United States v. James Melton Easterly

444 F.2d 1236, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 10056
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 24, 1971
Docket29491
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 444 F.2d 1236 (United States v. James Melton Easterly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. James Melton Easterly, 444 F.2d 1236, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 10056 (5th Cir. 1971).

Opinion

JONES, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Easterly and three others were indicted for three offenses arising from the printing, possession and distribution of counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes of $10.00 denomination in the approximate face amount of $100,000. The first count charged the appellant and the others, Mackey Ingram, Robert Lamb and Thomas Fearn, with conspiracy to make and transfer counterfeit United States obligations in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 371. Count 2 charged Easterly, Ingram and Lamb with the substantive offenses of counterfeiting in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 472. Count 3 charged Easterly alone with the possession of counterfeit notes in the face amount of approximately $52,000. Easterly and Ingram were jointly tried before a jury. Ingram was found not guilty on each charge. Easterly was convicted of all charges. He was sentenced to five years on the conspiracy count and fifteen years on each of the substantive counts. All sentences were to run concurrently. It was provided that the defendant would become eligible for parole on each count under 18 U.S.C.A. § 4208(a) (2).

Defendant Lamb entered a plea of guilty prior to trial and testified as a prosecution witness. Defendant Fearn also appeared as a Government witness. The charges against Fearn were dismissed upon motion of the Government after Easterly was tried.

The Government’s first witness was co-defendant Fearn who had been a professional lithographer for 29 years, and who had known Easterly for ten years. Fearn testified that Easterly had requested him to prepare some negatives for $10.00 bills. Easterly in a telephone call from Dallas, Texas, to Mobile, Alabama, urged Fearn to make the negatives. Fearn prepared the negatives and sent them to Easterly in Dallas. He subsequently talked to Pam Fike, a friend of Easterly, and requested her to tell Easterly the negatives were on the way and that Easterly should send him some money. Fearn received $400.00 in money orders.

*1238 The Government’s second witness was co-defendant Lamb, who was a printer and long-time friend of Easterly and Ingram. He testified that he met with Easterly and Ingram and agreed to do the printing for one-third of the net proceeds; that Easterly and Lamb were to furnish the necessary materials. Lamb stated that he suggested a particular bond of paper and arranged to purchase it on the letterhead of a fictitious insurance company from a print shop owned by Clifford Hendricks, who was not a party to the enterprise. Lamb testified that he later received the negatives from which he made offset printing plates. Sample runs were made and examined by the trio who decided to use a heavier bond paper. The heavier paper was procured. Lamb testified that he printed about $100,000 of the counterfeit $10.00 notes with Easterly and Ingram present during part of the printing. He stated that after separating the defective bills from the run, he took bills of the face amount of approximately $20,000 and Ingram and Easterly took the remainder.

The next prosecution witness was Clifford Hendricks who identified Easterly as the man who on two occasions had come to his print shop and purchased paper representing himself as an insurance man. He also identified Ingram, but this identification was qualified and uncertain.

Testimony of Pam Fike corroborated that of other witnesses! She testified that Easterly told her he was going to make some money through counterfeiting and that he had purchased the paper by posing as an insurance man and that Easterly showed her some of the counterfeit notes. She related a conversation she had with Fearn concerning the mailing of the negatives and Fearn’s desire to be paid for them.

Tommy Perkins was called for the Government and testified that late one night Easterly brought a brief case full of counterfeit $10.00 notes and left it at Perkins’ residence for several days. Perkins took a bundle of the bills without Easterly’s knowledge. He testified that he later gave the bills to a friend from Austin, Texas, named George Abbe.

The Government next called three police officers from Coffeyville, Kansas. The first officer, Gary Swigert, testified that he observed an automobile driven by Easterly engaged in traffic violations. These violations included driving the wrong way on a one-way street and a flight from a police officer. Swigert stated the flight ended with Easterly’s car being involved in a one-car accident. The second officer, Glenn Welsh, testified that he was called to a high school the following morning where he received approximately 68 of the counterfeit notes which had been picked up near the scene of the accident by children walking to school. The last officer, Allen Flowers, testified that on the morning following Easterly’s accident he went to the scene of the accident and recovered a number of the counterfeit notes which were scattered about the vicinity. The notes recovered at the school, the ones recovered at the scene of the accident and the notes that Lamb identified as having been printed by him were compared by Lamb. The comparison revealed the notes to be identical.

The appellant’s first specification of error is that no limiting instruction was given the jury as to an affidavit of co-defendant Lamb. This affidavit, the appellant asserts, incriminated the appellant and bolstered the credibility of Lamb. Lamb’s testimony involved both Easterly and Ingram in the enterprise. In an effort to impeach Lamb, Ingram offered in evidence an affidavit which Lamb had given to a Secret Service agent. The affidavit implicated Easterly in counterfeiting activities but did not mention Ingram. Easterly made no request for an instruction limiting the effect of the affidavit. He requested that the jury be instructed as to hearsay testimony in the following language:

“James Melton Easterly would except to the Court’s charge in that the jury is not instructed to disregard any evidence submitted on behalf of *1239 the defendant Mackey Dowell Ingram which would be hearsay as to the defendant James Melton Easterly.”

This instruction was not given and Easterly now contends that this requested instruction would have given him the desired protection against the effect of Lamb’s affidavit. There is no merit in this position since the Lamb affidavit is not hearsay testimony against Easterly. McCormick, Evidence § 225. We cannot put the district court in error for refusing to give an instruction when none was requested and no apparent prejudice resulted.

Professor Wright discussing Rule 30, Fed.Rules Crim.Proc., in language applicable here states the following:

“Rule 30 provides that no party may assign as error any portion of the charge unless he objects to it before the jury retires to consider the verdict. The purpose of this provision is to give the trial court an opportunity to correct any error or omission in the charge before the jury begins its deliberations. If prompt objection is made as the rule requires, the error can then be corrected.
“The objecting party must state distinctly the matter to which he objects and the ground of his objections. The objection must be specific enough so that the trial court can perceive the basis on which it is claimed that the instruction was erroneous.”
Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure: Criminal, 284, § 484.

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Bluebook (online)
444 F.2d 1236, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 10056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-james-melton-easterly-ca5-1971.