United States v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 02 March 1965
• Docket Number: No. 331,Docket 28614.,331
• Citation: 342 F.2d 43
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Charles WILSON, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

342 F.2d 43 (1965)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Charles WILSON, Appellant.

No. 331, Docket 28614.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued February 16, 1965.

Decided March 2, 1965.

David C. Reynolds, New York City (Anthony F. Marra, New York City), for appellant.

Daniel Donnelly, New York City (Robert M. Morgenthau, U. S. Atty., for Southern District of New York, Neal J. Hurwitz, Asst. U. S. Atty., of counsel), for appellee.

Before WATERMAN, FRIENDLY and HAYS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Charles Wilson, Maurice Gibbons and Delancey Sterling were charged, in a two-count indictment in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, with stealing a package, of a value exceeding $100 and in interstate commerce, from a platform of the Railway Express Agency at 33rd Street and 10th Avenue, New York City, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 659, and with conspiring to violate that section. They pleaded not guilty, waived a jury, and were tried before the late Judge Dawson. A Railway Express agent testified as follows: The three men first reconnoitered the terminal; on one occasion Wilson and Gibbons went in but quickly emerged when a tractor passed close by. Next they entered the terminal, with Sterling remaining on the other side of 33rd Street. Gibbons stood inside the entrance while Wilson walked to the loading platform. As they exited, three mail trucks came down the street and Sterling "waved his hand." Wilson then put down, outside the doorway, the package whose theft was charged. Wilson and Gibbons walked up one side of 33rd Street and Sterling up the other, meeting at the corner of Tenth Avenue where they turned. After identifying and securing the package, the agent found the men on 34th Street and arrested them. On being interrogated, they first "denied any knowledge of being in the area or anything about the carton"; when appellant Wilson was later asked why he had left the terminal when a tractor came in, he said "he had gotten scared." An FBI agent testified that, in an interview, Wilson gave false information as to his residence and employment and denied being in the terminal or touching any carton. The judge dismissed the conspiracy count and also the substantive count against Gibbons and Sterling, but convicted Wilson on the substantive charge.

Wilson's first point is that the Government failed to meet the standard, now applied in this circuit, of adducing evidence sufficient that a trier of the facts could reasonably be convinced of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, see United States v. De Sisto, 329 F.2d 929, 932 (2 Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 979, 84 S.Ct. 1885, 12 L.Ed.2d 747 (1964), and cases there cited, and particularly that the evidence was insufficient to eliminate reasonable doubt as to his animus furandi. We disagree. Despite arguments as to the agent's limited opportunity for observation the judge could permissibly have credited his version of what occurred. Once that was done, the physical act of taking the carton...