Opinion ID: 220489
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: We give a jury verdict great deference and will uphold it if, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Hicks, 368 F.3d 801, 804-05 (7th Cir.2004). We will not reweigh evidence or second-guess the jury's credibility determinations. United States v. Stevens, 453 F.3d 963, 965 (7th Cir.2006) (quoting United States v. Gardner, 238 F.3d 878, 879 (7th Cir.2001)). King argues that witnesses called by the government did not provide sufficient evidence to convince the jury that the essential elements of the crime were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, King argues that the testimony of multiple witnesses was inconsistent and incomplete and that the government did not prove the possession element of the crime. We disagree. The government presented the testimony of Sharon Kay Harvey, who sold the car to King less than a month prior to his arrest. She testified that she had removed all items from the car when she sold it to King, and that she did not own a shotgun and had not left a shotgun in the car. The government also introduced testimony from one of King's friends, Shamion McWilliams. She testified that approximately eighteen days before King's arrest, she had driven King to a gun repair shop to get his shotgun repaired. Though she could not describe the gun with great accuracy, when shown the shotgun that was found in King's car, McWilliams stated that she was 100 percent sure that the shotgun was the same gun she had seen previously in King's possession. The government then introduced Richard Vaughn, the owner of the gun shop, who remembered King and testified that he was 99.9 percent sure that the shotgun found in King's car was the same gun he had repaired. At oral argument, King attempted to analogize his case to United States v. Chairez, 33 F.3d 823 (7th Cir.1994). In Chairez, we found that the defendant's conviction for carrying a firearm during or in relation to a drug trafficking crime was not supported by sufficient evidence when a handgun was found in the car in which the defendant was riding. King ignores the many differences between his own case and the defendant in Chairez. In Chairez, the car in which police found the handgun was registered to an unidentified woman and not registered to or owned by the defendant. There was more than one occupant in the car at the time the gun was found, and the defendant was merely a passenger in the front seat. The government in that case presented no evidence that the defendant had ever owned or carried a firearm, and the gun was not traced to him in any way. Here, the car in which police found the shotgun was owned by and registered solely in King's name. King was the sole occupant of the vehicle. The government presented testimony from multiple individuals that linked King to the shotgun. Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the government, sufficient evidence supports King's conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.