United States v. Jerome Harold Begun

Appellant was indicted, tried and convicted in a jury trial on five counts of violations of 26 U.S.C. § 4705 (a) [illegal sale of narcotic drugs]; two counts of violations of 21 U.S.C. § 331 (q) (2) [illegal sale of drugs], and five counts of violations of 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (d) [illegal possession of unregistered firearms]. Appellant was sentenced to five years imprisonment on certain of the counts and seven years imprisonment on others, all sentences to run concurrently.

A discussion of the facts revealed in the 895 page record would add nothing to the validity of our conclusions.- Appellant assigns but one error. At the close of the government’s case, appellant moved to compel the government to elect whether it would proceed on the asserted violations of the drug statutes or on the alleged violations of the firearms statute. In the alternative, he moved that the court order a severance between the drug and the firearms charges. These motions were denied!

Rule 8(a), FRCrimP, permits the joinder of two or more offenses in the same indictment where they are “* * * of the same or similar character or are based on the same act or transaction or on two or more acts or transactions…