James Bauer Tolan v. United States

Appellant Tolan, with a co-defendant named Montanona, was tried and convicted in the District Court of Guam on a charge of stealing personal property of a value in excess of $50.00, belonging to an electrical contracting firm but located on land within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 7 . Tolan has taken an appeal from his conviction.

The crime involved was one under 18 U.S.C. § 13 , on the assimilation made by that statute in respect to such lands of offenses under the Penal Code of Guam (here grand theft from §§ 484 and 487). The trial was the second one to which Tolan and Montanona-had- been subjected on the grand-theft charge. The first jury had been unable to agree on a verdict as to the theft charge, but it had returned a verdict of acquittal in favor of each of them as to a burglary charge which was included in the information. The offense of burglary alleged (assimilated from § 459 of the Penal Code of Guam) was the entering of a warehouse building located on the land, with intent to commit theft.

The principal question on the appeal is whether the acquittal of Tolan on the burglary charge as to entering the warehouse…