Thomas Charles Stevens v. United States

Appellant was indicted on a single count for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422 (White Slave Traffic Act). The alleged victim was appellant’s nineteen year old wife. A trial by jury resulted in appellant’s conviction. Motion for a new trial was denied, and this timely appeal follows.

Appellant urges on this appeal as grounds for reversal: (1) The insufficiency of the evidence; (2) error of the trial court in declaring the wife to be a hostile witness; (3) error of the trial court in admitting, over objections of remoteness, testimony that Mrs. Stevens worked as a prostitute near Sacramento, California, in the early part of 1956 and in Miles City, Montana, in 1955; (4) error of the trial court in admitting three government Exhibits — Nos. 4, 9 and 11.

We will discuss the four errors urged together. Because the sufficiency of the evidence to convict is challenged, it is necessary to detail some of it.

There was no attempt on the part of anyone connected with this case to deny that Mrs. Stevens had embraced the oldest profession in Miles City, Montana in 1955 and had engaged in it near Sacramento, California early in 1956; in San Francisco, California in late 1955 and early 1956; and…