United States v. Earl Watson, Tony Maxwell and Mae Lillian Brown

594 F.2d 1330
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMay 1, 1979
Docket77-1575 to 77-1577
StatusPublished
Cited by165 cases

This text of 594 F.2d 1330 (United States v. Earl Watson, Tony Maxwell and Mae Lillian Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Earl Watson, Tony Maxwell and Mae Lillian Brown, 594 F.2d 1330 (10th Cir. 1979).

Opinions

HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants Watson, Maxwell, and Brown have taken these timely direct appeals from convictions under 21 U.S.C. § 846, conspiracy to commit offenses defined in 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1),1 (distributing or possessing with intent to distribute, etc., a controlled substance) and in 21 U.S.C. § 843(b), (use of a communication facility to facilitate the commission of offenses [1334]*1334defined in 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1))2 and from convictions of each appellant of a substantive offense under § 843(b) of such use of a telephone. Appellants’ major contentions are that tape recordings of intercepted telephone conversations and transcripts thereof were improperly permitted to be used against them, that there was insufficient proof to support their convictions, and that there was, in any event, no single conspiracy proved as charged. Several other arguments are also made, and we will discuss all those having some substance.

The indictment charged fifteen individuals, including appellants, with conspiracy knowingly and intentionally to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and cocaine, and to use a telephone to facilitate commission of such offenses. In addition, appellants were each charged with one count of knowingly and intentionally using a communications facility, i. e., a telephone, to facilitate the accomplishment of and to accomplish the possession with intent to distribute and the distribution of heroin and cocaine. The conspiracy involved a California supplier, “Pete” Anderson, a Tulsa wholesaler, John Thompson, assisted by one Karen Brooks, and several retailers or street dealers, including appellants Watson, Maxwell, and Brown.

Appellants claim there was insufficient evidence in this case to support their convictions. Viewing all the evidence, together with all reasonable inferences therefrom, in the light most favorable to the government, as we must, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680; United States v. Krohn, 573 F.2d 1382, 1385 (10th Cir.), cert. denied sub nomine Hahn v. United States, 436 U.S. 949, 98 S.Ct. 2857, 56 L.Ed.2d 792; United States v. Twilligear, 460 F.2d 79, 81-82 (10th Cir.), we must disagree with this contention. Yet, since appellants have challenged the admission in evidence of certain tape recordings of telephone intercepts, and since without those recordings the evidence might not support the adverse jury verdicts rendered, we turn first to a consideration of the various issues involving the use of those tapes.

I

Appellants Brown and Watson strenuously argue that there was error in not suppressing tape recordings of certain intercepted telephone communications, in not suppressing transcripts of certain intercepted phone communications, and in permitting transcripts of the tape recordings of the telephone conversations to be used by the jurors.

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Bluebook (online)
594 F.2d 1330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-earl-watson-tony-maxwell-and-mae-lillian-brown-ca10-1979.