United States v. Walter Metcalf

Metcalf was convicted of having obstructed justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503 . The alleged offense centered around an attempt by him to secure possession of an automobile that had been purchased with money obtained in a bank robbery.

Joe Nicholls, who had already pleaded guilty to the offense of bank robbery, was the prosecution’s principal witness against Metcalf. As we shall see, however, his testimony actually undermined the Government’s case. Nicholls related that he had unlawfully taken approximately $2500 from a bank in Spokane, Washington. The next day he paid $1300 in cash for a 1966 Pontiac Le Mans automobile and signed a note for the remaining $300 owing to the vehicle’s seller. He drove the vehicle to the Spokane house of a friend, Robert Herr. Herr and Nicholls then left in Herr’s car and visited several places in the western United States. Nicholls eventually arrived in Tacoma, Washington, where Metcalf lived. Herr was not with Nicholls at that time, apparently because he had been arrested earlier for aiding Nicholls’ flight.

Nicholls contacted Metcalf and then called Mrs. Herr to inform her that someone would pick up the Pontiac which he, Nicholls, had left…