Opinion ID: 794725
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Johnson's Concealment of Riley's Guns

Text: 6 After letting Riley out of the car in his attempt to elude the authorities, Johnson went first to the home of a friend and then back to the room she shared with Riley at the Budget Inn. There, she removed the two rifles and a few of the other items belonging to Riley. Johnson testified that she removed the guns because Riley had told her to conceal them if he got arrested. ( See Sentencing Transcript, March 18, 2004 (S.Tr.), at 81-82 (That was something that was pre-discussed before he got locked up, that if something was to happen, then this is what I was to do.); id. at 95 (he said . . . to get rid of everything, if he was to get locked up).) Johnson took the firearms to a friend's mobile home in Washington, Vermont, and hid them in a closet. 7 On June 17 and several times over the course of the next few days, Riley telephoned Johnson from jail. In those calls, which were routinely recorded by the correctional facility, Riley repeatedly made reference to his bitches, by which Johnson understood him to mean his guns ( see S.Tr. 63-64). During these conversations, Riley vacillated as to whether Johnson should discard the guns or continue to conceal them. In the first such conversation, Riley sought to confirm that Johnson had secured the guns, and he ultimately instructed her to get rid of them: 8 AR [Adrian Riley]: Where's the, where's my bitches at? 9 JJ [Jennifer Johnson]: They're put away, baby. 10 AR: Hold my bitches down, man. 11 (Correctional Facility Telephone Transcript (Tel.Tr.) # 1 dated June 17, 2004, at 5 (emphasis added).) 12 AR: . . . I was glad my bitches ain't showed up. My bitches showed up, any one of them. 13 JJ: It's what? What I had? 14 AR: Yeah. 15 JJ: Oh. 16 AR: I'd of, I'd of had a heart attack. 17 17. . . . 18 JJ: That's just as good as gone. You know what I mean? `Til they want to be relived again. 19 AR: No, no, you hear me? 20 JJ: What? AR: Get rid of them, I'll get new ones. 21 JJ: Completely? 22 AR: Yeah. 23 JJ: All right. 24 ( Id. at 19-20 (emphases added).) In that conversation, Riley also referred to a dog and cats, by which Johnson surmised he meant his larger and smaller firearms, respectively. ( See S.Tr. 64-66 (discussing Tel.Tr. # 1, at 20 (AR: Get rid of the cats. Hold the dog, though, I need the dog.)).) 25 By the next day, Riley apparently had decided he did not want Johnson to get rid of any of the guns unless necessary: 26 AR: All right. Um, hold on to my bitches until I come home. 27 JJ: You sure? 28 AR: Yeah, I'm sure. 29 JJ: All right. 30 AR: Not a unless, not unless, it's a need emergency. 31 (Tel.Tr. # 3 dated June 18, 2004, at 3 (emphasis added).) And on the following day, Riley emphasized that he wanted the guns well concealed. 32 AR: You put, you put my bitches away, right? 33 JJ: Yeah. 34 AR: You can't have them in the house. 35 JJ: Um. 36 AR: That's what I mean. 37 (Tel.Tr. # 4 dated June 19, 2004, at 10.) 38 When Johnson was questioned by law enforcement agents after Riley's arrest, she initially did not disclose that she had removed and concealed the guns. However, after being questioned at some length by other agents, she eventually, a week after Riley's arrest, revealed the location of Riley's guns. ( See S.Tr. 61-62.) On June 23, the agents seized the guns from the mobile home in which Johnson had stashed them.