United States v. Dante Glinn

863 F.3d 985, 2017 WL 3044631, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 12954
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 19, 2017
Docket16-2918
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 863 F.3d 985 (United States v. Dante Glinn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Dante Glinn, 863 F.3d 985, 2017 WL 3044631, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 12954 (8th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

Dante Glinn appeals following a jury trial conviction and sentence for theft of a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(u) and 924(m). The district court 2 sentenced Glinn to 78 months’ imprisonment followed by three years’ supervised release. Glinn challenges the district court’s refusal to give a particular jury instruction at trial, claims the district court procedurally erred in calculating his sentence, and argues the court erred in its imposition of a special condition of supervised release. We affirm.

1. BACKGROUND

On August 25, 2015, at approximately 1:00 p.m., the manager of Sports Outfitters was in the back of the store and saw on the surveillance camera that an individual entered the showroom. By the time the manager walked into the showroom to assist the customer, the customer was gone. Later viewing of the surveillance footage revealed that a man entered the store, reached over a glass display counter, grabbed a handgun from behind the counter, and ran out the front door. Sports Outfitters is a federally licensed firearms dealer. Following the incident the manager called the police. As part of the investigation, among other things, officers interviewed witnesses, reviewed the surveillance video, and obtained crime scene evidence. Two days later, officers spoke to Glinn during a traffic stop and certain aspects of the conversation raised their suspicions about his involvement in the theft of the handgun. Ultimately, following the investigation, Glinn was charged with the instant offense and a jury trial took place in January 2016.

During trial, Glinn objected to instruction 12, which explicated the crime of theft of a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Glinn argued that the instruction should expressly include an intent element. He claimed that the instruction as written failed to require the jury to find “that the defendant [committed the crime] *988 with the intent to permanently deprive Sports Outfitters of the firearm,” as the second ■ element, The district court held that instruction 12 as written without an intent element was “a correct statement of the law” and thus overruled the objection. The jury found Glinn guilty.

In arriving at Glinn’s- sentence, the district court determined Glinn’s starting base offense level was fourteen because Glinn was a prohibited person under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(6)(A) as an unlawful user of a controlled substance at the time he stole the firearm. The court further increased his base offense level two levels pursuant to § 2K2.1(b)(4)(A) because the firearm was stolen. After arriving at a Guidelines calculation, the district court departed upward and imposed a sentence of 78 months’ imprisonment followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The court imposed an alcohol provision, in addition to other conditions, prohibiting Glinn from using alcohol or being in alcohol related establishments as a condition of Glinn’s supervised release. Glinn challenges instruction 12, the district court’s Guidelines calculations, as well as- the terms of his supervised release.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Jury Instruction

Glinn first challenges the district court’s refusal to adopt his proffered jury instruction on the crime of theft of a firearm from a federally licensed firearm dealer. We review a district court’s formulation of jury instructions for an abuse of discretion, but if the court’s “refusal of a proffered instruction simultaneously denies a legal defense, the correct standard of review is de novo.” United States v. Young, 613 F.3d 735, 744 (8th Cir. 2010). When reviewing jury instructions, we ensure that the instructions, taken as a whole, fairly and adequately submitted the issues to -the jury. United States v. Merrell, 842 F.3d 577, 583 (8th Cir. 2016). In this case, we review the district court’s formulation of the instructions for an abuse of discretion, as Glinn was not deprived of a legal defense.

The charge against Glinn was theft of a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer under 18 U.S.C. § 922(u), which makes it “unlawful for a person to steal or unlawfully take or carry away from the person or the premises of a person who is licensed to engage in the business of ... firearms, any firearm in the licensee’s business inventory that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.” 18 U.S.C. § 922(u). The district court instructed the jury on the elements of this offense as follows:

The crime of theft of a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer, as charged in the -Indictment, has three elements, which are: One, on or about August 25, 2015, the defendant stole, took or carried away a firearm, namely a Kimber .45 caliber handgun bearing serial number KR201205, from a federally licensed firearms dealer; Two, the firearm was taken from the licensee’s business inventory; Three, the firearm was shipped or transported across a state line at some time during or before the defendant stole it.

Glinn argues that the court should have additionally instructed the jury that, to find him guilty, the government must prove Glinn took, stole, or carried away the firearm “with the intent to permanently deprive Sports Outfitters of the firearm.” This additional language was unnecessary, however. This circuit has held that proof of the act of stealing does not require proof of a defendant’s specific intent to permanently deprive. United States v. Van Elsen, 652 F.3d 955, 959-61 (8th Cir. 2011) (discussing Supreme Court and this court’s precedents to discern the existence *989 of an express element of intent and the scope of conduct implicated by the word “stolen”). Thus, the formulation provided to the jury, taken as a whole, fairly and adequately submitted the issue to the jury. Merrell, 842 F.3d at 583.

B. Sentencing

“We review the district court’s ‘factual findings for clear error and its interpretation of the Guidelines de novo.’” United States v. Sykes, 854 F.3d 457, 459 (8th Cir. 2017) (quoting United States v. Vickers, 528 F.3d 1116, 1120 (8th Cir. 2008)).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
863 F.3d 985, 2017 WL 3044631, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 12954, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dante-glinn-ca8-2017.