handed Stamper a document purporting to be a bill of sale. That document contained an identification number that matched the number on the black plate, but it did not match the identification number on the doorpost of the car. Stamper asked appellant to sign his name on a note pad. Appellant did so. The signature was dissimilar to the signature on the driver's license. Stamper radioed for a check on the Mississippi license plates on the Chevrolet and on the vehicle identification numbers. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, a teletype reply to the license plates inquiry was relayed to Stamper indicating that the plates belonged to a Volkswagen registered to "A. A. Jones." Officer Stamper placed appellant under arrest for vagrancy and, for the first time, gave him the Miranda warning.

The following day appellant pleaded guilty to the vagrancy charge and was sentenced to fifteen days in jail. On the same day, in response to the earlier teletype, Flagstaff police received information that the Chevrolet had been stolen in Mississippi.

On March 11, 1968, the Flagstaff police gave Agent Lescoe of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the driver's license, black plate, bill of sale, and the teletypes. Agent Lescoe personally verified the information about the license plates and the Chevrolet identification number by inspecting the impounded automobile. He transmitted the remaining information for investigation to the Bureau. He twice interviewed appellant in the city jail. On both occasions he fully advised appellant in accordance with the Miranda rule. Appellant refused to sign the written waiver form offered him on each occasion. But appellant talked to Agent Lescoe. He told Agent Lescoe that his real name was Tommie Edwards, that he had bought the Chevrolet from W. C. Motors, Columbus, Mississippi, for $1600 cash, that he had drawn from his savings account at the Commercial National Bank there. The Bureau checked his story and reported to Agent Lescoe that no motor company of that name existed in Mississippi. The Flagstaff police...