United States v. Alton Wayne Moore

Appellant was convicted on three counts of soliciting money in exchange for his promise not to testify at the trial of another in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 201 (e). With respect to two counts appellant was sentenced to six years in prison each, to run concurrently, and with respect to the third count appellant received a sentence of five years of probation to be served consecutive to the prison sentences. It is from these convictions that this appeal is taken. We affirm.

I.

THE FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

While it may be true that to describe the facts of this case as “bizarre” is too extravagant, it is also true that to describe them as “unusual” is to employ an inappropriate understatement. Something between “odd” and “sensational” is perhaps about right. Our recital begins by noting that appellant in 1978 was serving a life sentence in prison in Belize (formerly British Honduras), Central America, for murder. In that year appellant met Harvey Dail, a fellow prisoner, who offered to help appellant escape from prison, to pay the expenses of his return to the United States and $20,-000 in exchange for appellant’s murder of Charles Hudson, a witness against one of Dail’s…