Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

438 F.2d 1192

Docket Nos. 14765, 14766.

United States v. Epps

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Feb. 22, 1971.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1971-02-22

3 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[p]ut all your money in this bag and nobody will get hurt,”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including United States v. Chambers, United States v. Leroy Robinson

Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2113

Relies on Prince v. United States · Holland v. United States · United States v. Laker

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1971-02-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently December 2008 · most notably United States v. Higdon (1987), United States v. Redwine (1983)

25 federal appellate · 2 state decisions

1201971198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*1193Arthur G. Murphy, Sr., Baltimore, Md., on brief for appellant, Roger Larson Epps.

¶2Benjamin L. Brown, Baltimore, Md., on brief for appellant, Lovic Moultrie Ingram.

¶3George Beall, U. S. Atty., and Charles G. Bernstein, Asst. U. S. Atty., on brief for appellee.

¶4Before WINTER, CRAVEN and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges.

¶5PER CURIAM:

¶6Roger Larson Epps and Lovic Moul-trie Ingram were charged as codefend-ants in a three-count indictment with violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(a) (bank robbery by force and violence, or by intimidation) (count one), with violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(b) (unarmed bank robbery) (count two), and with violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(d) (armed bank robbery) (count three). At the close of the government’s case, motions for acquittal with regard to count three were granted. A jury convicted Epps and Ingram of counts one and two. Epps was sentenced to imprisonment for eighteen years on count one, and ten years on count two, the sentences to run concurrently. Ingram was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years on count one, and ten years on count two, the sentences to run concurrently. In this appeal, the government has filed a motion to affirm the judgments summarily.

¶7Both Epps and Ingram challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to convict them of count one. We think the note, handed to the teller by Epps, which stated, “Put all your money in this bag and nobody will get hurt,” sufficient under the circumstances to permit the jury to find that the bank robbery had been committed by intimidation within the meaning of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(a).

¶8*1194Both also challenge the admission into evidence during the government’s rebuttal and hence, after the judgments of acquittal on the charge of armed bank robbery, of two boxes of cartridges. Reliance is placed upon United States v. Laker, 427 F.2d 189 (6 Cir. 1970), which held that admission of a gun in a prosecution for unarmed bank robbery is error.

¶9Even if the scope of the decision in Laker is sufficiently broad to include the admission of ammunition, without the admission of a gun, in a prosecution for unarmed bank robbery, it is inapplicable here. The admission of the ammunition was proper to impeach the credibility of Epps. After Epps’ motion for a judgment of acquittal on the armed bank robbery count of the indictment was granted, Epps testified in his own behalf. In his direct testimony he said that he did not have a gun while he was in the bank. On cross-examination he repeated that he did not have a gun and he added that he had neither seen a gun nor any bullets on the person of his co-defendant or in the car which he drove to the bank. Admission into evidence of bullets recovered from the car was thus permissible impeachment of Epps’ credibility in the latter denial. The district judge did not abuse his discretion in the receipt of this evidence.

¶10Ingram additionally claims that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of aiding and abetting under both counts one and two. We have carefully reviewed the evidence, and find it ample to convict him.

¶11Although not raised by the appellants in their briefs, we think the imposition of the ten year concurrent sentences plain error. Rule 52(b), Fed.R.Crim.P. Foster v. United States, No. 13,849 (4 Cir., December, 1969) (Mem. Dec.); Holland v. United States, 384 F.2d 370 (5 Cir. 1967); see Prince v. United States, 352 U.S. 322, 77 S.Ct. 403, 1 L.Ed.2d 370 (1956).

¶12While we grant the motion for summary affirmance of the judgments on count one, we remand as to the judgments on count two with directions to vacate the ten year sentences.

¶13Affirmed in part; vacated in part.

/438/f2d/1192 · .json · Public domain