Alfonso Espinoza Covarrubias v. United States

HAMLIN, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Alfonso Espinoza Covarru-bias and his wife Rachel were indicted and charged with smuggling nine and one-half pounds of marihuana into the United States from Mexico at the port of San Ysidro, California, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 176a. 1

Both entered pleas of not guilty, but when the case came on for trial on July 29, 1958, Rachel changed her plea to guilty. The trial proceeded as to appellant alone, and he was convicted by the jury and sentenced to imprisonment in accordance with law.

He appealed from the judgment of conviction and from the denial of his…