United States v. Edward Frank Snell and Erwin William Schmidt

After a jury trial, defendants Schmidt and Snell were convicted of attempting to obstruct commerce by extortion, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951 (“Hobbs Act” or “Act”), and of conspiracy to rob a federally insured bank, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 2113(a). The District Court sentenced Schmidt to five years of confinement for each of the two offenses, the sentences to run concurrently. Snell received a twenty-year term of confinement on the attempted extortion conviction and a five-year term for the conspiracy offense, these sentences also to run concurrently. We reverse the convictions for attempted extortion under the Hobbs Act and affirm the convictions for conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

An unindicted co-conspirator named Prickett provided most of the incriminating evidence against the appellants. Prickett testified that Schmidt and Snell devised two contingency plans to extort $150,000 from the federally insured Southland Center Branch of the Bank of America in Hayward, California, on December 11, 1975. Pursuant to the first plan, the conspirators contemplated holding the bank manager and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Aimes, as overnight hostages in their own home. The…