Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-08-03731/USCOURTS-ca8-08-03731-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Farhad Soltani
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable Scott O. Wright, United States District Court for the Western

District of Missouri.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 08-3731

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the Western

* District of Missouri.

Farhad Soltani, *

* [UNPUBLISHED]

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: September 21, 2009

Filed: January 11, 2010

___________

Before MELLOY, BEAM, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

A jury convicted Farhad Soltani of possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of

a controlled substance, marijuana, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and

924(a)(2). The district court1

 sentenced Soltani to 41 months' imprisonment, three

years' supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Soltani challenges the

district court's denial of his motions for acquittal, which he filed at the close of the

government's evidence and at the close of all evidence, claiming the evidence

Appellate Case: 08-3731 Page: 1 Date Filed: 01/11/2010 Entry ID: 3622798
-2-

presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction. For the following reasons,

we affirm.

We review a motion for judgment of acquittal de novo, United States v.

Espinosa, 585 F.3d 418, 423 (8th Cir. 2009), "viewing the evidence in the light most

favorable to the guilty verdict, resolving all evidentiary conflicts in favor of the

government, and accepting all reasonable inferences supported by the evidence."

United States v. No Neck, 472 F.3d 1048, 1052 (8th Cir. 2007). This is a "strict

standard of review" and we "will reverse only if no reasonable jury could have found

the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Id.

At trial, the government presented evidence demonstrating that on August 11,

2006, law enforcement officers in Kansas City, Missouri, executed a search warrant

on Soltani's residence. After entering the residence, the officers located and detained

Soltani and a female, found an assault rifle and a revolver underneath a bed in a room

Soltani had recently occupied, smelled the odor of marijuana, and discovered 230.65

grams of marijuana in a clear freezer bag inside a plastic grocery sack. The officers

arrested Soltani, took him to the police headquarters, and advised him of his Miranda

rights. After signing a Miranda waiver, Soltani admitted that the marijuana located

in his residence was for his personal use and that he has used marijuana daily since he

was approximately twelve years old. Soltani elaborated that he smokes marijuana

from the time he wakes up until he goes to sleep. Finally, Soltani admitted that he

purchased the assault rifle a year before the arrest and that he received the revolver

approximately a week before the arrest.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), it is illegal for a person "who is an unlawful user

of . . . any controlled substance . . . to . . . possess in or affecting commerce, any

firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been

Appellate Case: 08-3731 Page: 2 Date Filed: 01/11/2010 Entry ID: 3622798
2

The parties stipulated at trial that the rifle and revolver are firearms as defined

in 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3), and that they traveled in and affected interstate commerce.

-3-

shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce."2

 To establish that a

defendant was an unlawful user of marijuana while possessing a firearm, the

government need not prove "contemporaneous use of a controlled substance and

possession of a firearm." United States v. Mack, 343 F.3d 929, 933 (8th Cir. 2003).

Indeed, it is sufficient "for the government to demonstrate that [Soltani] was a 'user

of any controlled substance' during the period of time he possessed the firearms." Id.

Soltani argues that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction because

the sole evidence connecting Soltani's usage of marijuana to the firearms found in

Soltani's residence was Soltani's uncorroborated admission that he was a daily user of

marijuana. While we agree that "a conviction must rest upon firmer ground than the

uncorroborated [extrajudicial] admission or confession of the accused," Wong Sun

v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488-89 (1963), we disagree that Soltani's extrajudicial

admissions regarding his drug use and possession of firearms were uncorroborated by

the evidence presented in this case. 

"To satisfy the corroboration requirement, the government . . . must support the

essential facts admitted in the statement sufficiently to establish the corpus delicti.

The evidence is sufficient if there is substantial independent evidence which would

tend to support 'the essential facts admitted sufficiently to justify a jury inference of

their truth.'" United States v. Maxwell, 363 F.3d 815, 818 (8th Cir. 2004) (quoting

Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 93 (1954)). In the present case, Soltani admitted

to using marijuana daily since he was approximately twelve years old. This admission

was sufficiently corroborated by the government's evidence that officers smelled and

located marijuana in Soltani's residence while he was present. See Mack, 343 F.3d

at 933-935. Moreover, Soltani admitted to possessing an assault rifle for a year before

his arrest and to possessing a revolver for a week before his arrest. This admission

was sufficiently corroborated by the government's evidence that officers found both

Appellate Case: 08-3731 Page: 3 Date Filed: 01/11/2010 Entry ID: 3622798
-4-

an assault rifle and a revolver in Soltani's residence in a room that Soltani had recently

occupied. United States v. Moore, 735 F.2d 289, 293 (8th Cir. 1984).

After reviewing the evidence in this case, including Soltani's corroborated

confessions, in a light most favorable to the guilty verdict, we conclude that a

reasonable jury could have found Soltani guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of being

a marijuana user in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and

924(a)(2). 

 

Accordingly, we affirm. 

______________________________

Appellate Case: 08-3731 Page: 4 Date Filed: 01/11/2010 Entry ID: 3622798