United States v. Gary Lee Hartlerode, United States of America v. Allan T. Jones, United States of America v. Joseph S. Burroughs

Three appeals have been consolidated for hearing. Appellants Hartlerode, Jones and Burroughs (together with one Purkis), were charged in a three-count indictment having to do with the smuggling of commercial quantities of marijuana from Mexico to the United States by airplane. All four defendants were charged with conspiracy to smuggle in Count One, all four were charged with smuggling in Count Two, and appellants Burroughs and Hartlerode were charged with transporting marijuana within the United States in Count Three.

The jury’s verdict found Jones and Purkis guilty on Counts One and Two, Burroughs guilty on Counts One and Three, and Hartlerode guilty on Count Three alone.

Purkis has not appealed. He was the apparent leading spirit in the conspiracy found by the jury. He rented the aircraft involved in Santa Ana, California; removed all seats except the pilot’s and one other; flew the plane to Riverside, California, on December 12, 1970, where he picked up appellant Jones; flew the plane to Laguna Salada, Baja California (where the plane was observed to meet another plane and to transfer objects carried from it to the rented plane). The rented plane was then flown to the desert…