Wardell Bowie v. United States

On June 29, 1960, appellant Wardell Bowie, was indicted along with three other defendants, George Quong Lee, R. L. Fowler, and John Chatman. He was charged in three counts of an eighteen count indictment with violation of § 174, Title 21, U.S.C.A., (1956). Count one charges appellant, Lee, Fowler, Chatman, others to the grand jury unknown, and one Hendrix, an unindicted co-eonspirator, with conspiring during the period August 1, 1958 to April 18, 1960 to sell, conceal and facilitate the sale, concealment and transportation of heroin, which, as the defendants well knew, would be imported into the United States contrary to law. Count five charged that on or about December 20,1958, appellant knowingly and unlawfully purchased approximately eight ounces of unlawfully imported heroin from Lee and Hendrix. Count six charges that on or about December 20, 1958, appellant and Lee knowingly and unlawfully concealed and facilitated the concealment and transportation of approximately eight ounces of unlawfully imported heroin.

All defendants were tried to a jury in a single trial. On motion for judgments of acquittal at the close of the Government’s case, the court reserved its ruling until…