Opinion ID: 2441961
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Operability

Text: Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for the offense of carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) on the sole ground that the pistol involved in the incident was not proven to be operable. Our case law establishes that to prove the offense of CPWL, the government must show that the pistol carried by defendant was operable. See, e.g., Strong v. United States, 581 A.2d 383, 387-88 (D.C.1990). Although this is often done by actual police tests, the pistol itself cannot be recovered in every case, and circumstantial evidence must then necessarily be used to prove operability. In assessing appellant's argument, we apply the well-established standard of review, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, giving full play to the right of the [fact-finder] to determine credibility, weigh the evidence, and draw justifiable inferences of fact, and making no distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence. McCraney v. United States, 983 A.2d 1041, 1056 (D.C.2009) (quoting Curry v. United States, 520 A.2d 255, 263 (D.C. 1987)). In finding appellant guilty, the trial court observed that [t]he testimony was that R.S. had a gun and that he, or he lifted his shirt and he was backing up A.B., A.B. with the cursing and the calling people bitches and all these foul language things that I heard ... and he even said things himself. But he had the gun, and that gun was used in such a manner that it portrayed to the people that they were talking to, if you step out here, you see what I got. Appellant in his brief does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence to support this characterization of the testimony, but asserts that the lifting of the shirt to display the gun, even though accompanied by threats, was insufficient to demonstrate operability. He argues that, as in Price v. United States, 813 A.2d 169 (D.C.2002), no evidence was presented that he raised or pointed the gun or otherwise affirmatively demonstrated his belief that it was operable. See id. at 173. However, while R.S. did not raise or point the gun, he did affirmatively make use of the gun by displaying it as part of his threatening conduct. The active reliance on the gun in a manner tending to show that it was operable makes this case somewhat more akin to precedents such as Peterson v. United States, 657 A.2d 756, 763 (D.C. 1995) (appellant waved gun containing shells in menacing manner), Bartley v. United States, 530 A.2d 692, 697-98 (D.C. 1987) (displaying a weapon to back up demands), and Morrison v. United States, 417 A.2d 409, 413 (D.C.1980) (robbery victim forced to lie on the floor by appellant, who stood above and pointed a gun at him). Even if the display of the gun might be insufficient in itself, there is the crucial additional fact that following the threatening encounter, the two boys ditched their guns but, notwithstanding the arrival of the police, elected to re-emerge from the apartment house and recover the weapons, an action unlikely to be chanced if they were inoperable. On the totality of the evidence here, we cannot conclude that the evidence of inoperability was insufficient to sustain the CPWL conviction. Affirmed.