Ex parte Lagomarsino

After serving ten years of a twenty-year sentence, Ray Lagomarsino had this habeas corpus proceeding instituted to determine the legality of the balance of his sentence.

An indictment in five counts was returned against him as a result of his burglarizing a United States post office. Count 1 was for breaking into a post office; count 2 was for cutting open a mail sack; and counts 3, 4, and 5 were for abstracting three separate parcels from an authorized depositary for mail (namely, the mail sack mentioned in count 2) in violation of section 194 of the Criminal Code ( 18 U.S.C.A. § 317 and note). All five counts were the result of one burglary, and as to the last three counts, presumably Lagomarsino abstracted the parcels simultaneously. He pleaded guilty to all the counts and was sentenced to five years on each one, the sentences on the first two to run concurrently, and the others to run consecutively.

The terms of the sentences imposed on the first three counts expired on February 8, 1936. The petitioner Concedes the validity of these sentences, but assails the legality of the sentences imposed on counts 4 and S.

The question before the court is whether the sentence of five…