United States v. John v. Wolosyn

Appellant, John V. Wolosyn, was convicted after a jury trial of four counts of interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles in violation of the Dyer Act ( 18 U.S.C. § 2312 ), and sentenced to three years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. He now appeals. We affirm.

Appellant claims four grounds for reversal of his conviction. First, he claims the evidence presented by the government was insufficient to sustain his conviction under Rodgers v. United States, 402 F.2d 830 (9 Cir. 1968). In Rodgers the only evidence introduced by the government was the defendant’s recent possession of a stolen car and an apparently valid title presented when he sold the car. The court there held the evidence was insufficient to justify reliance on the inferences which may be drawn from unexplained possession of a recently stolen ear in another state.

The instant case is clearly distinguishable from the situation involved in Rodgers . Here there was evidence that appellant, a used car dealer in Ohio who usually dealt in “junk” ears, possessed and sold, on four separate occasions, four late model Cadillacs in Tucson, Arizona; all four had been recently stolen from the area around…