United States v. Clifford Thomas Henderson

A jury convicted Henderson of one count of storing a stolen motor vehicle in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2313 (1976). The district court denied Henderson’s motions for judgment of acquittal and a new trial. Henderson appeals his conviction in No. 83-3008, and appeals the denial of his post-verdict motions in No. 83-3034. Henderson argues that the district court erroneously denied his pretrial suppression motion and that the interstate commerce element of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2313 was not properly charged in the indictment, addressed in the jury instructions, or proved. We affirm.

In June of 1983, the sheriff of Carbon County, Montana, received an anonymous tip that Henderson was storing a stolen Caterpillar loader. The anonymous informant supplied the serial number of the allegedly stolen vehicle. The sheriff asked County Commissioner Cole to record the serial number of the loader while he was in the vicinity of Henderson’s property. Cole verified the serial number, and the sheriff determined through the National Crime Information Center that a Caterpillar loader with that serial number had been stolen from Jefferson County, Colorado. The sheriff then went to Henderson’s…