Case ID: f-appx_553/html/0966-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony Ray POINTER, Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 13-11576
    Non-Argument Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
    Feb. 4, 2014.
    Ramona Albin, Michael B. Billingsley, Jennifer Smith Murnahan, Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Birmingham, AL, Terrence Murphy O’Rourke, Russell Ellis Penfield, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Huntsville, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
    Bruce Alan Gardner, Bruce A. Gardner, Attorney at Law, Huntsville, AL, for Defendant-Appellant.
    Before TJOFLAT, JORDAN, and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Anthony Ray Pointer appeals his conviction for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). At trial, the district court denied Pointer’s motion pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 on the firearm charge, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Given that Pointer’s gun (.45 auto pistol) was loaded, easily accessible in the shop where he sold cocaine, and in close proximity to drugs and money that could have been drug proceeds, a reasonable jury could have found a sufficient nexus between the gun and the drug trafficking crime to establish a violation of § 924(c). Besides, Pointer had stated that he kept the gun to protect his business; and a reasonable jury could believe that his business included drug trafficking. Thus, the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to establish that Pointer possessed his gun in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

AFFIRMED.