Steven David Rodriquez v. United States

Steven David Rodriquez, appellant herein, was convicted in a non-jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a) (robbery of a federally-insured bank). Rodriquez did not enter the bank during the robbery; his conviction rested on the fact that he drove the getaway car after two other persons had robbed the bank. This court has jurisdiction of his timely appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

At the trial the confession of appellant as to his participation in the robbery was admitted into evidence. No question is raised by appellant as to the voluntary nature of this confession, nor as to the propriety of the admission of the confession in evidence. Appellant’s sole contention on appeal is that the government introduced no evidence which sufficiently or at all corroborated appellant’s confession, and that therefore his conviction can not stand. We affirm the conviction.

We shall summarize the evidence introduced at the trial. The Telegraph Avenue Branch of the American Savings and Loan Association in Oakland was robbed by two men on December 13, 1967. After the robbery the bank manager ran after the two men…