Porter v. United States, 5763.
| Decision Date | 26 October 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 5763.,5763. |
| Citation | 282 A.2d 559 |
| Parties | Jesse James PORTER, a/k/a Jesse Morris Porter, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
John Z. Noyes, Washington, D. C., appointed by this court, for appellant.
Leonard W. Belter, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Thomas A. Flannery, U. S. Atty., and John A. Terry, Asst. U. S. Atty., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before HOOD, Chief Judge, and KELLY and FICKLING, Associate Judges.
Appellant was convicted by the court sitting without a jury of carrying a pistol without a license in violation of D.C.Code 1967, § 22-3204. On this appeal he contends that the evidence was insufficient to warrant his conviction.
Officer Spagnola and his partner received a radio call after midnight in their police wagon "that a man had a gun in the 800 block of 14th Street." Arriving at that location, Officer Spagnola spotted a woman running and stopped her for questioning. This woman, who with Officer Spagnola comprised the witnesses for the prosecution, informed the officers that two men had a gun and pointed to a car wherein they could be found. The officers found appellant in the driver's seat and codefendant Boose on the passenger side of the front seat of the designated vehicle. After ordering the two men out of the car and conducting a futile frisk for weapons, Officer Spagnola "looked down on the passenger side of the seat and observed a .38 caliber revolver * * * [u]nderneath the right front seat". This revolver was subsequently test-fired and introduced into evidence, together with certificates indicating that neither appellant nor Boose had a license to carry a pistol. It was established that the car wherein the weapon was found belonged to appellant's wife. Although the two men denied ownership of the revolver and knowledge of its presence in the car, they were jointly tried and convicted of carrying a pistol without a license.
On this appeal the only issue raised is whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant appellant's conviction. Our review therefore is limited to determining whether it can be inferred from the facts that appellant had the knowledge and control of the revolver necessary to sustain a conviction under § 22-3204. On review of the record, we find evidence which reasonably permitted a finding of guilt,1 and, accordingly, we affirm the conviction.
Evidence was produced showing that appellant and codefendant Boose created a disturbance in a nightclub in the 800 block of 14th Street the night of their arrest but prior to it. While the testimony concerning the nature of the disturbance is scarce, the trial court could justifiably draw the inference that the concert of action or chain of events which produced this disturbance prompted the radio call to the police wagon "that a man had a gun in the 800 block of 14th Street", the woman's statement to Officer Spagnola that two men had a gun, and her subsequent designation of the automobile wherein they could be found. Since at least two people were aware that either appellant or Boose had a gun as a result of the disorder, a valid inference could be drawn that appellant also knew that Boose had a gun if he himself was not the one in possession. Appellant's knowledge of the weapon's presence obviously continued until the time of his arrest in the car where he and Boose were seated. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court acted upon substantial evidence in inferring that appellant had knowledge of the gun's presence at the time of his arrest.
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Davis v. U.S., 85-121.
...from car). Absent from these cases, however, is evidence that the defendant was in prior possession of the weapon. For example, in Porter v. United States, we upheld Porter's conviction even though he was the driver and the weapon was recovered from underneath the front passenger seat of th......
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Rivas v. US
...(appellant made furtive gesture toward handgun partially concealed under towel between front seats of automobile); Porter v. United States, 282 A.2d 559, 559 (D.C.1971) (although gun found under right passenger seat, appellant-driver in control over vehicle; appellant or co-defendant seen c......
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Brown v. United States, 86-223.
...i.e., that the weapon was `in such proximity to . . . [appellant] as to be convenient of access and within reach.'" Porter v. United States, 282 A.2d 559, 560 (D.C. 1971) (citations omitted). We have frequently articulated the importance of the factor of convenient access or ready accessibi......
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White v. US
...facts that appellant had the knowledge and control of the pistol necessary to sustain a conviction under § 22-3204." Porter v. United States, 282 A.2d 559, 560 (D.C.1971); see Kenhan v. United States, 263 A.2d 253, 254 The CPWL statute provides, in pertinent part: No person shall carry with......