Case ID: f-appx_81/html/0486-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joseph COLEMAN, Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 03-30482
    Summary Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    Nov. 24, 2003.
    Cristina Walker, Assistant US Attorney, US Attorney’s Office, Shreveport, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
    Rebecca L. Hudsmith, Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender’s Office, Lafayette, LA, for Defendant-Appellant.
    Before HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, and PRADO, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Joseph Coleman appeals his jury conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and (2). Although Coleman concedes that he is a convicted felon and that the firearms were in or affecting interstate commerce, he argues that no rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly possessed the firearms in question.

One may be in constructive possession by exercising dominion or control over the area in which the contraband is found. Joint-occupancy cases, like this one, require some evidence “ ‘supporting at least a plausible inference that the defendant had knowledge of and access to the weapon.’ ”

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict and accepting its credibility determinations, the evidence is sufficient to support Coleman’s conviction. The Government presented evidence, including Coleman’s admission that weapons were inside the car, supporting at least a plausible inference that Coleman had knowledge of and access to the firearms in question. Therefore, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.

AFFIRMED. 
      
       Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.
     
      
      . United States v. Knezek, 964 F.2d 394, 400 (5th Cir.1992).
     
      
      . United States v. Ybarra, 70 F.3d 362, 365 (5th Cir.1995) (citation omitted).
     
      
      . Id.