United States v. Charles B. Brown

Defendant-Appellant, Charles B. Brown, along with one Willard, Conley and Wright, was charged with violations of. Title 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a), (d) — ■ Armed robbery of a Federal Credit Union. Conley and Wright pleaded guilty. Defendant-Appellant, after severance of his case from that of Willard, was tried before the Court without a jury and found guilty as charged.

The government’s theory of the case was that appellant met with the three other defendants in a Los Angeles pool hall, that the four proceeded to Bell, California, in a Volkswagen of which appellant was the driver and that, while appellant waited in the get-away Volkswagen, parked in an alley behind the Credit Union, the three others committed the armed robbery.

On this appeal appellant contends (1) that the evidence adduced at his trial was insufficient to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in that the government failed to show that appellant had knowledge of any intent to commit a robbery; (2) that defendant’s arrest was the result of improper police detention and interrogation without probable cause and, therefore, illegal.

The evidence presented by the government was substantially as…