United States v. Crachy

Per Curiam. Indicted on three counts of possessing and selling counterfeit currency, Elmer Joseph Crachy was acquitted on one count and convicted on the other two. Both counts on which he was convicted involved the same packet of 143 counterfeit $50 bills; one conviction was for possession of the counterfeit money in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472, and the other was for selling it in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 473. Mr. Crachy received prison sentences for both offenses, the terms to run concurrently. The most significant of the several questions raised in this appeal is whether the two offenses of which Mr. Crachy was convicted really constituted a single criminal act for which only one term of imprisonment would be permissible. Having concluded that the evidence shows two distinct courses of criminal conduct, and finding no merit in the other claims of error, we shall affirm the conviction and allow both sentences to stand.