United States v. Edgar C. Thomas, A/K/A Elgar Thomas, United States of America v. Elgar C. Thomas

485 F.2d 1012, 158 U.S. App. D.C. 233, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 8265
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 21, 1973
Docket72-1354, 72-1823
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 485 F.2d 1012 (United States v. Edgar C. Thomas, A/K/A Elgar Thomas, United States of America v. Elgar C. Thomas) 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
United States v. Edgar C. Thomas, A/K/A Elgar Thomas, United States of America v. Elgar C. Thomas, 485 F.2d 1012, 158 U.S. App. D.C. 233, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 8265 (D.C. Cir. 1973).

Opinions

ROBB, Circuit Judge:

In January 1970 the appellant pleaded guilty to a charge of armed robbery, and was sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act. (Criminal No. 1859-69 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia). In March of 1971, while serving his sentence at a “half-way house” he escaped from custody. On June 17, 1971 he was arrested for the armed robbery of a Safeway store which took place on that day. Thereafter in Criminal No. 1349-71, he was indicted for his escape (18 U.S.C. § 751(a)) and in Criminal No. 1516-71, for the Safeway robbery. On February 9, 10 and 11, 1972 he was tried and convicted on the second indictment, which in various counts charged him with armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a prohibited weapon (a sawed-off shotgun) and possession of an unregistered firearm. He pleaded guilty to the escape charge. Although he was twenty years old, the district judge sentenced him as an adult on both indictments, holding that under 22 D.C. Code § 3202(a)(2) and (d)(1) (Supp.V, 1972) he was ineligible for sentencing under the Federal Youth Corrections Act. This statute provides that the Federal Youth Corrections Act shall not apply to any person who is “convicted more than once” of having committed a crime of violence in the District of Columbia.

On these appeals the appellant challenges the District Court’s refusal to consider him for sentencing under the Youth Corrections Act. The appellant also contends that the District Court’s instruction with respect to identification testimony was erroneous, in that it did not comply with the instructions suggested in Macklin v. United States, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 139, 409 F.2d 174 (1969), and United States v. Telfaire, 152 U.S.App.D.C. 146, 469 F.2d 552 (1972). The instruction given was the “model instruction” on mistaken identity. The appellant’s trial counsel stated that he was “satisfied” with the charge as given.

The proof for the government at trial was that on the morning of June 17, 1971 Officers James and Timmons, on patrol in “casual clothes” noticed Thomas standing near the Safeway store at 716 Kennedy Street, N.W. in Washington. Thomas was dressed in a brown jacket and not wearing a hat. Another man was with him. The attention of the officers was attracted to Thomas because he was “acting rather fidgety, shrugging his shoulders up and down * * * as though he was in a nervous condition.” They watched Thomas and his companion walk to the Safeway and saw Thomas go in while the other man stood outside. When the officers approached, the other man walked off and disappeared. Deciding to take a closer look at Thomas the officers went to the door of the Safeway where they encountered Thomas, backing out carrying two brown paper bags (later found to contain money) and a sawed-off shotgun. At this point he was within twelve inches of the policemen. He pointed the shotgun at them whereupon they “froze” and watched him go down the street. When he had “gotten a little ways down the street” the officers told him to halt, that they were police officers. Thomas “wheeled around” with his gun, pointing it at the officers. The officers shot at [1014]*1014him several times but missed, and Thomas ran down the street with the officers close behind. Twice they momentarily lost sight of him when he turned a corner, but after the second turn a citizen pointed to an apartment house at 614 Longfellow Street, indicating that Thomas had entered this building, which was about a block and a half from the Safeway store.

The two officers and others who had joined the chase stationed themselves around the apartment house, covering the exits. After a wait of about 50 minutes for reinforcements, the police searched the building. The search finally turned up Thomas, in a dark crawl space under a ground-floor staircase. This space measured approximately three feet by three feet. Thomas had discarded his jacket, which was “pushed back into the corner where the stairs met the floor.” Officer Timmons, one of the officers who had chased Thomas, immediately identified him. The shotgun, loaded, was found in the alley next to the apartment house. The bags containing money taken from the Safeway store were recovered on the street where they had been dropped by the robber.

Two Safeway clerks described the robbery. They testified that the robber was a Negro male about five feet, four or five inches tall, with a “bush” or “Afro” haircut, wearing a tan jacket. Pointing a shotgun at them he ordered them to place the money from their cash registers in paper bags, and they complied. He then backed out of the store, still pointing the shotgun at them. They heard the firing by the police, saw the robber running down the street, pursued by the police, and saw him drop the bags of money in the street. Seven days after the appellant’s arrest they viewed him at a police lineup, but failed to identify him; on the contrary, they identified another man, who was wearing a “bush” haircut. The record discloses that on June 17, the day of the robbery, the appellant did have a “bush” haircut, but three days later — that is, before the lineup — he had his head shaved.

The appellant testified that he had gone to the apartment house on Longfellow Street to visit a friend, one Spunky. He did not remember Spunky’s last name and had not seen him for about a year and a half. After entering the building through the back door he went to the third floor, knocked on the door of an apartment, asked if Spunky was in, found he was not there, and headed back downstairs when someone in the apartment told him to go away. He thought perhaps he was on the wrong floor. When he got to the second floor he heard people hollering “police” and saying “he went that way”, and he heard someone say “check this place, check that place; maybe he’s down there”, so he “hid behind the first floor steps”. He admitted that his coat was found underneath the steps. He said that when Officer Timmons identified him as the man who robbed.the Safeway he was “shocked”. He explained that he had his hair cut at the jail before the lineup because a doctor “said there was evidence of an insect or growth from the middle of my head”.

We think the court’s instruction on the identification testimony was adequate. In any event counsel did not object to it; and the evidence of the appellant’s guilt was overwhelming.

In our opinion the district judge was also correct in ruling that the appellant was ineligible for sentencing under the Youth Corrections Act.

Section 3202(a)(2) of Title 22, D.C. Code (Supp. V, 1972) provides that a person who commits a crime of violence when armed “shall, if he is convicted more than once of having so committed a crime of violence in the District of Columbia, be sentenced,” to a certain mandatory period of imprisonment. 22 D.C.Code § 3202(d)(1) provides that the Federal Youth Corrections Act “shall not apply with respect to any person sentenced under paragraph (2) of subsection (a)” — that is to any person who “is convicted more than once of [1015]*1015having * * * committed a crime of violence” when armed.1

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485 F.2d 1012, 158 U.S. App. D.C. 233, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 8265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edgar-c-thomas-aka-elgar-thomas-united-states-of-cadc-1973.