Opinion ID: 540010
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Natalie Vazquez.

Text: 23 While searching an apartment in the Bronx leased by N. Vazquez and apparently shared with a male occupant, agents found a loaded .357 Magnum hand gun under a queen size mattress. The apartment also contained two bundles of heroin, two bulletproof vests, $209,485 in cash, jewelry appraised at $105,695, a $10,000 gold ingot, drug records, rubber stamps and stamp pads, a heat sealer, and several address books containing the telephone numbers of various other members of the Torres Organization. The apartment was also tied to the Torres Organization through a recorded telephone conversation which indicated that a package of heroin was to be dropped off there. 24 On this evidence, N. Vazquez was convicted under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(c)(1) (1988), which provides criminal penalties for anyone who during and in relation to any ... drug trafficking crime ..., uses or carries a firearm.... On appeal, Vazquez claims that the circumstances linking the .357 Magnum to the narcotics activity were too tenuous to sustain a conviction under section 924(c)(1), especially in light of United States v. Feliz-Cordero, 859 F.2d 250 (2d Cir.1988), a case in which a section 924(c)(1) conviction was reversed because of insufficiency of the supporting evidence. 25 Specifically, N. Vazquez claims that (1) since there was another, male occupant of the apartment, and especially since the firearm had a strong recoil and a heavy pull-weight rendering it more appropriate for use by a man, the inference of possession which normally arises when an apartment is inhabited by one person does not apply; (2) the evidence established that two men were required to lift the mattress which concealed the gun, precluding any implication that the weapon was readily available to N. Vazquez; (3) there was no evidence that the apartment functioned as a storage location for narcotics on an ongoing basis; and (4) there was no evidence that N. Vazquez ever carried a weapon, or that weapons were kept in the apartment at any time other than the date of the search. All of these circumstances, N. Vazquez claims, provide an even more favorable basis than in Feliz-Cordero for finding, as a matter of law, that the evidence was insufficient. 26 We conclude, on the contrary, that our decisions in United States v. Alvarado, 882 F.2d 645 (2d Cir.1989), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 1114, 107 L.Ed.2d 1021 (1990), and United States v. Meggett, 875 F.2d 24 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 166, 107 L.Ed.2d 123 (1989), call for affirmance of N. Vazquez' conviction under section 924(c)(1). See also United States v. Matra, 841 F.2d 837 (8th Cir.1988). 27 In Meggett, we interpreted Feliz-Cordero as holding: 28 that a gun found in a dresser drawer of an apartment in which some of the defendants' narcotics paraphernalia was located had not been used within the meaning of Sec. 924(c)(1). Implicitly recognizing the teaching of the prior case law to the effect that use requires possession of a gun under circumstances where the weapon is so placed as to be an integral part of the offense, we emphasized the absence of proof that the defendants in Feliz-Cordero had placed the weapon to have it available for ready use during the transaction. 29 Meggett, 875 F.2d at 29 (citation omitted). 30 Our holding in Meggett made clear, after a detailed review of the pertinent precedents, that a defendant can use a gun in violation of section 924(c)(1) without firing, brandishing or displaying it. Meggett, 875 F.2d at 29; see, e.g., United States v. Robinson, 857 F.2d 1006, 1010 (5th Cir.1988). In Meggett, we determined that the jury could reasonably conclude that the five loaded firearms in [defendant's] apartment were on hand to protect that apartment as a storage and processing point for large quantities of narcotics and that therefore the presence of weapons furthered or facilitated the narcotics operation and was an integral part thereof. 875 F.2d at 29. 31 Our more recent decision in Alvarado is also pertinent, especially in view of N. Vazquez' contention concerning the inaccessibility of the .357 Magnum stored under the mattress. In a somewhat similar situation, we said in Alvarado that [a]lthough it is true that these guns were placed in a locked safe, a reasonable jury could infer that the guns were located there to protect both the money and the cocaine in the event that a drug deal went sour and a buyer demanded a return of his cash. 882 F.2d at 654. In Matra, the Eighth Circuit upheld a section 924(c)(1) conviction, finding that a machine gun hidden under a waterbed frame in a locked bedroom was an integral part of [the] criminal undertaking because it served to protect the cocaine and cash stored in the apartment. 841 F.2d at 842-43. 32 No different conclusion is required here. The jury was certainly entitled to conclude, in view of the overall physical evidence seized at the N. Vazquez apartment and the recorded telephone conversation regarding a delivery of heroin there, that the apartment was used for narcotics trafficking on a continuing basis, bolstering the likelihood that the weapon seized was used during and in relation to any ... drug trafficking crime within the meaning of section 924(c)(1). Testimony that two men were required to lift the mattress which concealed the gun did not preclude the jury from finding that the gun would be available to a person who knew its location, without any need to lift the mattress. Further, there was explicit testimony that a woman would be able to fire the weapon. In any event, we see no merit in N. Vazquez' novel contention that, in effect, a defendant cannot be convicted under section 924(c)(1) if it is likely that a cohort in a narcotics crime, rather than the defendant, will use a particular firearm to further their joint criminal enterprise. Cf. United States v. Rivera, 844 F.2d 916, 926 (2d Cir.1988) (not necessary that exercise of dominion and control by others be disproved; only necessary that evidence support jury finding that defendant exercised dominion and control over weapon). In sum, we conclude that the evidence amply supported N. Vazquez' conviction under section 924(c). 33