United States v. Alvin Scott Corey

207 F.3d 84, 53 Fed. R. Serv. 1038, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 5644, 2000 WL 298583
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMarch 28, 2000
Docket98-1893
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 207 F.3d 84 (United States v. Alvin Scott Corey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alvin Scott Corey, 207 F.3d 84, 53 Fed. R. Serv. 1038, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 5644, 2000 WL 298583 (1st Cir. 2000).

Opinions

CYR, Senior Circuit Judge.

Alvin Scott Corey seeks to set aside his conviction for possessing a firearm as a felon, on the ground that the district court abused its discretion in admitting expert testimony that the gun Corey purchased had traveled in interstate commerce. We affirm.

I

BACKGROUND

In September 1997, an Easterfield model 916-A 12-gauge pump shotgun, manufactured by Smith and Wesson, was seized from Corey’s Maine residence by officers of the Somerset County Sheriffs Department. In due course, Corey, a convicted felon, was indicted for possessing a firearm which had traveled in interstate commerce. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g), 924(e). At trial, the government called Agent Michael Coo-ney, a firearms enforcement officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), to establish that the shotgun had been manufactured outside of Maine, and hence necessarily traveled across state lines. Id. As Agent Cooney’s testimony is pivotal to the appeal, we describe it in detail.

A. The Direct Examination

After testifying on direct examination that he had been an ATF agent for six years,1 Agent Cooney described his official duties as “provid[ing] technical information [86]*86regarding firearms identification, operation and design for purposes of assisting the [ATF] and the law enforcement community,” “testing] and evaluating] firearms submitted as evidence,” “handling] inquiries from industry and the general public regarding firearms,” and “assisting] in maintaining the ATF firearms reference collection of approximately 5000 firearms.” He had testified as an expert witness on approximately sixty-five occasions, regarding “the identification, interstate nexus, operation and design of firearms.”

The defense nonetheless objected to Agent Cooney’s expert qualifications on the “interstate nexus” element of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). The district court overruled the objection.

After Agent Cooney confirmed that he had examined the Corey shotgun, the government requested “a brief description of [the gun], including the weapon type, markings, and its history.” Cooney then identified the shotgun as “a Smith and Wesson, Model 916-A, twelve-gauge, pump-action shot gun, serial number 7B1279,” which had been “manufactured by the Smith and Wesson firearms company of Springfield, Massachusetts.”2 The defense asserted foundation and hearsay objections as soon as the prosecutor asked Cooney whether, “[b]ased on [his] examination of the weapon and [his] research,” he had formed an opinion as to the place of manufacture. At that point the district court permitted the defense to voir dire the witness.

B. The Voir Dire by the Defense

On voir dire, Agent Cooney testified to possessing “substantial expertise in identifying firearms,” having handled “hundreds of thousands of firearms” and examined Smith and Wesson shotguns of the type owned by Corey. Cooney stated that the principal Smith and Wesson manufac-tuning plant is situated in Massachusetts, but that other Smith and Wesson plants are located in Ohio and Maine. He stated that he had been able to determine from ATF “technical references” and “technical manuals” that the Corey shotgun was manufactured at the Smith and Wesson plant in Massachusetts. Further, he testified to having spoken with Smith and Wesson personnel at the Massachusetts plant about the Corey shotgun. Finally, when asked whether ATF reference manuals would indicate where particular firearms were manufactured, Agent Cooney responded that ATF possesses “in-house technical information ... provided us by the factory, and other information we keep in-house that I use for reference.”

After the defense invited him to identify the “items” he had relied upon in determining where the Corey shotgun had been manufactured, Cooney responded: “The Smith and Wesson history background file that we have on the company, and there is a notation in there about these shotguns, where they’re made.” Asked to explain how the ATF had compiled these files, and whether its files were comprised exclusively of information sent to the ATF by the manufacturers, Cooney explained that the files consisted of “information that we’ve had from speaking with the factory over the years, and in going there on tours and asking the Smith and Wesson historian, Mr. Roy Jinks, who’s written historical books on Smith and Wesson.” At that point, defense counsel stated: “So a lot of this is, basically, what people tell you, either the company tells you or the people at the company ... or records or memos you may get from the company.” (Emphasis added.) Cooney responded: “That’s correct”.

The defense renewed its objection, insisting that Cooney had relied “strictly [on] hearsay evidence that he gathers, people telling him where these things are [87]*87manufactured.” The defense claimed that the perceived hearsay problem could be cured only by requiring the government “to generate the business records from these factories that show that [the shotgun] was or wasn’t manufactured there.” The government countered that Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703 permit an expert witness to formulate an opinion based on facts of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field, and that Agent Cooney had demonstrated that his methodology met that requirement.

The district court overruled the hearsay objection, on the ground that Cooney “ha[d] testified [that] he acquired this information over the years, has made studies and read a book by someone, and the history of Smith and Wesson, looked at notations that were made over the years as to where certain models come from.” The court then declared itself “satisfied that the reliability of [Agent Cooney’s] testimony is such that it’s admissible for the purpose for which it was intended, and it’s not based exclusively on hearsay that he obtained from a conversation with somebody else with regard to this weapon.”

C. The Direct Examination Continues

Agent Cooney testified that, in his opinion, the Corey shotgun had been manufactured by Smith and Wesson, either in Massachusetts or Ohio. Then he explained that he had attempted to rule out the Smith and Wesson plant located in Maine as the place of manufacture by phoning the Massachusetts plant on January 20, 1998, and speaking with Roy Jinks, the resident historian and the author of two books on Smith and Wesson. Jinks informed Coo-ney that the model shotgun owned by Corey had never been manufactured in Maine. Finally, Agent Cooney confirmed that he had based his expert opinion “on information that [Roy Jinks had] provided as well as the additional research.” (Emphasis added.)

D. The Cross-examination Resumes

The defense asked Agent Cooney whether the telephone conversation with Jinks “was the extent of what you did to determine whether this [shotgun] was manufactured in Maine or not ... ?” Coo-ney responded: “That was one of ... my procedures in my examinations of the shotgun, what I do with every type of weapon;

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bryan Range v. Attorney General United States
69 F.4th 96 (Third Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Jackson
58 F.4th 541 (First Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Cortez-Oropeza
40 F.4th 50 (First Circuit, 2022)
United States of America v. Laveneur Jackson
578 F. Supp. 3d 240 (D. New Hampshire, 2022)
Navarro, R. v. PA State Police, Aplt.
212 A.3d 26 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2019)
Knight v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharm., Inc.
323 F. Supp. 3d 837 (U.S. District Court, 2018)
United States v. Jarelle McLean
695 F. App'x 681 (Fourth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Martínez-Lantigua
857 F.3d 453 (First Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Martinez-Armestica
846 F.3d 436 (First Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Tavares
843 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Torres-Colon
790 F.3d 26 (First Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Dixon
787 F.3d 55 (First Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Kantengwa
781 F.3d 545 (First Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Hughes
44 F. Supp. 3d 169 (D. Massachusetts, 2014)
United States v. Brownlee
744 F.3d 479 (Seventh Circuit, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
207 F.3d 84, 53 Fed. R. Serv. 1038, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 5644, 2000 WL 298583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-alvin-scott-corey-ca1-2000.