United States v. Steven Ralph Tavares

The appellant, Steven Ralph Tavares, was indicted for Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property ( 18 U.S.C. § 2314 ) on March 11, 1974. He was found guilty by jury trial on May 31, 1974, and was sentenced to five years in custody on June 24, 1974. Tavares appealed his conviction on the ground that the trial court improperly instructed the jury that the prior inconsistent statements of a witness, the co-defendant Darlene Holding, could be considered as substantive evidence of the defendant’s guilt.

BACKGROUND

On the evening of December 7, 1973, Lawrence Miller, a resident of Port Or-ford, Oregon, returned home and discovered his house had been burglarized. Missing was approximately $98,000 in cash which had been taken from a deep freeze.

A subsequent FBI investigation indicated that Harold Reinhardt, Miss Holding, and Tavares may have committed the burglary and transported the money to California. Only the defendant Tavares was brought to trial. Reinhardt died prior to trial and Miss Holding obtained a grant of immunity so that she might testify as a government witness at the trial of Tavares.

At the trial Miss Holding surprised the prosecutor by testifying that…