Kelleher v. United States

35 F.2d 877, 59 App. D.C. 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3104
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedNovember 4, 1929
DocketNo. 4999
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 35 F.2d 877 (Kelleher v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelleher v. United States, 35 F.2d 877, 59 App. D.C. 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3104 (D.C. Cir. 1929).

Opinion

ROBB, Associate Justice.

Appellant, defendant below, was convicted in the Supreme Court of the District under an indictment containing 23 counts, and charging appellant, Kelleher, Charles D. Payne, and another, with violations of sections 865, 866, and 869 of the District Code relating to “gaming.”

The first count charges the setting up and keeping of a gaming table for use in betting on horse races.

The second count, the setting up and keeping of a gambling device, designed for the purpose of betting and wagering money upon the results of horse rapes.

The third count, the setting up and keeping of a place for the purpose of betting on horse races.

The twentieth count alleges the keeping of a gaming table for the purpose of betting and wagering money upon the results of card games.

The twenty-first count, the setting up and keeping of a “gambling device” for the same purpose.

The twenty-second count, the setting, up and keeping of “a certain place” for the same purpose.

[878]*878The fourth count charges the persons named with knowingly permitting to be set up and used a gaming table for the purpose of wagering money upon the results of horse races.

The twenty-third count, that they knowingly permitted to be set up and used a gaming table for the purpose of betting and wagering money upon the results of card games.

Counts 5 to 19, inclusive, allege specific bets on different days on the results of horse races.

Section 865 of the Code makes it a crime to set up or keep any gaming table, or any house, vessel, or place, on land or water, for the purpose of gaming or gambling, under the penalty of imprisonment for a term of not more than five years.

Section 866 provides that whoever knowingly permits any gaming table, bank, or device to be set up or used for the purpose of gaming in any house, building, vessel, shed, booth, shelter, lot, or other premises belonging to or occupied by him, or under his possession or control, shall be punished by imprisonment in the jail for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding $500, or both.

Section 869 makes it unlawful for any person to bet, gamble, or make books or pools on the result of any trotting or running race of horses, or boat race, or race of any kind, and prescribes a punishment for violation of the provisions of the section of a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding 90 days, or both.

Prior to the trial, the defendant Payne withdrew his plea of “not guilty” and entered a plea of “guilty” to counts 7 and 8 of the indictment; and a nolle prosequi was entered as to the third defendant.

Kelleher was convicted under all counts of the indictment and sentenced to the penitentiary for the period of five years on each of counts 1, 2, 3, 20, 21, and 22, the sentences to run concurrently; on counts 4 and 23, for the term of one year on each, the sentences to run concurrently with each other and concurrently with the sentences imposed on the six counts previously mentioned; on counts 5 to 19, inclusive, for the period of 90 days on each count, and a fine of $500 on each count, the sentences to run consecutively and to take effect from and including the date of expiration of the sentences imposed on counts 1, 2, 3, 20, 21, and 22.

The evidence for the government tended to show that on different occasions during the month of November, 1926, Robert L. Shivers, a Department of Justice agent, went to premises 1413 H Street Northwest, third floor, and there placed bets on horse races with appellant and his associates; that subsequently, on the 28th of December, 1926, a search warrant directed solely against defendant Charles D. Payne was procured. A search of the premises disclosed in full operation a place for gambling, with appellant and others present. A large amount of gambling equipment, books, and records were seized. Payne, who was a witness for the government, testified without contradiction that appellant’s profits were approximately $25,000 a month.

The first assignment of error is based upon the motion to quash the indictment and the decision of the court overruling a demurrer to the indictment. The contention is that several different, independent offenses are joined, that several counts are bad for duplicity, and that counts charging misdemeanors are improperly joined with counts charging felonies.

Section 1024, Rev. St. (18 USCA § 557), provides that, when there are several charges against any person for the same act or transaction, or for two or more acts or transactions connected together, or for two or more acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses, which may be properly joined, instead of having several indictments, the whole may be joined in one indictment in separate counts.

In this case the court, without objection or exception, charged the jury “that the evidence in regard to specific .bets is evidence in the whole case. It is evidence in regard to each count of the indictment which charges making bets on horse racing. That evidence is not confined merely to those counts where a specific bet is alleged to have been made, but to the counts with regard to keeping a plaee for gaming, a gaming table, or a gaming device, and permitting gaming to be done in a place under the control of the defendant.” The counts of the indictment all relate to offenses under the. provisions in the Code against gaming, and, as noted by the trial court, the transactions denounced in the indictment were so interrelated or, in the language of the statute, “connected together,” that evidence relating to one was “evidence in the whole case.”

Certain it is, therefore, that the joinder of the first group of counts was proper, and that the joinder of those counts with the other counts in the indictment was proper, unless the fact that the punishment for a single offense under the other counts was in a jail rendered it improper to join them with counts the punishment of which was in the penitentiary.

[879]*879At common law the objection to the joinder of a felony and a misdemeanor in England was that the defendant would thereby lose the benefit of having a copy of the indictment and a special jury, and of making his full defense by counsel; that is not so here, and it is now held that different counts relating to the same transactions or to a series of transactions tending to one result may be joined, although the offenses are not of the same grade. State v. Lewis, 185 N. C. 640, 116 S. E. 259; Phillips v. United States (C. C. A.) 264 F. 657, certiorari denied 253 U. S. 491, 40 S. Ct. 584, 64 L. Ed. 1028; McGregor v. United States (C. C. A.) 134 F. 187; Kreuzer v. United States (C. C. A.) 254 F. 34; State v. Malpass, 189 N. C. 349, 127 S. E. 248; Commonwealth v. Riseman, 257 Mass. 254, 153 N. E. 551; Tenpenny v. State, 151 Tenn. 669, 270 S. W. 989; Edens v. Commonwealth, 142 Va. 609, 128 S. E. 555. Moreover, under section 934 of the Code, “where the sentence is imprisonment for more than one year it shall be in the penitentiary,” and “cumulative sentences aggregating more than one year shall be deemed one sentence for the purposes of the foregoing provision.”

As to the contention that counts in the indictment charged more than one separate and distinct offense and are bad for duplicity, little need be said. The aggregate sentence under counts 1, 2, 3, 29, 21, and 22 was no more than might have been imposed on each count.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Horace Chandler Davis v. United States
269 F.2d 357 (Sixth Circuit, 1959)
Scott v. District of Columbia
122 A.2d 579 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1956)
Aikens v. United States
232 F.2d 66 (D.C. Circuit, 1956)
Chambers v. District of Columbia
194 F.2d 336 (D.C. Circuit, 1952)
Plummer v. United States
189 F.2d 19 (D.C. Circuit, 1951)
Davenport v. District of Columbia
67 A.2d 522 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1949)
Gibson v. United States
149 F.2d 381 (D.C. Circuit, 1945)
Beard v. United States
82 F.2d 837 (D.C. Circuit, 1936)
Marino v. Zurbrick
52 F.2d 160 (E.D. Michigan, 1931)
Capone v. United States
51 F.2d 609 (Seventh Circuit, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 F.2d 877, 59 App. D.C. 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelleher-v-united-states-cadc-1929.