United States v. Leroy Garrett

A two count indictment was filed against appellant. Count One charged the defendant and two others with aiding and abetting a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 1708 , (unlawful possession of stolen mail), on or about October 6, 1969; Count Two charged the defendant individually with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708 on the same date. The case was tried before the court without a jury and the defendant was found guilty on both counts. He was sentenced to the custody of the Attorney General for a period of two years on each count, to run concurrently. The defendant appealed. We affirm.

Several witnesses testified that they had seen a man around the mailboxes at a particular location from which some of the missing mail was taken, and each saw him drive away in a blue station wagon. One of them testified that she spoke to this person from a distance of about fifteen feet. She identified the defendant as the person to whom she had spoken on October 3, 1969, the date one of the cheeks was discovered to be missing from her neighbor’s mailbox. She had seen the man on that neighbor’s porch where he remained about fifteen minutes.

A co-defendant who testified said that the defendant picked her…