United States v. Donald Lee Calhoun

Appellant Donald Calhoun appeals from his jury trial conviction for bank robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a)(d), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, 18 U.S.C.App. § 1202(a)(1). Because we find that the trial court admitted improper, prejudicial evidence, we reverse.

FACTS

Two black males robbed the Citizens Savings and Loan in Sacramento, California July 17, 1978. The robbers wore masks with eye cutouts. Two tellers viewed one of the robbers for approximately sixty and fifty seconds, respectively. One shot was fired at the vault in an attempt to open it. Bullet fragments from the shot were collected for identification.

On August 15, 1978, appellant purchased a used car with $3,000 in small denomination bills that he removed from a brown paper bag. Two days later, the person from whom he bought the car recognized a photograph in a local newspaper, called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and turned over $2,975 of the cash paid by appellant. Subsequent to a photo identification by one of the tellers, appellant was arrested August 18, 1978 while driving the recently purchased automobile. During a search of the car to which the appellant consented, agents discovered a…