Opinion ID: 3023277
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: This matter comes on before this court on defendant Terrance Ross Willaman’s appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence entered on January 27, 2005, in the district court.1 The case originated on March 26, 2004, when Maurice Ferentino, an ATF agent, and two other federal agents approached Willaman at a hotel in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was staying with his wife. Ferentino, who had obtained information that Willaman possessed a machine gun, at that time intended to serve a grand jury subpoena on him, apparently related to an ongoing investigation regarding weapons matters.2 Willaman admitted to Ferentino at the hotel that he possessed a machine gun but told Ferentino that he would turn it over to the agents. Willaman and the agents subsequently left the hotel in separate cars to retrieve the weapon at Willaman’s residence. Once they arrived at the residence, he dug up the machine gun from the place where he had buried it, and the agents took possession of it. Nevertheless, notwithstanding Willaman’s apparent criminal conduct, Ferentino twice informed him that he was free to go at any time. Moreover, Willaman has acknowledged that he was not coerced or treated badly in any way by the agents at his residence. On May 11, 2004, a grand jury indicted Willaman for knowingly and unlawfully possessing a firearm in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), and, on September 15, 2004, a grand jury returned a 1 The district court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. 2 Ferentino recently had arrested Darrell Sivik who informed Ferentino that he had transferred a machine gun to Willaman. 2 superseding indictment charging Willaman with knowingly and unlawfully possessing a machine gun in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)(1). Following the original indictment, Willaman appeared before a magistrate-judge on May 12, 2004, at which time she set bail. Nevertheless, Willaman was not arraigned until May 17, 2004, at which time he pleaded not guilty. On May 25, 2004, eight days after his arraignment, Willaman filed several pre-trial motions: (1) a motion to dismiss the indictment under Federal Criminal Rule 12(b)(2); (2) a motion to dismiss and a motion to suppress statements and evidence based on alleged violations of the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments; (3) a motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy; and (4) a motion seeking to have the court instruct the jury that it could nullify the effect of the law in this case. The district court denied these four motions on August 18, 2004. The trial in this case commenced on October 19, 2004. Immediately prior to the trial, Willaman unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the indictment based on asserted Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161 et seq., violations. At the trial’s conclusion the jury found Willaman guilty on the superseding indictment. The court subsequently sentenced Willaman to a custodial term of 27 months to be followed by a three-year period of supervised release. Willaman timely appealed.