Federal Circuits, 4th Cir. (August 13, 1991)
Docket number: 90-5243
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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Wilmington. W. Earl Britt, District Judge. (CR-90-22-7)
Junius B. Lee, III, Lee, Lee & Viets, Whiteville, N.C., for appellant.Margaret Person Currin, United States Attorney, Richard B. Conely, Sr., Assistant United States Attorney, Raleigh, N.C., Thomas M. Gannon, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for appellee.E.D.N.C.AFFIRMED.Before WIDENER and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges, and BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.OPINIONPER CURIAM:Wayland Williamson, Jr., a federal prisoner, appeals from his convictions on various criminal charges following a jury trial. We affirm.Williamson was charged in a three-count indictment with (1) being in possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony, 18 U.S.C. Secs . 922(g) and 924(a)(2); (2) possessing with intent to distribute approximately 2.9 grams of crack cocaine, 21 U.S.C. Sec . 841(a)(1); and (3) possessing a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. Sec . 924(c). The jury convicted Williamson on all three counts and judgment was entered accordingly. Williamson received concurrent sentences under the Sentencing Guidelines of 57 months on counts one and two, followed by a 60-month consecutive sentence on count three. Williamson filed a timely notice of appeal challenging the convictions.This appeal presents three questions, whether the court erred in denying Williamson's motion for acquittal; whether the convictions under Sec. 922(g)(1) and Sec. 924(c) violate double jeopardy; and whether the admission of a firearm tracing form was error.The test for deciding a motion for acquittal is whether there is sufficient evidence which, giving the government the benefit of all reasonable inferences, would sustain a jury finding that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. MacCloskey, 682 F.2d 468, 473 (4th Cir.1982). In testing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court must give "full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact fairly to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979). The evidence need not exclude every hypothesis, but need only be sufficient enough that "any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. Williamson challenges the decision to deny his motion for acquittal at the close of the evidence based upon the alleged insufficiency of the evidence of knowing possession as to each count. As to each count, possession may be constructive. United States v. Garrett, 903 F.2d 1105, 1110-11 (7th Cir.) (Sec. 922(g)(1)), cert. denied, 59 U.S.L.W. 3276 (U.S.1990); United States v. Poore, 594 F.2d 39, 43 (4th Cir.1979) (interpreting 18 App.U.S.C. Sec. 1202(a)(1), the predecessor to Sec. 922(g)(1)); United States v. Watkins, 662 F.2d 1090, 1097 (4th Cir.1981) (Sec. 841(a)(1)), cert. denied,Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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