Horwitz v. United States

63 F.2d 706, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3535
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 20, 1933
Docket6702
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 63 F.2d 706 (Horwitz v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horwitz v. United States, 63 F.2d 706, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3535 (5th Cir. 1933).

Opinions

BRYAN, Circuit Judge.

The indictment in this ease is in thirteen counts. The first fcount was drawn under [707]*707section 37 of the Criminal Code (18 USCA § 88), and charges a conspiracy within the jurisdiction of the trial court to deliver and cause to be delivered by United States mail newspapers, circulars, letters, and instruments concerning a lottery and scheme dependent upon lot and chance, in violation of section 213 of the Criminal Code (18 US 0A § 336); and to “bring and cause to be brought into the United States from the Republic of Mexico, papers, certificates and instruments purporting to represent a ticket, share and interest in a lottery and similar scheme dependent upon lot and chance, for the purpose of disposing of same,” in violation of section 237 of the Criminal Code (18 USCA § 387). After so charging, this count alleges that the “said defendants did operate Radio Station XED at Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in conjunction with a lottery business. * * * Radio Station XED was used to promote and procure customers for tbe lottery business. Eor a consideration the purchaser of a lottery ticket would be given a ehanee to win a large prize. Tbe lottery was a drawing for numbers; certain numbers would win certain prizes; the winning of a prize depended entirely upon a drawing.” And finally, under the caption “Overt Acts,” it was alleged that to effect the object of the conspiracy the defendants caused a letter concerning a lottery to bo delivered by the United States mail to each of several named addressees, and that Iwo of tbe defendants did, in San Patricio and Nueces counties, Tex., talk through the radios of named persons and invited them to send through the United States mail a certain amount of money “concerning a lottery.” Each letter as well as each invitation so set out was described as a separate overt act. The other counts of the indictment, except the last, charged substantive offenses based upon the acts designated as overt acts in tbe first count. The last count charged as a substantive offense the second object óf the conspiracy, that is to say, the bringing into the United States of written instruments or certificates purporting to represent interests in a lottery. Of the defendants, Will Ilorwitz, his wife Margarita Ilorwitz, Milton Q. Hall, Manuel C. Guerra, and Manuel B. Gonzalez, were convicted on the first or conspiracy count. Only Ilorwitz .and Guerra have appealed. They were also convicted on several of the substantive counts including the last, but the sentences they received are not greater than could have been imposed as punishment for the conspiracy. If therefore their convictions on the conspiracy count be upheld, it will be unnecessary to consider or pass upon the validity of the substantive counts or the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain them.

The demurrer of the apj>ellants to the first count for duplicity because a conspiracy was alleged to commit two offenses, one denounced by section 213, and the other by section 237, of the Criminal Code, was properly overruled. Where the objects of a conspiracy are separate, it is not a good objection that the indictment charges more than was or could be proved, if what is well alleged constitutes an offense. Ford v. United States, 273 U. S. 593, 47 S. Ct. 531, 71 L. Ed. 793; Bailey v. United States (C. C. A.) 5 F.(2d) 437; Christiansen v. United States (C. C. A.) 52 F.(2d) 950.

On the evidence appellants contend that they were entitled to a peremptory instruction because, as they say, there was no- proof, either that the conspiracy was entered into or that the overt acts alleged were committed, within the jurisdiction of the trial court. As to the conspiracy it is not denied that appellants and their eodefendants operated Radio Station XED at Reynosa in Mexico, just across the boundary line between Mexico and the United States. There was testi* mony for the government tending to show not only that Ilorwitz and his wife and Hall agreed in Houston to conduct a lottery by radio at Reynosa, but also that after the lottery was in operation in Mexico Ilorwitz and his wife and Guerra deposited money to the credit of the lottery in a bank at McAllen, Tex., a few miles from Reynosa, and that checks against this deposit were drawn by Guerra and sent to payees who lived in tbe Southern District of Texas in payment of money won in the lottery drawings. The letters set out in the overt acts were deposited in the United States mail and reached their destination, but the postal authorities required the addressees to sign waivers, ojien the letters in their presence, and then to return them immediately. Information concerning the lottery and the drawings wore broadcast from the radio station in Reynosa; there were no messages broadcast from any point in Texas. Horwitz testified in his own behalf. The only evidence for the government which he denied was that tending to show that lie had entered into an agreement to conduct a lottery and use the United States mail in connection therewith in Houston. He frankly admitted that he had operated a lottery at Reynosa in Mexico; that funds were deposited in a bank at McAllen and drawn [708]*708against by Guerra by cheeks payable to winners in the lottery drawings who lived within the jurisdiction of the trial court; and that those cheeks were deposited for delivery and many of them were delivered by the United States mail to the persons to whom they were addressed. He further testified that the lottery was required to be and in fact was conducted by radio.

It makes no difference whether the conspiracy was originally entered into in Houston, within the jurisdiction of the trial court, or in .Mexico outside that jurisdiction. If it be conceded that in the beginning it was formed in Mexico, appellants and their associates brought it into the jurisdiction of the trial court, 'by depositing and withdrawing funds from the bank at McAllen, by causing letters and checks to be delivered by the United States mail, and by performing other acts in pursuance of it and to' effect its object. Hyde v. United States, 225 U. S. 347, 32 S. Ct. 793, 56 L. Ed. 1114, Ann. Cas. 1914A, 614; Brown v. Elliott, 225 U. S. 392, 32 S. Ct. 812, 56 L. Ed. 1136; People v. Mather, 4 Wend. (N. Y.) 229, 21 Am. Dec. 122; Wing v. United States (C. C. A.) 280 F. 112. As to the overt acts, designated as such in the indictment, appellants contend that there was no delivery of any of the letters which it is alleged the defendants caused to be delivered, because only a temporary custody was permitted by the postal authorities, who would themselves have been subject to punishment under Criminal Code § 214 (18 USCA § 337) if they had made delivery. To emphasize the point it is argued that the postal authorities could -not properly have been convicted under the evidence adduced of making actual delivery. And they contend as to the second set of overt acts, which charge that two of the defendants while in Texas talked through radios, that there was a variance between the allegations and the proof since it is undisputed that the announcements over the radio-were made from the radio station in Mexico. It may be assumed that these objections to the proof relating, to the overt acts listed as such under separate heading are good. It is of course true that under section 37 of the Criminal Code it is necessary to allege and prove an ‘act to effect the object of the conspiracy.

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Bluebook (online)
63 F.2d 706, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horwitz-v-united-states-ca5-1933.