Enriquez

Appellant Enriquez and five others, Arturo C. Leyvas, Ray C. Leyvas, Connie Duarte, Arturo E. Jerez and Joe Martinez, were charged with violations of 21 U.S.C.A. § 174 and 26 U.S.C.A. § 2554 (a) (importation, concealment, transportation and sale of narcotic drugs), and with conspiracy to commit the offenses. The indictment contained 78 counts of which 77 charged substantive violations. The 78th charged the conspiracy. All the defendants except Enriquez entered pleas of guilty to various of the substantive offenses and to conspiracy, and the trial proceeded as against Enriquez alone. At the close of the government’s case the court directed a judgment of acquittal as regards the substantive counts, nine in number, which involved Enriquez, but permitted the case to go to the jury on the conspiracy count with the result that Enriquez was convicted of that offense.

Three points are argued on the appeal (1) insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, (2) admission over objection of certain items of evidence claimed to be heresay, and (3) claimed error in the admission of a judgment of conviction for a prior violation of the narcotics laws.

1. In the course of the trial the…