Court Opinion

ID: 9390757
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-28 16:00:32.035712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:36.531389
License: Public Domain

United States Court of Appeals
                            For the Eighth Circuit
                        ___________________________

                                No. 22-2341
                        ___________________________

                            United States of America

                                     Plaintiff - Appellee

                                       v.

                             Leonard Allen Weimer

                                   Defendant - Appellant
                                 ____________

                    Appeal from United States District Court
                   for the Northern District of Iowa - Western
                                 ____________

                           Submitted: March 15, 2023
                             Filed: April 28, 2023
                                [Unpublished]
                                ____________

Before COLLOTON, MELLOY, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.
                         ____________

PER CURIAM.

      Leonard Weimer appeals his sentence for possession of a firearm and
ammunition by a prohibited person in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), (g)(3),
and 924(a)(2). We affirm.
       In April 2021, Weimer was pulled over for driving with a barred license. He
was arrested. Upon searching his person, officers found ammunition and a small
bag of methamphetamine. Weimer admitted to being a felon. Officers then searched
his car and found a Marlin .22 rifle and a loaded magazine.

       The next month, as part of a burglary investigation, the police executed a
search warrant on Weimer’s residence, a small house on a farm owned by Craig
Wells. Near the house, in an ambulance parked on the property, officers found a
Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun along with photographs and documents associated with
Weimer. That same day, the police also searched one of Weimer’s former residences
where he sometimes stayed—a trailer occupied by his ex-girlfriend, Laylaymya, and
her and Weimer’s nine-year-old son. There, officers found a Jimenez .380 pistol,
ammunition, and new vinyl-wrapped windows. Both Laylaymya and the son told
officers that Weimer gave the pistol to his son as a gift. Laylaymya also said that
Weimer had sold the windows to her and delivered them to the trailer himself.

       A few days after the trailer search, Weimer’s uncle informed the police of a
phone call that he received from Laylaymya about a discovery she made in the trailer
that officers apparently overlooked: a trove of guns and ammunition hidden in a
closet compartment. Laylaymya had called the uncle in a panic, so he took the guns
from her—four in total—and turned them over to the police. When officers later
asked Laylaymya about these guns, she stated that she did not know how they got
there but that she believed Weimer might have put them there. Wells later identified
each of the four guns, as well as the vinyl-wrapped windows, as items that he had
reported stolen from his farmhouse, which is located on the same property as
Weimer’s home.

      Weimer pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition as a prohibited
person based on the rifle and ammunition that police found during the traffic stop.

                                        -2-
See §§ 922(g)(1), (g)(3), and 924(a)(2). At sentencing, the district court 1 determined
that two sentencing guidelines enhancements applied: a two-level enhancement for
possessing between three and seven firearms, see U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(1)(A), and a
four-level enhancement for possessing a firearm in connection with another felony
offense, see id. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B). With these enhancements, Weimer’s advisory
sentencing guidelines range was 92 to 115 months’ imprisonment. The court
sentenced him to 96 months. On appeal, Weimer argues that the Government failed
to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that either enhancement applied.
Finding no clear error in the district court’s determinations, see United States v.
Goldsberry, 888 F.3d 941, 943-44 (8th Cir. 2018); United States v. Mitchell, 963
F.3d 729, 731 (8th Cir. 2020), we affirm Weimer’s sentence.

       First, the Government proved that Weimer possessed at least three firearms.2
With respect to the Mossberg shotgun found in the ambulance, three witnesses,
including Wells, testified at Weimer’s sentencing hearing that the ambulance
belonged to Weimer. Further, the officers who recovered the weapon testified that
they found other identifying property in the ambulance, including Weimer’s high
school diploma and associated photographs. As for the Jimenez pistol found during
the search of the trailer, Laylaymya and Weimer’s son claimed that it was a gift from
Weimer, and Laylaymya further testified that it was kept in the room where Weimer
stayed when he visited the trailer. Finally, as for the four guns Laylaymya found in
the trailer, officers testified that these were kept in an area where Weimer stored his
personal belongings, and Wells testified that the guns were his and had been stolen
from his home. The district court found this testimony credible, and “we are in no
position to second-guess” that assessment. See United States v. Armstrong, 60 F.4th

      1
        The Honorable Leonard T. Strand, Chief Judge, United States District Court
for the Northern District of Iowa.
      2
        Weimer does not dispute that he possessed the Marlin rifle found during the
traffic stop, so the Government only needed to prove that he possessed two
additional firearms for the § 2K2.1(b)(1)(A) enhancement to apply.

                                         -3-
1151, 1168 (8th Cir. 2023). Accordingly, the district court did not clearly err in
applying an enhancement under § 2K2.1(b)(1)(A).

       Second, the Government also presented sufficient evidence showing that
Weimer possessed a firearm in connection with another felony offense. “Another
felony offense” under § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) includes “any federal, state, or local offense,
other than the . . . firearms possession . . . offense, punishable by imprisonment for
a term exceeding one year, regardless of whether a criminal charge was brought.”
Id. cmt. n.14(C). Under Iowa law, a person commits the felony offense of second-
degree burglary if, “[w]hile perpetrating a burglary in or upon an occupied structure
in which no persons are present, the person has . . . a dangerous weapon.” Iowa
Code § 713.5(1)(a). At sentencing, Wells and his son testified that, shortly after
learning that Weimer was in their home without permission, they noticed that
various items from their home were missing. Wells confirmed that the four guns
that Laylaymya found in the closet compartment, as well as the windows, were some
of these items. Moreover, officers testified that they learned from Laylaymya that
Weimer delivered the windows to the trailer and that she believed Weimer may have
placed the four guns there as well. Once again, we will not second-guess the district
court’s assessment of witness credibility. Thus, we conclude that the district court
did not clearly err in finding that Weimer possessed a firearm in connection with the
commission of a burglary and that the § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) enhancement therefore
applied.

      Accordingly, we affirm Weimer’s sentence.
                     ______________________________

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