Salvador Bernal-Zazueta v. United States

The defendant was indicted in four counts for transporting aliens who were illegally within the United States and whom he had reason to believe had entered the country within three years. The trial was before a jury. Defendant was convicted upon one count. The United States thereupon dismissed two counts and an independent indictment for similar offenses. Appeal was taken from the judgment of conviction. The serious assignments of error relate to the question of whether there was a fair trial.

There was a hypercritical criticism of the language of the indictment, but we find that fair notice was thereby given to defendant of the crime of which he was charged. The evidence showed that defendant, who was proved to have been previously convicted of a like offense, was arrested while driving an automobile upon the public highway at 11:00 p. m. on May 23, 1954, near Bakersfield, with four Mexican aliens in the body of the car with him and another in the trunk. It was proved that two of these passengers had crossed the border together but a short time previously. Defendant, who was prohibited from approaching the Mexican border under the terms of a probation order, picked up these…