Opinion ID: 2279580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Possession During the Course of a Felony Physically Available or Accessible

Text: Barnett was convicted of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. 11 Del.C. § 1447A (Section 1447A). Barnett contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction of that offense. The seminal decision by this Court with regard to conviction for Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony is Mack v. State, Del.Supr., 312 A.2d 319 (1973). In Mack, this Court was required to construe the prior statutory offense of Possession of a Deadly Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. [3] This Court construed the word possession in that statute as encompassing the elements of availability and accessibility. Mack v. State, 312 A.2d at 322. In Mack, the defendant was convicted of Possession of a Narcotic Drug with Intent to Sell and Possession of a Deadly Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. Id. at 320. In that case, the police found drugs and drug paraphernalia in a clothes dresser in the defendant's bedroom. Id. The police also found a revolver close at hand to the drugs in a chest of drawers in the defendant's bedroom, which was found to be the locus of his continuing felonious drug activities. Id. at 322. This Court held that the State's evidence established a contemporaneous nexus between the drug felony and the firearm and also satisfied the available and accessible definition of possession as used in the statute. Following Mack, in a trilogy of cases with varying factual patterns, this Court has consistently held that to secure a conviction pursuant to Section 1447, the State is required to establish that at the time [the defendant] was engaged in the designated predicate felony [he] had a deadly weapon `physically available or accessible to him.' Gardner v. State, Del.Supr., 567 A.2d 404, 413 (1989) (quoting Mack v. State, Del.Supr., 312 A.2d 319, 322 (1973)); see Kornbluth v. State, Del.Supr., 580 A.2d 556 (1990); Lewis v. State, Del.Supr., No. 273, 1989, Holland, J., (Mar. 19, 1990) (ORDER). In Kornbluth and Lewis, this Court concluded that the weapons were accessible to the defendants during the commission of the predicate felonious drug activities. See Kornbluth v. State, Del.Supr., 580 A.2d 556 (1990); Lewis v. State, Del.Supr., No. 273, 1989, Holland, J., (Mar. 19, 1990) (ORDER). Conversely, in Gardner, this Court held that the required evidentiary nexus of physical accessibility between the weapon and [the defendant's] engaging in the underlying felony of drug trafficking [was] insufficient as a matter of law. Gardner v. State, 567 A.2d at 414. In Gardner, the defendant was arrested outside of his residence. Id. at 408. A subsequent search of the residence uncovered a bag of cocaine on a first floor stair railing. Id. A revolver was also found in the top drawer of a night stand in the upstairs master bedroom. Id. The evidence presented by the State in Gardner did not support a factual finding that the locus of the felony was the defendant's entire house. There was also no evidence that the drugs seized in Gardner were ever in the upstairs master bedroom or that the upstairs master bedroom was ever the locus of the defendant's drug trafficking activities. Id. at 413. In Lewis, the police found evidence of drug trafficking in the bedroom and kitchen of the defendant's mobile home. Lewis v. State, No. 273, 1989, Holland, J., (Mar. 19, 1990) (ORDER). A loaded assault rifle was found in an unlocked cabinet in the living room. Id. Lewis was convicted of Possession with Intent to Deliver Cocaine, Maintaining a Dwelling for Keeping Controlled Substances, and Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony. Id. In Lewis, the State's evidence supported a factual finding that the locus of the continuing felony could be attributed to the entire mobile home. Id. This Court concluded that the facts in Lewis were more analogous to Mack than to Gardner and affirmed the weapon's conviction. Id. In Kornbluth, after two controlled purchases of marijuana from the defendant at his residence, the police executed a search warrant at that same house. Kornbluth v. State, 580 A.2d at 557. The police found twenty-five bags of marijuana, seventeen of which were located in a cooler located next to the living room sofa. Id. at 558. The police also found a loaded shotgun behind that sofa. Id. Thus, the State's evidence established that the locus of the continuing felony was the living room, where both the drugs and the weapons were found within arm's reach of each other. Id. at 561. In Kornbluth, this Court held that the accessibility and availability definition of possession as used in Section 1447 was satisfied, where weapons were found in close proximity in the same room as the drugs, even though the defendant was absent at the time of the seizure. Id. at 561; accord Wilson v. State, Del.Supr., 343 A.2d 613, 618 (1975).