Ronald Ralph Pependrea v. United States

Appellant was convicted on two counts of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a), which, in pertinent part, reads: “Whoever, by force and violence, or by intimidation, takes * * * from the person or presence of another any * * * money * * * belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management, or possession of, any bank * * * shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”

The maximum sentence of 20 years was imposed on each count, to run consecutively, and also consecutively with a sentence imposed previously in the District of Kansas.

Appellant contends (1) that there was a fatal variance between the indictment and proof, and that his motion for judgment of acquittal accordingly should have been granted; (2) that the court erred in admitting testimony of an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding confessions of the appellant and in admitting the confessions; and (3) that the court abused its discretion in imposing the maximum sentence on each count, to run consecutively.

The indictment charged in the first count that the appellant and another “by force and violence knowingly and wilfully took from Mrs.…