Opinion ID: 3001565
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to Sever and Sufficiency Challenges

Text: Rice’s other challenges to his convictions also lack merit. First, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Rice’s motion to sever Count 5 from the other counts. See United States v. Rollins, 301 F.3d 511, 517 (7th Cir. 2002) (denial of motion to sever reviewed for abuse of discretion). That count charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm on January 12, 2003, and Rice denied possessing the firearm charged in Count 5. Counts 1 through 4, in contrast, charged Rice with conduct only on October 29, 2002, and he admitted that he possessed the firearms charged in those counts. A court may order separate trials on separate counts if the joinder of offenses in an indictment appears to prejudice the defendant. Fed. R. Crim. P. 14(a). A district court abuses its discretion in declining to order separate trials only when the defendant shows that the denial of the severance prevented him from receiving a fair trial. United States v. Quilling, 261 F.3d 707, 715 (7th Cir. 2001). In this regard, simply showing that separate trials may have given the defendant a better chance of acquittal is insufficient. Id. No. 06-3190 9 Our decision in United States v. Coleman, 22 F.3d 126 (7th Cir. 1994), is instructive. There, we concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the defendant’s motion to sever counts charging that he unlawfully possessed firearms, on different days, in violation of § 922(g)(1). Id. at 135. As it is here, the central issue in the case was whether the defendant possessed the firearms on the charged dates. The evidence as to each count was relatively “short and simple,” and the district court instructed the jury to consider each count separately. See id. The district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the motion to sever. In addition, there was sufficient evidence to convict Rice on each count. First, we uphold his conviction for knowingly possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(k). The serial number that would have been found on the firearm’s receiver had been obliterated, Rice cleaned his guns regularly, and Rice said it was important to ensure that any gun he carried was “clean,” meaning that no crimes had been committed with it. From this evidence, the jury could have found that he knew the serial number on his Intratec Tec-DC9 was obliterated. Next, the jury had sufficient evidence to find Rice guilty of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). It could have credited Lieutenant Robert Coleman’s testimony that the two one-pound and one half-pound bags of marijuana Rice had in his bag with guns and a safe were distribution-level quantities, as well as Rice’s girlfriend’s testimony that she was not aware of him storing such quantities of marijuana in her apartment where he lived. The jury also heard Officer Pablo Vasquez’s testimony that it is not common to 10 No. 06-3190 find scales or baggies with such quantities of marijuana because larger-level dealers generally do not break down marijuana into user quantities. The jury also could have disbelieved Rice’s testimony that of the $4000 he had to his name in the three months after his release from jail, he spent $1500 of it on marijuana that was only for his personal use or to give to friends and hair cutting customers. Cf. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D)(4) (directing that “distributing a small amount of marihuana for no remuneration” is to be treated as possession offense). Although a jury could have believed Rice, and the first jury may have, the jury that convicted him was not unjustified in finding that he intended to sell the marijuana. Compare United States v. Cormier, 468 F.3d 63, 71 (1st Cir. 2006) (finding sufficient evidence that defendant intended to distribute marijuana and stating, “[t]he quantity of marijuana retained by [the defendant]—at least two pounds— although not dispositive, at least suggests that it may not have been intended only for personal use”) and United States v. Binkley, 903 F.2d 1130, 1133 (7th Cir. 1990) (upholding conviction for conspiring to sell marijuana where defendant maintained three-fourths of a pound of marijuana he had purchased was for his personal use) with United States v. Rein, 848 F.2d 777, 784 (7th Cir. 1988) (noting that jury found defendant who tried to buy five pounds of marijuana guilty of attempting to possess marijuana, but not attempting to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute it). Sufficient evidence also existed to find Rice guilty of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime on October 29, 2002, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Rice admitted that he loaded three guns before he left his sister’s home that night, placed a loaded Glock No. 06-3190 11 in his waistband before he went inside a restaurant, bought $1500 worth of marijuana at the restaurant, and then carried guns in a bag with the marijuana. The jury also heard Lieutenant Coleman’s testimony that drug dealers often carry weapons for protection. The jury heard enough to convict on this count as well. Finally, there was sufficient evidence to conclude that Rice possessed the gun that officers recovered a few feet from the car in which he had been riding on January 12, 2003. Two officers testified that they saw the passenger, later identified as Rice, in a car they had stopped toss a black object out of the car as the officers walked toward the car, and one immediately identified it as a gun. Both officers also testified that they heard a metallic sound as the object landed on the ground and that they saw the driver’s hands on the steering wheel at that time. The jurors were entitled to believe the officers’ testimony and to discredit the inconsistent testimony from Rice and Robert Favela, the car’s driver. Rice testified that Favela threw the gun out the window, while Favela testified that neither he nor Rice had thrown a gun out of the car. Moreover, the jurors heard a taperecorded conversation in which Favela asked Rice, “What . . . do you want me to tell them?” followed by Rice’s answer that Favela should say that Rice did not have a gun and that the officers found it on the street. The jurors had ample reason not to believe Rice’s story at trial, and sufficient evidence existed to convict him of possession of a firearm on January 12, 2003.