United States v. Frank De Marie

226 F.2d 783
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 29, 1955
Docket16-3487
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 226 F.2d 783 (United States v. Frank De Marie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Frank De Marie, 226 F.2d 783 (7th Cir. 1955).

Opinion

SWAIM, Circuit Judge.

■ The defendant and his alleged accomplice, Mario Garelli, were iridipted for *785 unlawfully buying and selling narcotic drugs not in their original stamped packages and without a written order from the purchaser, and with having fraudulently and knowingly received, concealed and facilitated the transportation and concealment of narcotic drugs, in violation of the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act, 21 U.S.C.A. § 174, and the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S. C.A. §§ 2553(a) and 2554(a) and 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 4704(a) and 4705(a). Ga-relli, the alleged accomplice, pleaded guilty. The defendant pleaded not guilty, was tried by a jury and found guilty.

The errors claimed on this appeal are the trial judge’s refusal to grant defendant’s motions for acquittal at the close of the Government’s case and again at the close of all the evidence, and the denial of defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. The first substantive ground for these motions was the defendant’s claim that the evidence sustained the defense of entrapment as a matter of law.

Acting on instructions from federal narcotics agents, Anthony Annerino, an informer, contacted the defendant by telephone and told him that he wanted to purchase narcotics. At a meeting arranged in the City of Chicago, Annerino and Narcotics Agent Marin met the defendant, and Annerino purchased narcotics from defendant. This occurred twice during February of 1954. An-nerino testified that he had known De Marie for about five years, that in October 1953 he had asked De Marie about procuring narcotics and De Marie promised to take care of him; that on or about January 23, 1954, he again had a conversation with De Marie in which he told De Marie he wanted five ounces of heroin, and that De Marie then gave him his telephone number and explained how and when to order the heroin by phone. While the testimony of Annerino was not too definite as to the dates on which he first contacted De Marie as to the purchase of narcotics, his testimony furnished a sufficient basis for the jury to find that he contacted De Marie to purchase narcotics before he (Annerino) had been approached by the narcotics agents and had been asked to assist them in securing evidence of violations of the narcotics laws by the defendant.

There is no entrapment unless the intent to commit the crime initiated in the minds of the Government officers and was transferred by them to the mind of the defendant. To raise the defense successfully the defendant must show that he had no intention of committing the crime until induced to do so by, or on behalf of, Government officers. United States v. Cerone, 7 Cir., 150 F.2d 382, certiorari denied 326 U.S. 756, 66 S.Ct. 97, 90 L.Ed. 454. In the instant case there was evidence that the defendant was not only contemplating selling narcotics to Annerino but that he had even offered to do so before Government agents approached Annerino. Where the officers only furnished the defendant with an opportunity to carry out a crime which he was already willing to commit, there is no entrapment. United States v. Spadafora, 7 Cir., 181 F.2d 957, certiorari denied 340 U.S. 897, 71 S.Ct. 234, 95 L.Ed. 650; Louie Hung v. United States, 9 Cir., Ill F.2d 325. Here there was substantial evidence from which the jury could and did find that the defendant intended to sell narcotics before he was approached on behalf of the federal narcotics agents. Lunsford v. United States, 10 Cir., 200 F. 2d 237. It was, therefore, proper for the trial judge to submit the question of entrapment to the jury, and the jury was justified in finding that entrapment did not exist.

While Annerino was on the witness stand, the Government attorney on redirect examination asked the following question:

“One question further, Mr. Anne-rino, did you know at the time you talked to Agent Durham in the lobby of the Morrison Hotel here in Chicago, Illinois, did you know prior to that time whether Frank De Marie was engaged in transactions relative to narcotics?’’

*786 The defense attorney objected to the question and asked the judge to declare a mistrial. The judge overruled the objection, and then asked the attorney conducting the prosecution if he knew how the witness would answer. The attorney turned his back to the jury, walked toward the bench, nodded his head and formed the word, “Yes,” on his lips without speaking it audibly. The defense attorney then again asked that a juror be withdrawn and a mistrial declared, and stated for the record that the prosecutor had indicated that Annerino would have answered, “Yes,” to the question. The judge then said: “Now you just told the jury what he did expect, which the jury didn’t know.” The Government attorney stated that by so indicating an affirmative answer to the court he only intended to say, “Yes,” that he did know what answer Annerino would give to the question. The trial judge then refused defendant’s demand that a mistrial be declared, saying that the only improper statement which the jury had seen or heard had been the defense attorney’s unreasonable interpretation of the prosecutor’s acts which he expressed in the presence of the jury. The court then said to the defense attorney: “You can’t put error in the record and then ask to have a juror withdrawn on that ground.” After the defense objected to this statement, the judge said: “You said something which hadn’t been said. If it was said, the jury hadn’t seen or heard * *

The defendant claims that he was also prejudiced by the court’s “rebuke” of the defense attorney during the discussion of the prosecutor’s answer to the judge’s question as to whether he knew what answer Annerino would make to the question as to whether or not Annerino knew when he first talked to Durham that De Marie “was engaged in transactions relative to narcotics.”

The defense attorney’s interpretation of the prosecuting attorney’s answer was not a reasonable one, and. we agree with the trial judge that if any prejudicial statements were made before the jury, they were made by the defense attorney. The judge’s statements were not a “rebuke” as defendant claims, but simply an attempt to explain why he was overruling ■the defendant’s insistent motions that a juror be dismissed and a mistrial declared.

The only “rebuke” of the defense attorney by the court we find in this record followed a statement by defense counsel that the Government attorney, by his questioning of Annerino on redirect examination, was attempting “to induce the witness to change his testimony.” The court was fully justified in saying to defense counsel, “That is an improper remark in the presence of the jury, and don’t repeat it.” Defense counsel admitted his error by apologizing to the court.

In his instructions to the jury the court told the jury that:

“The responsibility rests upon you to determine the facts of this case, under the law as the Court may give it to you, uninfluenced by any expression of opinion that the Court has made or may hereafter make upon matters of fact.

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Bluebook (online)
226 F.2d 783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-frank-de-marie-ca7-1955.