United States v. Mares

260 F. Supp. 741, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9571
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedNovember 15, 1966
DocketCr. A. No. 66-CR-81
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 260 F. Supp. 741 (United States v. Mares) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Mares, 260 F. Supp. 741, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9571 (D. Colo. 1966).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAM E. DOYLE, District Judge.

The defendants herein have filed motions for judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict, or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Oral arguments have been held on these motions and they now stand submitted.

Numerous points have been raised in the motions, but the only question which requires comment is the action of the Court in receiving in evidence acts and accompanying statements of the defendants soon after the alleged robbery. Inasmuch as the admissibility of these statements depends in part at least on the factual background and basis, it becomes necessary to relate the facts in some detail. The defendants are charged with the robbery of a Building and Loan Society in Denver on Monday, April 4, [742]*7421966. The charge also contains an allegation that the defendants employed guns in the perpetration of the said robbery. There were separate trials due to the intent of the Government to offer the testimony of the wife of one defendant against the other. This witness did not testify and the trial could have been a joint one.

The case is basically a circumstantial one and the Government painstakingly traced the activities and movements of the two defendants who are closely related.

On April 4, 1966, shortly after twelve o’clock noon, two armed masked men entered the Key Savings and Loan Association at the Alameda Shopping Center in Denver. At the time there were no customers in the bank, but the Branch Manager was present at the deposit window. His assistant was then in the back room eating lunch. The two men had nickle or light-colored metal revolvers. The Manager was ordered to lie face down on the floor and the assistant was "brought in from the back room at gunpoint and ordered to lie face down on the floor. The robbers then proceeded to rifle the cash drawers and obtained some $5,000.00 in currency, silver and ■checks.

The two defendants were identified as having been near the scene at or about the time of the robbery. A witness at a nearby store identified them as having been loitering in the store. While in the bank they wore knitted ski masks over their faces. These masks covered their faces and rendered it impossible to identify the two men positively. Less than positive identifications were made by the personnel of the bank. They picked them out of police line-ups as did the witness from the nearby store ■referred to above.

The proprietor of a pawn shop identified both defendants as having been ■present while a nickle-plated Ivor Johnson Revolver was sold to a man accompanying them. This incident occurred on March 31, 1966, a few days prior to the :robbery.

There was evidence showing that prior to the incident both men were in dire financial straits being in need of money for the purpose of satisfying pressing demands and desires. However, in a matter of a few hours after the robbery both defendants were shown to have had ample cash. Arthur Mares retrieved the vehicle of Albert at a repair shop and paid a substantial bill and used currency to satisfy the obligation. At the time he displayed in addition a one-hundred dollar bill and stated that the source of the funds was an income tax rebate of Albert.

A few hours after the robbery the two defendants appeared with their girl friends at downtown stores and made extensive purchases of luxury items of clothing and toilet articles.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation meticulously investigated the movements of the defendants on the day of the robbery and produced evidence to establish opportunity to carry it out.

In the Albert Mares trial there was evidence that smoke came out of an incinerator at the rear of his wife’s home soon after the robbery. The F.B.I. discovered evidence of burned knitted material in this incinerator soon after the incident.

Although the defendants were not arrested immediately after the offense, they were investigation subjects soon after the incident. The testimony in question consisted of descriptions of acts and accompanying statements which were given during the period prior to the arrest of the defendants. Most of these occurred on the day of the offense or the day following. Both men were shown to have engaged in concealment efforts. For example: the clothing purchased was carefullly concealed; also, a quantity of silver was concealed at the behest of one of the defendants. Explanations (shown by the prosecution to be false) as to the source of the money were related and communications between them or people acting for them, were given. All of these statements were spontaneous. Most such conversations [743]*743accompanied and explained acts and none of them were narrative acknowledgments of the commission of the offense. In other words, they were statements which did not have the effect of directly proving the crime, but were circumstances from which inferences as to involvement could logically be drawn.

This is a mere outline of the circumstances and does not purport to fully detail the numerous items and pieces of evidence which were offered. It sufficiently shows, however, that there was ample independent evidence to establish the corpus delicti of the offense and that the defendants were confederates in the robbery of a bank, and that they continued to act in concert as an aftermath of the actual robbery.

Counsel for the defendants has urged the proposition that any statement of a confederate in a robbery case made subsequent to the actual robbery is barred if the statement is made outside the presence of his confederate. In essence, he urges that even prior to arrest and notwithstanding that the statements are not offered testimonially, and even though they are non-narrative statements, and regardless of whether they are related in time and space to the commission of the offense, and irrespective of probative value they must be excluded if the statements were not made incident to the holding of the guns and the taking of the money itself. Because the law is not altogether clear on this, we have devoted careful attention to the cases with a view to determining whether the evidence in question was properly received.

In the Arthur Mares case the motion for new trial describes the evidence complained of as follows:

“ * * * Said evidence included the testimony of Mary Valdez that she told Albert Mares that Lucy Mar-cias said that four policemen were over at her house and to get rid of the stuff. Whereupon, Albert Mares was quoted as saying:
“ ‘S — t, how did they find that out?’
“This evidence the Court characterized, in the subsequent trial of Albert Mares, as 'most probative.’ ”

In the Albert Mares motion for new trial, it is described as follows:

“ * * * Said evidence included the testimony of Lorraine Griego that Arthur Mares said that Albert and Arthur Mares had received money from income tax refunds, that Arthur Mares told her to take Lucy Macias’ purse containing $30.00 in change and hide it, that Arthur Mares told her to inform the FBI that the new shirts belonged to Bob Martinez, and similar incriminatory utterances quoted by said witness. Said testimony included the evidence of the witness Beck that Arthur Mares told him that the $100.00 bill in his possession was for rent money, and that Albert had gotten an income tax refund. Also included in such inadmissible testimony, was the evidence of Mr. & Mrs.

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Related

People v. Burke
549 P.2d 419 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1976)
United States v. Craig Mundt
508 F.2d 904 (Tenth Circuit, 1975)
Arthur Mares v. United States
409 F.2d 1083 (Tenth Circuit, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
260 F. Supp. 741, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mares-cod-1966.