Court Opinion

ID: 9487496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:17:46.25547+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:17.975780
License: Public Domain

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
Two police officers testified that when they entered a house where addicts frequently used drugs (a “shooting gallery”), the defendant Hines tossed bags of drugs into the air and jumped up from the couch to a nearby chair. Was he trying to distance himself from the gun stuffed in the couch or only from the numerous bags of cocaine and heroin on and near the couch? Such questions are best left for juries.
I agree with the majority that the critical inquiry in this case is whether Hines exerted ownership, dominion, or control over the gun or the house. United States v. Blue, 957 F.2d 106, 107 (4th Cir.1992). In Blue, this Court reversed for insufficient evidence a conviction based upon only the testimony of an officer that the defendant in the passenger seat of a car dipped his shoulder when the officer approached .and the discovery of a gun under the passenger seat. Id. at 108. This Court emphasized, however, that “the facts of this case fall outside, but just barely, the realm of the quantum of evidence necessary to support a finding of constructive possession.” Id. (emphasis added).
Unlike Blue’s purported shoulder dip, Hines’ leap from couch to chair sufficiently supports the critical inference of knowledge of the gun’s presence within the couch. A jury could reasonably infer from the forty-eight small bags of cocaine and heroin found on or near Hines that he would have had a gun nearby during a party in a “shooting gallery.” Therefore, I consider the inference of awareness of the- concealed gun from Hines’ sudden movement, away from the couch more than a speculative possibility, and appropriate for the jury to determine.
The majority also improperly discounts the evidence linking Hines to the house by focusing too heavily upon actual “ownership” of the premises and disregarding “control.” Aside from the “Peaches’ Place” tag found in the kitchen, evidence showed that Hines was at least an occasional visitor who had some clothes and “stuff’ there. Furthermore, Hines’ own witness testified that Hines had *80helped plan and prepare for the party and that he had made the decision not to cancel it when it was raining that morning. See JA 129. Thus, the jury could infer that on the day of the party, Hines had sufficient control of the house to support a conviction for possessing a gun found within the couch on which he was sitting.
When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we “allow the government the benefit of all reasonable inferences from the facts proven to those sought to be established,” United States v. Tresvant, 677 F.2d 1018, 1021 (4th Cir.1982) (citations omitted) (emphasis added), not merely what an appellate court considers the “most reasonable inference” (majority opinion at 78) (emphasis added). Because a rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Hines constructively possessed the gun found in the couch during the September 19th search, I dissent. I agree with the majority, however, that the district court correctly denied defendant’s pretrial motion to sever.