Opinion ID: 358317
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Use of Dangerous Weapon

Text: 16 The indictment charged appellant, under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(d), with aggravated bank robbery for assaulting or putting in jeopardy the life of a person by the use of a dangerous weapon during the course of the robbery. Appellant maintains that the evidence presented by the Government was insufficient to establish that he had a gun during the robbery. Therefore, he argues that the District Court should have granted his motion for judgment of acquittal. Our review of a denial of a motion for acquittal requires the application of the following test: 17 (V)iewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the government as prevailing party, is the court satisfied that the jurors reasonably could decide that they would not hesitate to act in their own serious affairs upon factual assumptions as probable as the conclusions that the defendant is guilty as charged? 18 United States v. Kaplan, 554 F.2d 958, 963 (9th Cir.), Cert. denied, 434 U.S. 483, 98 S.Ct. 483, 54 L.Ed.2d 315 (1977). 19 During cross-examination, Grassi, the bank teller, testified that, because the robber's arm was in a sling, she had not seen all of the robber's weapon and, although she believed the robber held a gun, the barrel she saw protruding from the robber's sling conceivably could have been a pipe. 2 The totality of the evidence, while not unequivocally establishing the existence of a gun, was sufficient to support either a jury finding that appellant used a dangerous weapon or a finding that appellant committed an assault. Appellant failed to object to the instructions allowing the jury to find an aggravated robbery by finding either the use of a dangerous weapon or an assault. If erroneous at all, the instructions were most assuredly not plain error under Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). See, e. g., United States v. Coulter, 474 F.2d 1004, 1005 (9th Cir.), Cert. denied, 414 U.S. 833, 94 S.Ct. 172, 38 L.Ed.2d 68 (1973).