Neal v. United States

102 F.2d 643, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 3, 1939
Docket11177
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 102 F.2d 643 (Neal v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neal v. United States, 102 F.2d 643, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911 (8th Cir. 1939).

Opinions

THOMAS, Circuit Judge.

The appellant William Squire Neal, hereinafter called defendant, was indicted, tried and convicted in the court below upon both counts of an indictment containing two counts, and he appeals.

The first count of the indictment charged defendant with being an accessory after the fact to a felony committed by John L. Neal; and the second count charged misprision of the same felony committed by John L. Neal. The defendant was sentenced to serve in a penitentiary for two years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently and not consecutively.

Before trial the defendant interposed a demurrer to count one of the indictment, which was overruled. At the close of.the evidence he moved for a directed verdict upon both counts on the ground of insufficiency of evidence to support a verdict of guilty, which motion was overruled.

On this appeal the defendant urges that the trial court erred (1) in overruling his demurrer to count one of the indictment, (2) in overruling his motion for a directed verdict on both counts, (3) in the admission of certain evidence over his objection, (4) in permitting misconduct of the prosecuting attorney in his argument to the jury, and (5) in giving certain instructions to the jury.

Since the sentences run concurrently,.if the defendant was properly convicted upon either count of the indictment, there can not be a reversal even if there were reversible error on the trial of one of the [645]*645counts. The defendant in that situation is not prejudiced by the sentence on the count in which the conviction is tainted with error. Roberts v. United States, 8 Cir., 96 F.2d 39, 40; Little v. United States, 8 Cir., 93 F.2d 401, 409; Taran v. United States, 8 Cir., 88 F.2d 54, 59; Mad-delin v. United States, 7 Cir., 46 F.2d 266; United States v. Trenton Potteries Co., 273 U.S. 392. 47 S.Ct. 377, 71 L.Ed. 700, 50 A.L.R. 989.

The alleged error most seriously pressed upon our attention, and the one involving the greatest difficulty, relates to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction upon cither count. If this assignment of error be sustained the court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a directed verdict and the judgment must be reversed. In that event it will be unnecessary to consider the other alleged errors. This question requires a consideration of the indictment and a review of the government’s evidence.

The defendant and John Neal are brothers. At all times material to this case they lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The defendant was married and operated an undertaking establishment. His brother John was a bachelor and lived in defendant’s home. John had been employed as a clerk or messenger in the office of the treasurer of the Soo Line railroad at Minneapolis for 32 years prior to December 28, 1937. In February, 1938, John was indicted in the United States District Court of Minnesota and charged in ten counts with stealing and carrying away various sums of money from the First National Bank and Trust Company of Minneapolis. Pie pleaded guilty on five counts and was sentenced to 15 years in a peniten-' tiary. The indictment was predicated upon the amendment of August 24, 1937, to section 2(a) of the Act of May 18, 1934, 48 Stat. 783, 12 U.S.C. § 588b, 12 U.S.C. A. § 588b. The original statute made bank robbery a crime. The pertinent part of the amendment added: “whoever shall take and carry away, with intent to steal or purloin, any property or money or any other tiling of value exceeding $50 belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management, or possession of any bank, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

The counts of the indictment to which John Neal pleaded guilty and on which he was sentenced charged him with stealing and carrying away from the bank $97.-50. on December 27, 1937; $97.50 on December 24, 1937; $97.50 on December 23, 1937; $95 on December 22, 1937; and $97.50 on December 21, 1937.

The crimes of accessory after the fact and misprision of felony being dependent or subsidiary offenses the indictment upon which the defendant was tried alleged two crimes in each count. John L. Neal is referred to as principal, or the one who committed the primary felony, and the defendant is charged with the dependent offenses. In each count the felony attributed to John L. Neal is that between August 24, 1937 (the date of the amendment to the bank robbery statute supra), and December 28, 1937, he stole and carried away from the possession of the First National Bank and Trust Company of Minneapolis many thousands of dollars.

In the first count the crime of which the defendant is accused is that he knowing that the principal had committed and completed the felony above described became on January 7, 1938, an accessory after the fact thereto in that he aided and assisted the principal in secreting the fruits and proceeds of the felony by clandestinely placing $5,903 of the stolen money in a golf bag in his living quarters, thus suppressing important evidence, to the end that the principal might escape punishment.

In the second count it is alleged that on or about January 7, 1938, the defendant committed the crime of misprision of felony in that with full knowledge of the felony committed by John L. Neal he concealed and failed to disclose and make known such felony as soon as might be to some one of the judges of the United States District Court of Minnesota or to the Attorney General of the United States or to the United States Attorney or to other persons in civil authority. It is further charged that the defendant took two affirmative steps to conceal the crime committed by his brother J ohn: first, he concealed $5,903 of the stolen money in a golf bag at his living quarters; and, second, he altered and expunged from the account books of the Neal Funeral Home operated by him entries showing the investment therein by John L. Neal of the stolen moneys.

To warrant a conviction by the jury on the first count of the indictment the [646]*646burden was upon the government to establish beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) That John L. Neal, the principal, had committed and completed the felony charged, that is, that between August 24 and December 28, 1937, he had unlawfully taken and carried away from the First National Bank and Trust Company of Minneapolis many thousands of dollars; (2) that the defendant had knowledge that the principal had committed the felony; and (3) that having such knowledge, defendant aided and assisted the principal to escape punishment by suppressing important evidence against him in that he concealed $5,903 which constituted a large part of tfie fruits and proceeds of the offense.

To sustain a conviction on count two for misprision of felony it was incumbent upon the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that John L.

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Bluebook (online)
102 F.2d 643, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3911, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neal-v-united-states-ca8-1939.