Rudy Notaro v. United States

Appellant was convicted in a jury trial of the violation of Section 176a of Title 21, United States Code. At the date of his conviction he was under twenty years of age, and upon the denial of his motion for new trial, he was sentenced under the provisions of the Federal Youth Corrections Act. 18 U.S.C. §§ 5005-5024 . This appeal followed.

The conviction rests upon the sale by appellant of three and one-half ounces of marijuana, an offense which, while admitted, was defended upon the claim that it resulted from illegal entrapment.

In our court, appellant presents two serious contentions, (1) that viewed as a whole, the evidence established as a matter of law that the Government lured and entrapped the appellant into the commission of the offense and that the district judge improperly submitted the issue to the jury so as to permit a finding to the contrary and (2) that certain instructions given to the jury were misleading and prejudicially erroneous.

The alleged entrapment was accomplished by one Harry Midby, a Las Vegas, Nevada, automobile painter. Midby had first become acquainted with appellant approximately two and one-half years before September 9, 1964, the date of the…