United States v. William De Palma

. Appellant, on conflicting evidence, was convicted by a jury of violating 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a) (d). In the course of the bank robbery, appellant was alleged to have “assaulted and put in jeopardy the life of teller Ernestine Cazares by the use of a pistol, a dangerous weapon and device.” Because of certain matters urged in defense, including the defense of the insufficiency of the evidence to convict, we turn to the evidence.

The teller, Ernestine Cazares, positively identified the defendant in court (R.T. 51-52) as the man who had approached her teller’s window on November 28, 1968, laid a folded brown paper sack on her counter, said “give me all your money,” and when she stared at him, “he reached into his left pocket and he pulled up a gun. He didn’t point it at me. He just showed me that he had it. * * * [H]e reached it out of his pocket, but he didn’t point it at me. * * * [I] saw it in his hand. He said ‘all of it and hurry.’ He reached over and picked up the money, I was afraid to scream or anything because I knew he had a gun and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. [R.T. 44-50.] I didn’t become frightened until I saw the gun. He pulled it completely out of his pocket and…