U.S. v. Kent, 97-8425
| Decision Date | 04 May 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-8425,97-8425 |
| Parties | 12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 777 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jason Christopher KENT, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Eric Gotwalt, Savannah, GA, for Defendant-Appellant.
Harry Dixon, Jr., Lamar C. Walter, U.S. Attorneys, Savannah, GA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
Before ANDERSON and HULL, Circuit Judges, and HANCOCK *, Senior District Judge.
Appellant Jason Christopher Kent appeals his convictions for five separate firearms offenses and appeals his seventy-eight-month sentence. After review, we affirm.
A jury convicted Kent of five separate firearms offenses: possession of firearms, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (Count One); possession of a machine gun, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o) (Count Two); possession of a rifle with a barrel length of less than sixteen inches (a "short-barreled rifle"), not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) (Count Three); knowingly transporting stolen firearms in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(i) (Count Four); and bartering of stolen firearms, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(j) (Count Five). At trial, the district court denied Kent's motions for a judgment of acquittal. After his trial, Kent filed a motion for a new trial, which the district court also denied.
On appeal, Kent contends, inter alia, that the trial evidence regarding Count Three was not sufficient to sustain his conviction for possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle and that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motions for a judgment of acquittal and for a new trial regarding Count Three. 1 After review, we affirm Kent's conviction and sentence and the trial court's denial of his motions for a judgment of acquittal and for a new trial.
In the apartment where Kent resided, law enforcement officials found sixteen firearms. Kent's conviction under Count Three for possession of a short-barreled rifle was based on a Colt AR-15 found in Kent's apartment. The weapon charged in Count Three was discovered in two pieces in Kent's apartment: (1) a lower receiver unit with the stock and trigger mechanism and (2) an upper receiver unit containing a barrel with a length of less than sixteen inches (the "short-barreled upper receiver unit").
The lower receiver unit was a section of a .223 caliber, Colt AR-15 rifle, with serial number SP166738. The short-barreled upper receiver unit was an AR-15-type unit, compatible with AR-15-type lower receiver units. However, the short-barreled upper receiver unit was not attached to the lower receiver unit of this weapon at the time it was found. 2 Instead, an upper receiver unit with a barrel length in excess of sixteen inches ("the longer-barreled upper receiver unit") was attached to the lower receiver unit that was part of the weapon charged in Count Three.
Nonetheless, the evidence at trial showed the short-barreled upper receiver unit could be fastened to the Colt AR-15 lower receiver unit through a two-step process. The first step--removing the upper receiver unit that was on the Colt AR-15 rifle--could be accomplished easily by pushing out two pins in the lower receiver unit and then lifting the upper receiver unit away from the lower receiver unit. The second step would be placing the short-barreled upper receiver unit on the lower receiver unit and pushing the two pins back into place to fasten the two receiver units together. This entire process could be completed in less than a minute. 3 ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Robert Burrows testified that fastening the short-barreled upper receiver unit to the Colt AR-15 lower receiver unit in this way "results in a weapon which is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder, capable of discharging a shot through a rifle bore[,] and having a barrel length of less than sixteen inches."
Kent admitted that he possessed the short-barreled upper receiver unit that could be combined with the Colt AR-15 lower receiver unit to form a short-barreled rifle. However, Kent testified that he owned the short-barreled upper receiver unit only for its component parts. He claimed that he intended to use the gas tube, the upper receiver assembly, the handguard assembly, the forward and rear sights, and "[e]verything but the barrel."
Despite Kent's claim, the evidence did not suggest that he had ever removed any of the component parts from the short-barreled upper receiver unit. Rather, the evidence showed that the short-barreled upper receiver unit was found intact, as one complete unit. 4 The short-barreled upper receiver unit included an upper receiver assembly, a rifle barrel, a flash suppressor, forward and rear sights, a sling, a scope with batteries to activate the light in the scope, a gas tube, a handguard assembly, a bolt and bolt carrier--all welded or otherwise fastened together as a single, active upper receiver unit. The short-barreled upper receiver unit's flash suppressor had been welded permanently to the rifle barrel, and when law enforcement officials measured the rifle barrel "from the chamber end to the end of the flash suppressor," they determined the length to be fourteen inches. The sling on the short-barreled upper receiver unit was similar to the sling on the Colt AR-15 upper receiver unit which had the longer rifle barrel. The Government contended that this evidence of the short-barreled upper receiver unit being an intact, active unit, with a sling and with batteries in the scope, and the fact that the short-barreled upper receiver unit was easily interchangeable with other AR-15 upper receiver units including the longer-barreled unit on the Colt AR-15 when it was found in Kent's apartment, demonstrated that Kent's intent was to use the short-barreled upper receiver unit as an intact unit as opposed to using the unit for parts.
It is undisputed that Kent had not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record the weapon that could be assembled by connecting the short-barreled upper receiver unit to the Colt AR-15 lower receiver unit.
The sufficiency of the evidence to support Kent's conviction is reviewed de novo, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government and drawing all reasonable inferences and credibility choices in favor of the jury's verdict. United States v. Guerra, 164 F.3d 1358, 1359 (11th Cir.1999); United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415, 1434 (11th Cir.1992).
The district court's denial of the motions for a judgment of acquittal will be upheld if a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that the evidence establishes the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Keller, 916 F.2d 628, 632 (11th Cir.1990). The district court's denial of the motion for a new trial is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Michael, 17 F.3d 1383, 1384 (11th Cir.1994).
In Count Three, Kent was found guilty of possession of a rifle with a barrel length of less than sixteen inches, not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). Section 5861(d) of the National Firearms Act ("NFA") 5 makes it unlawful for any person to "possess a firearm which is not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record." 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). The term "firearm" is defined for purposes of § 5861(d) and the NFA in general as including, inter alia, "a rifle having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length." 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(3). The term "rifle," in turn, is defined as:
a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed cartridge to fire only a single projectile through a rifle bore for each single pull of the trigger, and shall include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire a fixed cartridge.
26 U.S.C. § 5845(c). This definition of a rifle does not specify that a weapon must be assembled completely in order to be a "rifle." Cf. United States v. Woods, 560 F.2d 660, 665 (5th Cir.1977) (). Instead, for a weapon to be a "rifle," that weapon simply must be capable of being "readily restored to fire." § 5845(c).
The parties do not dispute that the Colt AR-15, with the attached upper receiver unit with a longer barrel, found in Kent's apartment, constituted a "rifle." They also do not dispute that if that upper receiver unit was removed and the short-barreled upper receiver unit were fastened to the Colt AR-15's lower receiver unit, the resulting weapon would be a "rifle." Instead, the issue presented in this case is whether Kent's possession of the short-barreled upper receiver unit and the Colt AR-15 lower receiver unit, even though those two units were not fastened together when found in Kent's apartment, constituted possession of a "rifle having a barrel ... of less than 16 inches in length," a type of "firearm" required to be registered under § 5861(d).
After review, we find that there was sufficient evidence to sustain Kent's conviction under Count Three. The evidence indicates that the upper receiver unit was a complete, intact unit and that this short-barreled upper receiver unit was "compatible" and could be interchanged readily with the upper receiver unit on the Colt AR-15. Moreover, an ATF agent testified that the result of interchanging these upper receiver units would be "a weapon which is...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. Hersh
...plainly shows that Hersh traveled to Honduras with the intent to engage in sexual activity with a minor. See United States v. Kent, 175 F.3d 870, 873 (11th Cir.1999) (holding that in reviewing whether there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction, we view "the evidence in the light m......
-
U.S. v. Harris
...to the government and must make all reasonable inferences and credibility choices in favor of the jury's verdict. United States v. Kent, 175 F.3d 870, 873 (11th Cir.1999). IV. A. The government did not breach Harris's pretrial diversion agreement. A pretrial diversion agreement is analogous......
-
U.S. v. One Colt Ar-15 Firearm Serial No. TA03524
...19 F.3d 177, 180-81 (5th Cir.1994) (finding that Thompson/Center Arms is applicable only to unassembled parts); United States v. Kent, 175 F.3d 870, 877 (11th Cir.1999) (stating that "any lesson to be learned from Thompson/Center is far from clear. In fact, to some extent, because there was......
-
U.S.A v. Wojcikiewicz
...in § 5845(c), at least where the parts could be restored to operable condition "with only a minimum of effort." United States v. Kent, 175 F.3d 870, 874 (11th Cir. 1999). Wojcikiewicz insists that his case is distinguishable from Kent, because more than "a minimum of effort" would be requir......