United States v. Shaw

• Decision Date: 29 February 2012
• Docket Number: No. 09–2669.,09–2669.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Hazen D. SHAW, Defendant, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

670 F.3d 360

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,

v.Hazen D. SHAW, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 09–2669.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Dec. 10, 2010.Decided Feb. 29, 2012.

Jonathan G. Mermim, with whom Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, LLP was on brief, for appellant.

Renée M. Bunker, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Thomas E. Delahanty II, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, LIPEZ and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted the defendant, Hazen Shaw, on one count of possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun in violation of the National Firearms Act. 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), 5871. At trial, he moved for a judgment of acquittal, Fed.R.Crim.P. 29, contending that the Government failed to present sufficient evidence that he knew the shotgun's barrel was shorter than 18 inches, the statutory characteristic subjecting the weapon to the Act. See 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a). The trial court denied the motion, and Shaw now appeals his conviction.

I. BACKGROUND

The question on appeal is one of sufficing of the evidence, so we recite the relevant factual background in the light most favorable to the verdict. See United States v. Gonzalez–Ramirez, 561 F.3d 22, 24 (1st Cir.2009). On a Sunday afternoon in November 2008, state law enforcement officers received a complaint about gunshots being fired in a wooded residential area in Springfield, Maine. Upon responding, State Trooper Barry Meserve was informed by a resident that the suspected vehicle had just sped away from the scene; Trooper Meserve pursued the departing taillights. The vehicle took flight down the dirt road, and a chase ensued. With considerable effort, including the aid of other officers and two road blocks, the police finally stopped the vehicle. Still not dissuaded, the driver rammed his sedan into a police vehicle parked behind him. Two officers rapidly approached the sedan on foot with weapons drawn, demanding that the driver show his hands. Maine Warden Service Sergeant Ronald Dunham heard “the action of a gun” like a “pump-action gun being operated” and saw the driver “rifling the action of [the] gun.” Shaw, the automobile's driver, then put his hands out the window and was immediately apprehended. He was the only person in the car, and a 12 gauge sawed-off “Mossberg 500A” shotgun was found lying near him within ready reach. The sound heard by Dunham was later attributed to the weapon being unloaded.

Shaw was arrested for eluding a police officer and for reckless conduct. A subsequent search of the automobile revealed various items, including two knives and a hatchet, as well as a 20 gauge shotgun with a sawed-off stock in the trunk. A single expelled or spent 12 gauge shotgun round was found between the driver and passenger seats. Shaw himself was carrying, in a pack and on his hunting belt, different types of ammunition, some boxed and some loose. Additional evidence suggested that Shaw had been engaging in some type of hunting activity while seated in his car, by shooting at game from his open car window.

State Trooper Michael Johnston, an evidence technician, arrived at the scene and quickly noticed that the 12 gauge shotgun appeared to be too short for federal guidelines. He further observed that the stock of the weapon had been cut off and covered with duct tape, the gun's barrel “look[ed] like it also had been cut,” and “a homemade sling” was attached “in the form of a yellow-like nylon rope.” The outside of the gun barrel still bore printing indicating that the original barrel length had been 28 inches. While the weapon's overall length was about 29 inches, the barrel itself, measured internally, was sixteen-and-a-quarter inches in length. Because the length of the shortened barrel of the 12 gauge was less than 18 inches, the weapon was subject to federal registration requirements. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 5845(a), 5861(d). Shaw was subsequently charged with possession of an unregistered firearm. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), 5871. As noted, the trial court rejected Shaw's Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal on that charge, and the jury rendered a guilty verdict. This timely appeal followed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review de novo the denial of a Rule 29 motion to determine whether the body of proof as a whole, including direct and circumstantial evidence, was sufficient for a rational jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the government established each element of the crime. United States v. Pérez–Meléndez, 599 F.3d 31, 40 (1st Cir.2010). In so doing, we consider the evidence, including all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. Id. Individual pieces of evidence viewed in isolation may be insufficient in themselves to prove a point, but in cumulation may indeed meet the mark. United States v. Spinney, 65 F.3d 231, 234 (1st Cir.1995). Further, “[a]ll credibility disputes are to be resolved in the verdict's favor, and this court need not believe that no verdict other than a guilty verdict could sensibly be reached, but must only satisfy itself that the guilty verdict finds support in a plausible rendition of the record.” United States v. Hatch, 434 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir.2006) (internal quotations omitted).

In this case, the question is whether there was enough evidence to permit a rational jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew that the length of the barrel of the shotgun was less than 18 inches. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 5845(a)(1)-(2), 5861(d).

III. GOVERNING LAW AND ANALYSIS

The National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. §§ 5801–5872, imposes strict regulations on certain statutorily defined “firearms.” Pertinent here, Congress has deemed it unlawful for any person “[t]o receive or possess a firearm which is not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.” 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). A “firearm” generally constitutes certain shotguns and rifles, machineguns, silencers and destructive devices; firearm feature terminology is further defined by statute. See 26 U.S.C. § 5845. In the context of this appeal, a “firearm” means “a weapon made from a shotgun if such weapon as modified has ... a barrel ... of less than 18 inches in length.” 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(2). Failure to comply with the registration requirement is punishable by a fine of $10,000 and up to ten years of imprisonment. 26 U.S.C. § 5871.

While the defendant's knowledge is at the heart of this appeal, the statute itself does not expressly contain a mens rea requirement. The United States Supreme Court addressed this statutory silence in Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 114 S.Ct. 1793, 128 L.Ed.2d 608 (1994). There, the defendant had been convicted of possessing an unregistered “machinegun” firearm in violation of section 5861(d). 511 U.S. at 614, 114 S.Ct. 1793. The firearm, a semiautomatic AR–15 rifle had been modified to render it capable of fully automatic firing; the modified firing feature subjected the weapon to the Act's registration requirement as a machinegun. See id.; see also 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(6), (b) (defining “machinegun” firearm). The trial court had not required the jury to find that the defendant knew that the weapon possessed the characteristic (which resulted largely by an internal modification) rendering it a machinegun under the statute. Staples, 511 U.S. at 603–04, 114 S.Ct. 1793. Overturning Staples' conviction, the Court held that the government “should have been required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that [Staples] knew the weapon he possessed had the characteristics that brought it within the statutory definition of a machinegun,” reasoning that Congress had not clearly dispensed with the common law mens rea requirement. Id. at 602, 616–20, 114 S.Ct. 1793.

The government assumes that Staples ' scienter requirement applies in this case involving a sawed-off weapon. For purposes of our analysis, so will we.¹

The defendant contends that the record contains “no evidence that he knew the barrel of the shotgun was less than 18 inches.” According to Shaw, the one-and-three-quarters inch difference between the barrel's actual length, measured internally, and the prescribed length cannot support the proposition that he could have determined its length just by looking at it. Thus, he argues, establishing knowledge required evidence that he was the person who actually shortened the barrel from its original length, or that he owned the gun long enough “to become sufficiently well acquainted with its characteristics to have ascertained its length with the precise degree of accuracy (a margin of error of less than 10 percent)” for him to have visually discerned that the barrel was shorter than 18 inches. He also discounts the evidence of flight as readily susceptible to explanations other than culpable knowledge of gun barrel length.

After carefully examining the record, we conclude that it contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding beyond a reasonable doubt that Shaw knew that the barrel of the 12 gauge sawed-off shotgun was shorter than 18 inches. His acquaintance with the particular weapon, his familiarity with firearms generally, and the external and readily observable shortened feature of the gun's sawed-off barrel permitted the jury to infer Shaw's knowledge relative to barrel length. We explain below.

First, the evidence allowed the jury to rationally infer that Shaw was well acquainted with this particular shotgun, which had a shortened stock covered with duct tape and an immediately apparent sawed-off barrel. See United States v. Giambro, 544 F.3d 26, 30 (1st Cir.2008) (sufficient evidence of scienter based in part on defendant's familiarity with the particular weapon). There was evidence that he was engaging in some type of hunting excursion and that he fired the 12 gauge from inside the confines of his automobile through an open window. Indeed,...