Von Patzoll v. United States, 3442-3445.
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit) |
| Citation | 163 F.2d 216 |
| Docket Number | No. 3442-3445.,3442-3445. |
| Parties | VON PATZOLL v. UNITED STATES. BRANDON v. SAME. FEEZELL v. SAME. EVANS v. SAME. |
| Decision Date | 27 October 1947 |
163 F.2d 216 (1947)
VON PATZOLL
v.
UNITED STATES.
BRANDON
v.
SAME.
FEEZELL
v.
SAME.
EVANS
v.
SAME.
Nos. 3442-3445.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
July 9, 1947.
Rehearing Denied August 14, 1947.
Writ of Certiorari Denied October 27, 1947.
Earl Pruet and J. B. Barnett, both of Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellants.
Robert E. Shelton, U. S. Atty., of Oklahoma City, Okl., for the United States.
Before PHILLIPS, BRATTON and MURRAH, Circuit Judges.
Writ of Certiorari Denied October 27, 1947. See 68 S.Ct. 110.
PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.
Von Patzoll, Brandon, Feezell, and Evans were charged by information containing two counts with violations of 27 U.S.C.A. § 223, which makes it unlawful to "import, bring, or transport any intoxicating liquor into any State in which all sales * * * of intoxicating liquor containing more than 4 per centum of alcohol by volume are prohibited * * * or assist in so doing." The first count charged that they unlawfully transported intoxicating liquor from the State of Texas into the State of Oklahoma, the latter being a state wherein all sales of intoxicating liquor containing more than 4 per cent of alcohol by volume are prohibited. The second count charged that they unlawfully assisted in such transportation. They were tried to the court without a jury and found not guilty on the first count and guilty on the second count.
The defendants offered no evidence at the trial. The government's evidence established these facts: On June 8, 1946, Roy B. Mogridge and Ralph Bratcher, investigators for the Alcohol Tax Unit, knowing that Von Patzoll had been a liquor dealer in Oklahoma City for a number of years, were watching liquor stores in Dallas, Texas. They were in an automobile. They saw Von Patzoll's automobile, a Buick coupe, parked in front of the LaMar Liquor Store at Dallas, Texas, and observed two men in the street, and Von Patzoll talking to the manager of the Liquor Store. They drove past the Buick coupe and stopped for a traffic light. The Buick coupe came up beside them and passed on ahead of them. They followed it a short distance and then turned around and came back to the Liquor Store and parked. About an hour later, they again observed the Buick coupe at the Liquor Store. Von Patzoll and one other man were in the Buick coupe and a third man was in the store. In a short time, Von Patzoll and the two men left the Liquor Store. About 10 o'clock that night, the investigators saw a man, later identified as Brandon, get out of the Buick coupe and walk across the street to the Leeway Parking Lot and go to an International truck with a semi-trailer bed. He drove away in the truck. The truck was then empty. The truck proceeded to a filling station on Corinth Street. The investigators passed the filling station, turned, drove back, and observed the truck at the filling station with some one in it. Mogridge and Bratcher advised investigators Lamphear and Pauly by radio that they had followed the truck and that it was at the filling station. Lamphear and Pauly then drove past the filling station and saw a Buick sedanette move into the filling station and park alongside the truck, and observed a man loading a package, which resembled a case of whiskey, into the truck. They advised Mogridge and Bratcher of that fact by radio. Mogridge and Bratcher then drove back to the filling station and observed the International truck moving north on LaMar Street, followed by the Buick sedanette. They then
Lamphear and Pauly then undertook to locate Brandon and the Buick truck. After proceeding about 100 yards, they observed a car running without lights. They stopped it and found Brandon in the car. They searched the Buick truck but found no liquor. The investigators found a fifth of tax-paid whiskey in the Buick coupe.
The investigators searched Von Patzoll at the time they arrested him and found sheets out of a notebook in his pocket with notations of prices and brands of whiskey, and addresses of liquor dealers in Dallas, Texas.
18 U.S.C.A. § 550 provides, "whoever directly commits any act constituting an offense defined in any law of the United States, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces, or procures its commission, is a principal."
This statute does away with the subtle distinctions recognized, with respect to felonies at common law, between principals and accessories before and at the fact and makes them all principals, whether the offense is a felony or a misdemeanor.1
Conviction of the principal is not a prerequisite to the conviction of the aider and abettor.2
And the acquittal of the principal presents no impediment to the trial and conviction of a person charged with aiding and abetting the commission of the crime.3 This because one who aids or abets the commission of a crime is guilty as a principal of a substantive, independent offense.4
The proof must establish that the offense was committed by some one and that the person charged as an aider and abettor, aided and abetted in its commission.5 However, it is not necessary to identify the actual perpetrator of the crime. He may be unknown.6
The fact that one mistakenly supposed to have committed the crime was tried therefor and acquitted does not affect the guilt or liability to punishment of one proven to have been present aiding and abetting, so long as it is established that the crime was committed by some one. In Regina v. Wallis, 91 Eng.Rep. R. 294, there was an indictment against A for the murder of Cooper, and against E and others, as persons present assisting, aiding, and abetting A therein. In the opinion the court said: "* * * upon evidence it appeared, that the person slain was a constable, and in the execution of his office with divers other constables in May-Fair. That E. the prisoner first drew his sword, and with divers others, to the number of forty persons, fell upon the constables; that this affray continued an hour after, till in the end one of the constables, viz. the said John Cooper, was slain; but by whose hand it did not appear. It also appeared that A. had been tried on this indictment and acquitted. * * * Though the indictment be against the...
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