Opinion ID: 161924
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Possession of Firearm

Text: Mr. Estrada first argues the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The evidence at trial, which included the testimony of two investigating police officers and Mr. Estrada, showed the following. As part of a larger investigation involving a methamphetamine lab, two officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department approached Arthur Willard Estrada in the parking lot of an Oklahoma City motel on July 21, 1999. Mr. Estrada was holding a pair of tennis shoes in his hand and appeared to be returning to his motel room from his truck. The officers told Mr. Estrada they wanted to ask him a few questions and requested permission to conduct a pat-down search of Mr. Estrada. Mr. Estrada consented to the pat-down -2- search. After discovering two hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes in Mr. Estrada’s right front pocket, the officers arrested him. Other officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department secured the scene while awaiting a search warrant for Mr. Estrada’s motel room and truck. The officers made contact with Sharon Kay Akin, 1 Mr. Estrada’s then girlfriend, who was in the motel room. Ms. Akin and Mr. Estrada were traveling together and were the only occupants of the motel room. Upon the arrival of the warrant, the officers searched the motel room and seized drugs, drug paraphernalia, and a Ruger .22 semiautomatic pistol. The officer conducting the search testified he found the gun, loaded with ten live rounds, inside a brown paper sack sitting against one of the motel room’s walls. A pair a men’s shoes was sitting on the floor directly to the left of the sack. The officer testified, in contrast to women’s items that were scattered throughout the room, men’s items were concentrated in a single location. Finally, the officer said although he could not tell what was in the sack by visual 1 Ms. Akin is known by several aliases, and the spelling of her name is inconsistent throughout the record in this case. For consistency, we refer to her as Ms. Akin. -3- inspection, upon feeling the sack he immediately recognized it contained a weapon. Mr. Estrada testified he did not know the gun was in the motel room and he had not noticed the sack containing the gun or the men’s shoes in the motel room. He thought the gun belonged to Toby Trusdale because he had seen Sharon Akin use the pistol for target practice at Mr. Trusdale’s residence. With respect to the shoes found next to the gun, Mr. Estrada believed they too belonged to Mr. Trusdale. Mr. Estrada explained that prior to his arrest, he and Ms. Akin went to Mr. Trusdale’s residence to collect Ms. Akin’s personal belongings. Mr. Trusdale had already gathered Ms. Akin’s belongings together. Mr. Estrada took Ms. Akin’s belongings and put them in his truck. He believes the men’s shoes were originally in the sack containing the gun and Mr. Trusdale put the sack containing the gun and shoes with Ms. Akin’s belongings. Consequently, Mr. Estrada transferred the gun to the truck. 2 Mr. Estrada thought Mr. Trusdale put the gun with Ms. Akin’s belongings because Mr. Trusdale was expecting police officers to raid his house and he did not want the gun around. Mr. Estrada said when he and 2 Mr. Estrada testified “[Ms. Akin’s] personal property [was] out there in a bag for me to take outside, which I did, and that bag [containing the gun] was probably one of it.” In other portions of his testimony, Mr. Estrada appears to testify Mr. Trusdale placed the sack containing the gun in his truck. -4- Ms. Akin arrived at the motel, they both moved their belongings from Mr. Estrada’s truck to the motel room, and Ms. Akin “organized” the room. Given this testimony, Mr. Estrada contends there is insufficient evidence to support his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) because “the circumstances reflect joint occupancy of the vehicle and motel room.” Mr. Estrada notes “[t]here was no evidence of his fingerprints on the gun, and no testimony whatsoever that [Mr.] Estrada ever owned or carried any sort of firearm.” “We review the record for sufficiency of the evidence de novo. Evidence is sufficient to support a conviction if a reasonable jury could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, given the direct and circumstantial evidence, along with reasonable inferences therefrom, taken in a light most favorable to the government.” United States v. Wilson, 107 F.3d 774, 778 (10th Cir. 1997). (quotation marks and citations omitted). “In order to conclude the evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to support a conviction, we must find that no reasonable juror could have reached the disputed verdict.” United States v. Owens, 70 F.3d 1118, 1126 (10th Cir. 1995) (quotation marks and citation omitted). -5- “To obtain a conviction under [18 U.S.C.] § 922(g)(1), the government must establish three elements beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) the defendant was previously convicted of a felony; (2) the defendant thereafter knowingly possessed a firearm; and (3) the possession was in or affecting interstate commerce.” United States v. Taylor, 113 F.3d 1136, 1144 (10th Cir. 1997). At trial, Mr. Estrada stipulated he was a convicted felon and the gun was in or affecting interstate commerce. Thus, on appeal Mr. Estrada argues only the evidence was insufficient to show he knowingly possessed a firearm. “It is well settled the required ‘possession’ for the purposes of § 922(g) includes both actual and constructive possession.” Taylor, 113 F.3d at 1144 (citation omitted). In order to establish constructive possession, the government must offer “some evidence supporting at least a plausible inference” Mr. Estrada had “knowledge of and access to the weapon.” United States v. Mills, 29 F.3d 545, 549-50 (10th Cir. 1994) (quotation marks and citation omitted). While the jury is free to rely on circumstantial evidence to infer Mr. Estrada had knowledge of the gun, see United States v. Hishaw, 235 F.3d 565, 571 (10th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 121 S. Ct. 2254 (2001), we have previously held evidence showing the gun was located in a room jointly occupied by a defendant and another person is not, by itself, sufficient to support an inference that the defendant had knowledge -6- of the gun. See Mills, 29 F.3d at 549-50. “In cases of joint occupancy, where the government seeks to prove constructive possession by circumstantial evidence, it must present evidence to show some connection or nexus between the defendant and the firearm or other contraband.” Mills, 29 F.3d at 549 (citation omitted). In support of his argument, Mr. Estrada directs us to three cases: Mills; Taylor; and Hishaw. We agree these three cases establish that joint occupancy of the motel room alone is not sufficient to support the inference Mr. Estrada possessed the gun. However, the evidence linking Mr. Estrada to the gun goes beyond the evidence in any of those cases. The gun was found directly next to a pair of men’s shoes and Mr. Estrada was the only male occupant of the motel room. See United States v. McCoy, 781 F.2d 168, 170-72 (10th Cir. 1985) (holding gun found in bedroom was properly found to belong to defendant when it was discovered in close proximity to defendant’s personal belongings). 3 Furthermore, Mr. Estrada testified he loaded Ms. Akin’s belongings into his truck 3 In addition to the oral testimony, the jury considered photographs of the motel room taken before the police searched the room. At least one of these photographs showed the men’s shoes and the paper bag containing the gun. Mr. Estrada did not make these photographs part of the record on appeal or include them as an addendum to his brief. Consequently, the jury had a more complete understanding of the location of the gun in relation to other objects and was better situated to make decisions concerning Mr. Estrada’s possession of the gun. -7- and the sack containing the gun was probably with the belongings. The investigating officer testified by feeling the bag it was readily apparent the bag contained a weapon. Finally, we note, although Mr. Estrada testified he did not have any knowledge of the gun, the jury was not required to believe him when other testimony suggested he had constructive possession of the firearm. The weight to be accorded the witnesses’ testimony “was for the jury to assess.” McCoy, 781 F.2d at 171. We conclude the record contains sufficient evidence to sustain Mr. Estrada’s conviction.