United States v. Clifton Bert Craft

Clifton Bert Craft, appellant herein, and three others, Wolfe, Orman, and Horn, were indicted on November 22, 1966, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Count 1 charged Wolfe and Or-man with smuggling six pounds of marihuana into this country, aided and abetted by Craft and Horn; Count 2 charged the four defendants with concealing six pounds of marihuana with intent to defraud; and Count 3 charged the four defendants with smuggling three switchblade knives into this country. After severance was granted as to Wolfe and Orman, Craft and Horn had a joint trial by jury on May 18, 1967, with United States District Judge McNichols presiding. The jury found appellant Craft guilty on all three counts, and he received a 5-year concurrent sentence on each count. Craft filed an appeal in this court, which court affirmed his conviction in an opinion dated October 31, 1968 ( 403 F.2d 360 ).

On February 6, 1969, appellant filed in the district court a motion for a new trial on the grounds of newly discovered evidence, a previous motion apparently based on the same ground made during the pendency of the appeal having been denied on January 3, 1968. See…