United States v. Abel Montoya Sambrano and Johnnie Rodriguez Padilla

Appellants Abel Montoya Sambrano and Johnnie Rodriguez Padilla were convicted for the armed robbery of a federal credit union in. violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113 (a) and (d). On appeal Sambrano argues that the trial court improperly refused to give a requested jury instruction regarding his identification as one of the perpretrators of the alleged crime, and that, since only Padilla had been identified prior to trial, the court abused its discretion in refusing to grant his motion for a trial separate from Padilla’s. While Padilla joins in Sambrano’s contention that the court improperly instructed the jury .on the issue of identification, he also argues that the court erroneously denied his motion to suppress the in-court identification. Concluding that these contentions are without merit, we affirmed.

Just after noon on January 16, 1974, the Phoenix City Employees’ Credit Union was robbed by two Mexican-American males. Only two tellers were present in the building during the robbery, Clemence Godin and Suzanne Mef-ford, and one credit union member, Elias Aragon, who came in after the robbery began.

Shortly after the robbery, Godin and Mefford were shown photographs of…