Howard Dwayne Spradlin v. United States

Appellant stands convicted of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle, 18 U.S.C. § 2312 , and appeals from judgment.

Appellant attacks the sufficiency of the proof. We find it sufficient. The evidence establishes that the owner of a 1960 Oldsmobile had it delivered to Morris Motors Company of Flagstaff, Arizona; that no one other than Morris Motors had any authorization to use the vehicle; that on the day following delivery it was placed on the company’s lot; that within two weeks the vehicle was discovered to be missing from the lot; that the manager of the company had not given anyone permission to take the vehicle. Appellant was in Flagstaff, Arizona, during the time that the vehicle was apparently taken. Within two weeks of the delivery of the car to Morris Motors the appellant was arrested while operating the vehicle in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The foregoing evidence was sufficient to permit the trial jury to find that the automobile in question was a stolen vehicle. This being so the jury was entitled to draw the inference and find in the light of all the circumstances in the case that appellant, possessing the vehicle in the State of Nevada, not only knew it to be…