## Facts

- Leroy Hayes was tried in federal court for two armed bank robberies in Manhattan: a March 25, 1976 robbery of a Manufacturers Hanover Trust branch and an April 1, 1976 robbery of a Chase Manhattan Bank branch.
- The indictment charged two counts of bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and two counts of using a dangerous weapon during those robberies under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(d).
- The government also charged Hayes with assaulting federal agents during his arrest on April 2, 1976, under 18 U.S.C. § 111, based on events on a sidewalk outside an Irving Trust branch.
- The government introduced evidence of a March 24, 1976 robbery of the Swiss Bank Corporation as similar-acts evidence; that institution was not a “bank” within 18 U.S.C. § 2113(f), so it was not charged as a bank-robbery count.
- Federal agents arrested Hayes after close observation and a near, side-by-side comparison of his appearance with high-quality bank surveillance photographs; Hayes was carrying a briefcase that agents searched.
- Hayes did not challenge the sufficiency of the trial evidence, which included multiple eyewitnesses and surveillance photographs.
- The district court entered judgment on the jury’s guilty verdicts on all five counts and imposed consecutive prison terms, including 15-year terms on two counts and a three-year term on the assault count.

## Issues

1. Whether agents had probable cause to arrest Hayes, making the search of his briefcase lawful as incident to arrest.
2. Whether the district court erred under Federal Rule of Evidence 609(a)(1) by refusing to preclude impeachment with Hayes’s recent federal narcotics conviction, allegedly deterring him from testifying.
3. Whether admitting evidence of the uncharged Swiss Bank robbery as similar-acts evidence, and the related limiting instruction, was improper.
4. Whether the court’s supplemental instruction on the amount of force permissible in connection with the assault-on-federal-agents count was erroneous.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed the convictions on all counts.
- The court held there was probable cause to arrest Hayes and therefore the briefcase search incident to arrest was lawful.
- The court upheld the trial judge’s decision to allow potential impeachment with Hayes’s recent narcotics conviction under Rule 609(a)(1).
- The court found no reversible error in admitting the Swiss Bank robbery evidence for a limited purpose and in the judge’s instruction explaining how the jury could use it.
- The court rejected Hayes’s challenge to the supplemental charge on permissible force relating to the § 111 assault count.

## Legal Principles

- A close comparison of a suspect with high-quality surveillance photographs can supply probable cause for arrest; if such a comparison may support proof of guilt, it may “a fortiori” support probable cause.
- A search of items carried by an arrestee may be upheld when conducted incident to a lawful arrest supported by probable cause.
- Under Fed. R. Evid. 609(a)(1), admission of a prior felony conviction for impeachment requires a trial-court balancing of probative value on credibility against prejudicial effect and is reviewed as a discretionary evidentiary ruling.
- Evidence of an uncharged, similar robbery may be admitted for limited, non-propensity purposes (such as identity or plan) when sufficiently similar in time, place, and method; an appropriate limiting instruction mitigates unfair prejudice.
- Jury instructions, including supplemental instructions on resistance and force in an arrest context, warrant reversal only if they misstate the law or mislead the jury on the elements or burden of proof.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit affirmed Hayes’s bank-robbery and assault convictions, holding that agents had probable cause based on surveillance-photo comparison, the briefcase search was valid incident to arrest, impeachment with a recent felony conviction fell within Rule 609 discretion, and the other-acts evidence and jury instructions did not warrant reversal.


United States v. Hayes, 553 F.2d 824 (2d Cir. 1977)