Opinion ID: 625097
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Prior Possession of the Pistol

Text: Police found three guns while searching the house. One semi-automatic pistol was found, cocked and loaded, under the mattress in the bedroom where the crack cocaine was found and where Miller was alleged to be staying. Two rifles were located in a closet in another room. The government charged Miller with possessing all three guns on or about April 21, 2008, the day of the search and his arrest. The jury ultimately convicted Miller of possessing the pistol and one of the rifles as a felon, and of possessing the pistol in furtherance of drug trafficking. At the trial, a witness testified that she had seen Miller take the same pistol out of his pants and place it on a table in February, some two months before his arrest. The witness had seen another person with the same gun (identified each time by its dark, rusty grey color) in March. Miller argued at trial and on appeal that this testimony was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), which prohibits the use of prior bad acts to suggest a propensity to have committed such an act on a particular occasion. According to Miller, the government used the testimony that he unlawfully possessed a gun in February to suggest to the jury that he is the sort of person who unlawfully possesses guns, and so likely possessed a gun in April when charged. The government counters, and we agree, that the testimony was in fact circumstantial evidence of the charged crime. It concerned the same gun, and the prior observed possession was relatively recent. See, e.g., United States v. Lloyd, 71 F.3d 1256, 1267 (7th Cir.1995). In the language of Rule 404(b), the government used the evidence for another purpose permitted by the rule. Miller's prior possession and display of the rusty grey pistol suggest that he owned or at least had the ability to exercise control over that rusty grey pistol. The district court concluded that Miller's prior possession of the pistol was inextricably intertwined with the charged crime. Shortly after Miller's trial, we stated in United States v. Gorman, 613 F.3d 711, 718-19 (7th Cir.2010), that the inextricable intertwinement doctrine has outlived its usefulness, and we instructed district courts to stop using it. If evidence is not direct evidence of the crime itself, it is usually propensity evidence simply disguised as inextricable intertwinement evidence, and is therefore improper, at least if not admitted under the constraints of 404(b). Id. In this case, however, the evidence of Miller's recent possession of the same gun was directly relevant evidence of the charged crime, not propensity evidence. Because the district court reached the correct result, the court's use of the now disfavored rationale does not matter. See, e.g., United States v. Foster, 652 F.3d 776, 784-86 (7th Cir.2011) (evidence that district court admitted as inextricably intertwined before Gorman was still properly admissible). Evidence of prior, uncharged gun possessions by felons has the potential to be used for impermissible propensity purposes. We have analyzed such evidence under Rule 404(b) and have allowed it, at least where the prior possession was recent and involved the same gun. E.g., United States v. Canady, 578 F.3d 665, 671-72 (7th Cir.2009) (prior use of the same gun admitted to show possession); cf. United States v. Cassell, 292 F.3d 788, 792-94 (D.C.Cir.2002) (prior possessions of a 9-mm handgun admissible to show knowledge and possession of a 9-mm handgun). If the prior possession was of a different gun, then its value as direct or circumstantial evidence of the charged possession drops and the likelihood that it is being used to show propensity to possess guns rises considerably. Similarly, as the prior possession is further removed in time, it becomes less probative of possession on the date charged. Courts are familiar with this evidentiary balancing. Determinations under Rule 404(b) require such an analysis, as when applying Rule 403. See Fed.R.Evid. 404 advisory committee's notes (1972). Here, the witness testified that Miller possessed a particular gun two months before the date he was charged with being in possession of the same gunfound under his mattress. This testimony was admissible as circumstantial evidence of the charged crime, and its use for that purpose was not barred by Rule 404(b).