State v. Black

919 N.W.2d 704
Court of Appeals of Minnesota·Decided October 22, 2018·No. A17-1612·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

LARKIN, Judge

Appellant challenges his convictions of threatening violence and possessing a pistol without a permit, arguing that the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain the possession conviction and that the district court erroneously denied his objection to the state's peremptory challenge of an African American venire member during jury selection. Appellant also argues that the district court erroneously sentenced him for both offenses, because they occurred during the same behavioral incident. We affirm.

FACTS

Respondent State of Minnesota charged appellant DaQuairus Nathaniel Black with second-degree assault under Minn. Stat. § 609.222, subd. 1 (2016), threatening violence under Minn. Stat. § 609.713, subd. 1 (2016), and possessing a pistol without a permit under *707Minn. Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a. The complaint alleged that on the morning of August 31, 2016, Black drove up to P.S., his sister's boyfriend, in the area of 4150 Vincent Avenue North in Minneapolis, got out of his car, and told P.S. that he was going to shoot him. The complaint further alleged that when Black made the threat, he pointed a black handgun wrapped in a green cloth at P.S. and that after making the threat, Black tucked the gun into his shorts, returned to his car, and drove away. P.S. reported the incident to the police and described Black's vehicle. Police officers made contact with Black after seeing him get out of a car that matched P.S.'s description. Officers found a black 9 mm semiautomatic pistol inside a green cloth bag in the trunk of the car. Black told the officers that he did not have a permit to carry a gun.

The charges against Black were tried to a jury. During voir dire, the district court denied Black's objection to the state's peremptory challenge to an African American venire member. The jury found Black guilty of threatening violence and possessing a pistol without a permit, but it found him not guilty of second-degree assault. The district court entered judgments of conviction on the threatening violence and possession offenses and sentenced Black for both offenses. Black appeals from the judgments of conviction and sentences.

ISSUES

I. Was the evidence sufficient to sustain Black's conviction of possessing a pistol without a permit?

II. Did the district court err by denying Black's objection to the state's peremptory challenge to an African American venire member?

III. Did the district court err by sentencing Black for both threatening violence and possessing a pistol without a permit?

ANALYSIS

I.

Black challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction of possessing a pistol without a permit. Black was convicted under Minn. Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a, which provides,

A person, other than a peace officer, as defined in section 626.84, subdivision 1, who carries, holds, or possesses a pistol in a motor vehicle, snowmobile, or boat, or on or about the person's clothes or the person, or otherwise in possession or control in a public place, as defined in section 624.7181, subdivision 1, paragraph (c), without first having obtained a permit to carry the pistol is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

(Emphasis added.)

Black contends that a defendant's peace-officer status is an element of the offense and argues that "[t]he State failed, as a matter of law, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that [he] was guilty of possessing a pistol without a permit," because the state did not prove that he was not a peace officer. The state counters that it "did not have to prove Black was not a peace officer" because the "other than a peace officer" language in 624.714, subd. 1a, creates an exception to criminal liability, and not an element of the offense that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

If a sufficiency-of-the-evidence claim turns on the meaning of the statute under which a defendant has been convicted, an appellate court is presented with a question of statutory interpretation, which it reviews de novo. State v. Henderson , 907 N.W.2d 623, 625 (Minn. 2018). "If a statute is unambiguous, we apply its plain meaning." Id .

"The test for determining what constitutes a basic element of[,] rather *708than an exception to[,] a statute ... [is] whether the exception is so incorporated with the clause defining the offense that it becomes in fact a part of the description." State v. Brechon , 352 N.W.2d 745, 749 (Minn. 1984) (quotation omitted). To place the burden of proving an exception on the defendant, "a court must decide that the act in itself, without the exception, is ordinarily dangerous to society or involves moral turpitude and that requiring the state to prove the acts would place an impossible burden on the prosecution." Id. (quotation omitted).

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State v. Black, 919 N.W.2d 704 (Mich. Ct. App. 2018).

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