United States v. Edward Wayne Beverley

Appellant, following jury trial, was convicted of aggravated mail robbery committed at the Steamboat, Nevada, Post Office, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2114 . He was given the mandatory 25 year sentence and has taken this appeal.

The indictment charged that appellant “put in jeopardy the lives of the [mail custodians] by the use of a dangerous weapon, to-wit, a loaded .357 Magnum Derringer-style pistol * * *.”

Appellant admitted the robbery but denied that lives were put in jeopardy. He assigns as error the court’s instructions respecting the nature of the offense, and also the action of the court in sustaining an objection to a question put to appellant by his counsel respecting his intentions.

In regard to both assignments of error appellant’s theory is that lives were not put in jeopardy by the use of the gun unless appellant intended to use the weapon, not simply for the purpose of creating fear, but for the purpose of actually inflicting death or great bodily harm if necessary to accomplish the robbery.

We do not agree. It is clear as the court instructed that more is needed than creation of fear.

Wagner v. United States, 264 F.2d 524, 530 (9th Cir., 1959).

The test,…