George Gilbert and Jess Brown v. United States

After a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division, George Gilbert, Jr., and Jess Brown, appellants herein, were convicted of aggravated mail robbery and possession of stolen mail under 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 2114 and 1708, respectively. They were each sentenced to a mandatory 25 years imprisonment for the aggravated mail robbery and 5 years for possession of stolen mail, the sentences to run concurrently. They filed a timely appeal to this court which has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291 .

On brief appellants malee three specifications of errors: (1) The court erred in its instruction to the jury with respect to the crime proscribed by 18 U.S.C.A. § 2114 (aggravated mail robbery); (2) the arrest of appellants was unlawful, the search of the dwellings of each appellant was unlawful, and therefore the fruits of such search were improperly received into evidence; and (3) the evidence was insufficient to justify the conviction.

The facts taken in the light most favorable to the government are summarized below. On November 1, 1960, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco prepared six registered parcels containing currency…