United States v. Mims

• Decision Date: 26 February 1965
• Docket Number: No. 14753.,14753.
• Citation: 340 F.2d 851
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Haney MIMS, also known as Big Red, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

340 F.2d 851 (1965)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Haney MIMS, also known as Big Red, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 14753.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

February 2, 1965.

Rehearing Denied February 26, 1965.

Ellis E. Reid, Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

Edward V. Hanrahan, U. S. Atty., Arthur L. Dunne, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chicago, Ill., John Peter Lulinski, John Powers Crowley, Asst. U. S. Attys., of counsel, for appellee.

Before CASTLE, Acting Chief Judge, KILEY, Circuit Judge, and MERCER, District Judge.

CASTLE, Acting Chief Judge.

Haney Mims, the defendant-appellant, was convicted, following a trial before the court without a jury, on a multiple count indictment charging the unlawful sale, and the unlawful receipt, concealment etc., of a narcotic drug on designated separate occasions, in violation of 26 U.S.C.A. § 4705(a) and 21 U.S.C.A. § 174, respectively. He was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of ten years as a second or subsequent offender.

The main contested issue presented by the defendant's appeal concerns the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.

It is well established that in resolving the issue of sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction we must, at the appellate level, view the evidence and the reasonable inferences which may be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the government. Conflicts in the evidence are for resolution by the trier of the facts — as are determinations of credibility. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680.

The sentence imposed on the defendant was a general one and the penalty does not exceed that prescribed for any one count. Consequently, if the evidence is sufficient to support a conviction on any one of the several counts the conviction must be affirmed. United States v. Cephas, 7 Cir., 263 F.2d 518; Cf. United States v. Gibas, 7 Cir., 300 F.2d 836, 840-841; United States v. Cioffi, 2 Cir., 253 F.2d 494, 496. In view of this principle we may in the instant case limit our consideration to the sufficiency of the evidence as it bears on the sales alleged to have been made by the defendant on or about September 16 and September 26, 1963. Each of these occasions represents a classic example of a so-called "controlled" purchase of narcotics by an informant kept under surveillance. The record discloses that the requirements set out in Panci v. United States, 5 Cir., 256 F.2d 308, 312, with one exception, i. e., recovery of the money, were rigidly adhered to. On each occasion the informant was searched prior to his meeting with the defendant and found free of money or narcotics, save for a small amount of silver. The informant was then escorted to his rendezvous with the defendant by federal agents or a local police officer and the defendant was observed to point out a package which the informant picked up. The informant was observed handing money to the defendant just after or just prior to receiving the package. Immediately following each of the transactions the informant, still under surveillance, went directly to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to whom he surrendered the package. He was then searched and found free of money except for some silver. To this was ...