U.S. v. Wooten, 73-2508
| Citation | 503 F.2d 65 |
| Decision Date | 01 October 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-2508,73-2508 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Clifton WOOTEN, Jr., Appellant. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) |
Trawick H. Stubbs, Jr., New Bern, N.C., on brief for appellant.
Thomas P. McNamara, U.S. Atty., and Malcolm J. Howard, Asst. U.S. Atty., on brief for appellee.
Before BOREMAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and WINTER and CRAVEN, Circuit judges.
Tried by the court without a jury, after waiver of jury trial, Clifton Wooten, Jr., was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C.App. 1202(a) which provides criminal penalties for any person who has been convicted by a court of the United States or of a state or any political subdivision thereof of a felony and who receives, possesses or transports in commerce or affecting commerce any firearm. Wooten was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of two years.
On appeal Wooten contends that (1) the district court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal under Rule 29(a) of the Fed.R.Crim.P.; (2) the evidence presented fails to establish that the defendant had been convicted of a prior felony within the meaning of 18 U.S.C.App. 1202(a)(1); and (3) the sentence imposed by the court constituted cruel and inhuman punishment. Points (1) and (2) will be considered together.
At the close of the Government's evidence the defendant moved for judgment of acquittal, announced that the defense would offer no evidence, and thereupon renewed his motion.
The defendant was arrested on July 17, 1973. The arresting officer's uncontradicted evidence at trial disclosed that he observed Wooten take from the driver the keys to the car in which he and four others were sitting, open the glove compartment of the car, remove a gun from underneath his sweater, place it in the glove compartment and then lock the compartment; that Wooten returned one key to the driver and put the other in his pocket; that upon arresting the defendant and finding a key in his pocket the officer used that key to open the glove compartment and there found the gun. There was ample evidence from testimony and records introduced before the court that this particular firearm had been transported in interstate commerce.
Defendant contends that since he was arrested at night and there was no light on inside the car the officer, from his position at the rear of the car, could not have seen the defendant who was sitting in the front seat next to the door on the right. However, at the time of the occurrence, the bright headlights and the beam from a spotlight of the officer's patrol car were focused on the car in which the defendant was sitting.
The court undertook to review the evidence and made findings based thereon. It found that the lighting was sufficient to enable the arresting officer to observe the defendant's actions with respect to removing the handgun in question from his person, placing it in the glove compartment of the car, and locking the compartment door; that the key found by the officer in defendant's possession unlocked the compartment door and that this evidence was sufficient to sustain the charge that the defendant possessed the gun.
From the evidence the court further found that the defendant had earlier been convicted of possession of heroin in a state court of North Carolina and sentenced to a term of five years in prison. The court rejected the argument that since a timely appeal from that conviction had not at that time been determined and since the state court conviction was not affirmed in the North Carolina Court of Appeals until December 12, 1973, the defendant did not at that time stand 'convicted by a court of the United States or of a state or any political subdivision thereof of a felony.' The court denied the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal and found the defendant guilty of the crime charged in the indictment.
On appeal the defendant presents the same arguments as those presented to the trial court although it would appear that the thrust of his argument is directed to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the charge of possession of the firearm. However that may be, on the motion for judgment of acquittal the question is whether the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution...
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