Opinion ID: 4510932
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Synthetic Marijuana Evidence

Text: The district court also admitted evidence of the synthetic marijuana found in Welch’s car a month after the Aldrich house search. According to Welch, this violated Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b)(1), which states “[e]vidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character.” Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(1). The district court, however, admitted the evidence after finding it probative of Welch’s motive to possess the gun. See Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(2) (permitting evidence of prior bad acts to show “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident”). “We review the admission of [Rule 404(b)] evidence for abuse of discretion, and we will reverse only when such evidence clearly has no bearing on the case and was introduced solely to prove the defendant’s propensity to commit criminal acts.” United States v. Brown, 148 F.3d 1003, 1009 (8th Cir. 1998). Under the circumstances of this case, the synthetic marijuana evidence made it more likely that Welch knew of and possessed the .22 caliber Ruger handgun. Welch’s defense — that he was not involved with the guns and drugs at the house — is far less plausible when he was later found with the exact same (unique) kind of synthetic marijuana as was earlier found in the Aldrich house. Moreover, this court has held that drug possession can be relevant to motive in gun-possession cases. United States v. Williams, 796 F.3d 951, 961–62 (8th Cir. 2015). And facts tying a defendant to drug-trafficking may show a defendant’s “motive, opportunity, intent, and plan” to possess a gun. United States v. Claybourne, 415 F.3d 790, 797 (8th Cir. 2005). As such, we see no reason to suppose the synthetic marijuana evidence was only introduced to prove Welch’s criminal propensity. The district court did not abuse its discretion. -7-