Opinion ID: 857810
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for conviction on the eight counts charging possession or brandishing of a gun in connection with the robberies on January 6, 10, 12, and 16, 2011. He contends that the government failed to prove that he possessed and used the specific gun charged in those counts (namely, Collier’s gun). Our review of the sufficiency of the evidence is de novo. See United States v. Smith, 641 F.3d 1200, 1204 (10th Cir. 2011). “We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to ascertain whether -8- any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 1204–05. The evidence established that Defendant had the gun when he was arrested in March 2011, and witnesses to each of the robberies described him as having a gun resembling Collier’s. Defendant acknowledges that there was adequate circumstantial evidence that he possessed the gun during the robberies that occurred after he took up residence at Collier’s house on February 14. But he argues that a juror could only speculate that Defendant had the gun before February 14 because there was no evidence that he could have known of the gun or its location before he moved in with Collier. We are not persuaded. It is undisputed that Collier never told Defendant where the gun was. Yet he possessed it when arrested; so he must have learned of its location without Collier’s help. And the date that Defendant moved into Collier’s residence is not determinative, because he had free access to her home in January and early February, before he moved in. Also, Defendant overlooks Collier’s testimony that she had told a friend of Defendant’s where the gun was. We reject Defendant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence.