United States v. Ramsey

• Decision Date: 30 June 1961
• Docket Number: No. 14461.,14461.
• Citation: 291 F.2d 737
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lester RAMSEY and Charlesetta Jackson, Defendant-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

291 F.2d 737 (1961)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lester RAMSEY and Charlesetta Jackson, Defendant-Appellants.

No. 14461.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

June 30, 1961.

Henry Heading, Detroit, Mich., for appellant L. Ramsey.

Basil W. Brown, Detroit, Mich., for appellant C. Jackson.

Jerome A. Moore, Asst. U. S. Atty., Detroit, Mich. (Lawrence Gubow, U. S. Atty., Robert E. DeMascio, Jerome A. Moore, Asst. U. S. Attys., Detroit, Mich., on the brief), for appellee.

Before MILLER, Chief Judge, and CECIL and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.

O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellants, Lester Ramsey and Charlesetta Jackson, appeal from judgments of conviction entered upon a jury's verdict finding each of them guilty on two counts (counts four and five) of an indictment charging them with possession and sale of narcotics on various dates in violation of Section 4705(a), Title 26 U.S.C.A., and Section 2(a), Title 18 U.S. C.A. The indictment contained seven counts, the first of which charged the defendants with conspiracy to violate the mentioned statutes. This conspiracy count was dismissed at the close of the government's case. The jury acquitted the defendants on four of the remaining counts. Counts four and five (upon which the defendants were convicted) related to a transaction in narcotics which occurred on February 12, 1959, in the City of Detroit.

For reversal, defendant Ramsey asserts, first, that there was not sufficient evidence to warrant submission of the question of his guilt to the jury, and, second, that the district judge failed to adequately instruct the jury as to the law applicable to the crime charged. Defendant Jackson relies for reversal on the said claimed failure of the district judge to properly instruct the jury and upon the further ground that her involuntary absence from the courtroom during a portion of the court's charge to the jury violated Rule 43 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A.

There was evidence that defendant, Lester Ramsey, prior to and during the months of December, January and February, 1959, was living at an apartment at 13620 LaSalle, Detroit. The defendant Charlesetta Jackson was his lady friend and was accustomed to spend three or four days and nights of each week at Ramsey's apartment. A principal witness for the government, one Lewis, was acquainted with both defendants and had had transactions with them involving the sale and purchase of narcotics. He would properly be classified as an informer and special employee of the Narcotics Bureau. On February 12, 1959, collaborating with agents of the Narcotics Bureau, he placed a telephone call to the Ramsey apartment. The defendant Jackson was there, and in the ensuing telephone conversation arrangements were made for Lewis to go to the apartment to purchase a package of narcotics. With another agent, he drove to the Ramsey apartment and while the other agent waited in a car, met defendant Jackson at the back door of the building in which the Ramsey apartment was located. Lewis paid the defendant Jackson $200 and received from her two envelopes containing heroin. Examination of these two envelopes disclosed fingerprints of defendant Ramsey on each of them.

The witness Lewis told of a transaction which occurred on December 19, 1958, when he called the same Ramsey apartment and talked with Ramsey, arranging to purchase narcotics and was told by Ramsey to come to the apartment to pick it up. Lewis did so, finding defendant Jackson there. While Lewis was there, defendant Ramsey called by telephone and told Charlesetta that it was all right to complete the narcotics transaction. It was so done. At Christmas time in 1958, the defendants joined in sending a Christmas card containing their pictures with the greeting, "The Ramseys, Lester and Charlesetta."

1. Sufficiency of evidence as to defendant Ramsey. Defendant Ramsey here charges that proof of his finger-prints on the two envelopes of narcotics sold by defendant Jackson to the government agent, was not sufficient evidence of participation in the sale and possession of the narcotics by him to justify his conviction, either as a principal or as aiding and abetting. No motion for a direction of acquittal was made by him at any time. In the absence of such motion, we will not ordinarily consider the question of the sufficiency of the evidence. Rosenbloom v. United States, 8 Cir., 1958, 259 F.2d 500, 502; Moomaw v. United States, 5 Cir., 1955, 220 F.2d 589, 592; Loewenthal v. United States, 6 Cir., 1921, 274 F. 563, 571; Mitchell v. United States, 8 Cir., 1954, 208 F.2d 854, 857. If we observed plain error or an obvious miscarriage of justice, we could, with propriety, set aside a conviction despite the absence of such a motion. Loewenthal v. United States, supra. Aside, however, from the finger-print evidence, the jury had before it the relationship between the defendants and their obvious collaboration in the business of selling narcotics, the evidence of the December 19th transaction when Charlesetta made the delivery in fulfillment of an order placed with Ramsey. Defendant Ramsey did not take the stand. Defendant Jackson denied the alleged sale of February 12, but testified that she had been in the habit of purchasing cocaine from the government's witness, Lewis. The jury had before it the foregoing evidence, in addition to the fingerprint identification. Convictions for narcotic violations have been upheld where the government's reliance was primarily on the finding of a defendant's fingerprints on the packages involved. Stoppelli v. United States, 9 Cir., 1950, 183 F.2d 391, certiorari...