United States v. Charles Spinella, Frank Leslie Merritt and Jerry Buchanan

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

The defendants-appellants, Frank Merritt, Jerry Buchanan, and Charles Spinella, with one other, John Lettieri, were convicted of receiving and transporting stolen vehicles in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2312 and 2313, and of conspiring to commit those offenses, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Lettieri did not join in this appeal. Buchanan and Merritt raise two contentions. First, they assert that the trial court violated their Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury by refusing to grant a mistrial when it was discovered that two jurors had…