Yawn v. United States

Appellant, convicted below of conspiracy to violate the Internal Revenue Code by unlawfully possessing and controlling distilling apparatus and distilled spirits, and engaging in the business of a distiller without paying taxes thereon, is here insisting that a reversal is required principally because one of ten overt acts allegedly committed in furtherance of the conspiracy had been judicially determined against the Government and in favor of appellant in a former trial. Overt act November 9 of the one-count indictment was an allegation of joint possession by appellant and two alleged coconspirators December 3, 1953, of an unregistered distillery located in a dwelling house on Chapmans Road in Duval County, Florida. The week preceding the instant conspiracy trial, appellant had been acquitted by a jury of the substantive charge of possession, 26 U.S.C.A. § 2810 (since recodified), of the identical still at the identical time and place.