United States v. DeLuna, 763 F.2d 897 (8th Cir. 1985)

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, No. 84-1047 and related appeals. Submitted September 10, 1984, decided May 10, 1985, before McMillian, Circuit Judge, Floyd R. Gibson, Senior Circuit Judge, and Arnold, Circuit Judge; the opinion is by Judge McMillian. The appellants, Carl Wesley Thomas, Carl Angelo DeLuna, Carl James Civella, Charles David Moretina, and Anthony Chiavola, Sr., appealed from a jury verdict in the District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The indictment of November 5, 1981 named eleven defendants. Nick Civella died before trial.

The opinion states the charge: “The government charged and sought to prove that the defendants conspired to gain control over the casino operations at the Tropicana Hotel and Country Club in Las Vegas, Nevada, in order to ‘skim’ money from the casino by removing cash before it was counted or reported and to transport this skimmed money in interstate commerce.” The indictment covered January 1, 1975 to April 1, 1979. The principal witness was the co-conspirator Joseph Agosto.

In the court’s account of the evidence, DeLuna and the Civellas told Agosto in January 1975 “that they would see to it that a Teamsters loan to Tropicana’s part-owner Deil Gustafson would be disapproved in order to facilitate Agosto’s takeover.” From June through October 1978 skimmers at the casino took “over $40,000 a month”; a courier made at least eighteen trips from Las Vegas to Kansas City, and “The remaining money was distributed to Joseph Aiuppa and Jack Cerone in Chicago.” FBI agents searched several defendants’ homes on February 14, 1979 and seized $80,000.

The opinion also discusses evidence about the Argent Corporation, “which owned four casinos,” as “the focus of a conspiracy to skim money from casinos” charged in a separate indictment, and the appellants’ objection to references to “Agosto’s efforts to acquire the LIDO show at the Stardust (owned by the Argent Corporation).” It mentions Frank Rosenthal at the Stardust. The court held that this evidence was properly admitted. The opinion does not use the word “family” for the Kansas City or Chicago defendants. It concludes: “Accordingly, the judgments of the district court are affirmed.”