United States v. Durrell Lee

683 F. App'x 845
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 30, 2017
Docket16-11452 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished

This text of 683 F. App'x 845 (United States v. Durrell Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Durrell Lee, 683 F. App'x 845 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Durrell Lee was charged with and convicted of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). He appeals that conviction.

I.

Lee, while driving Eric Goodson’s car, was pulled over for committing a traffic violation. Goodson and another passenger were also in the car. The police officers conducting that traffic stop smelled marijuana and, after being questioned, Lee gave them a small bag of drugs that he was hiding in his pocket. The officers detained all three men, and upon searching the car they found a Glock .40 caliber pistol under the driver’s seat. In the trunk they found two bags. One bag, a Reebok bag, was holding a .25 caliber pistol, a .380 caliber pistol, a magazine that matched the .40 caliber Glock found under the driver’s seat, and a bank application bearing Lee’s name and social security number. The other bag held, among other items, Lee’s cell phone.

Lee, who had previously been convicted of a felony, was charged with possession of *847 all three guns found in the car. At trial, Goodson testified that he saw Lee place a gun under the driver’s seat and that he had never seen the guns found in the Reebok bag. The government, over Lee’s objection, also entered into evidence pictures found on his cell phone, including á picture of two pistols, one of which resembled the .40 caliber found under the driver’s seat, and four pictures of long barrel guns, a revolver, and a knife. Those photos appeared to have been taken between April and September 2014, after Lee had been convicted of a felony.

The jury returned a guilty verdict as to Lee’s possession of the Glock .40 caliber pistol and its magazine of ammunition, and it returned a not guilty verdict as to Lee’s possession of the .25 caliber and .380 caliber pistols. This is Lee’s appeal.

II.

Lee first contends that, under Federal Rules of Evidence 408 and 404(b), the district court erred in allowing the government to introduce the five cell phone pictures of firearms. We review the district court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Cunningham, 194 F.3d 1186, 1193 (11th Cir. 1999). This abuse of discretion standard “allow[s] a range of choice for the district court, so long as that choice does not constitute a clear error of judgment.” United States v. Kelly, 888 F.2d 732, 745 (11th Cir. 1989). “By definition ... under the abuse of discretion standard of review there will be occasions in which we affirm the district court even though we would have gone the other way had it been our call.” In re Rasbury, 24 F.3d 159, 168 (11th Cir. 1994).

Under Rule 404(b), extrinsic evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to show that “on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with [his] character,” though that evidence may be admissible for other purposes, such as to prove motive, intent, knowledge, or absence of mistake. Fed. R. Evid. 404(b). To be admissible under Rule 404(b), the evidence must be (1) “relevant to an issue other than the defendant’s character”; (2) established by sufficient proof “to enable a jury to find by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant committed the aet(s)”; and (3) of probative value that is not substantially outweighed by undue prejudice under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. United States v. Edouard, 485 F.3d 1324, 1344 (11th Cir. 2007).

“But evidence of criminal activity other than the charged offense is not ‘extrinsic’ under Rule 404(b), and thus falls outside the scope of the Rule, when it is ... inextricably intertwined with the evidence regarding the charged offense.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). And “evidence is inextricably intertwined with the evidence regarding the charged offense if it forms an ‘integral and natural part of the witness’s accounts of the circumstances surrounding the offenses for which the defendant was indicted.’” Id. (quoting United States v. Foster, 889 F.2d 1049, 1053 (11th Cir. 1989)). That evidence, however, must still meet Rule 403’s requirements that “its probative value [not be] substantially outweighed by a danger of ... unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence.” Fed. R. Evid. 403.

The picture of the two pistols was not extrinsic evidence under Rule 404(b) because it was inextricably intertwined with evidence relating to the crime for which Lee was charged. One of those pistols was similar to the .40 caliber Glock found underneath the driver’s seat. The jury could have reasonably concluded that the gun found under the driver’s seat was the same pistol as the one pictured on *848 Lee’s cell phone, making it more likely that the gun was Lee’s and that he knowingly possessed it. The district court also did not abuse its discretion in concluding that this picture’s strong probative value was not substantially outweighed by undue prejudice under Rule 403. See United States v. Brown, 441 F.3d 1330, 1362 (11th Cir. 2006) (“In reviewing issues under Rule 403, we look at the evidence in a light most favorable to its admission, maximizing its probative value and minimizing its undue prejudicial impact.”).

As to the remaining four pictures, which showed long barrel guns, a revolver, and a knife, Lee contends that they were relevant only for the impermissible purpose of showing that he had a propensity to be around firearms. However, “[t]he caselaw in this and other circuits establishes clearly the logical connection between a convicted felon’s knowing possession of a firearm at one time and his knowledge that a [different] firearm is present at a [later] time (or, put differently, that his possession at the [later] time is not mistaken ór accidental).” United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273, 1281 (11th Cir. 2003); see United States v. Gomez, 927 F.2d 1530, 1534 (11th Cir. 1991). The pictures were relevant to showing Lee’s knowledge of the guns in the car, meeting the first prong of Rule 403(b)’s admissibility test.

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Related

United States v. Cunningham
194 F.3d 1186 (Eleventh Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Jeremy Bender
290 F.3d 1279 (Eleventh Circuit, 2002)
United States v. Jernigan
341 F.3d 1273 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Meier Jason Brown
441 F.3d 1330 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Serge Edouard
485 F.3d 1324 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
Mickens v. Taylor
535 U.S. 162 (Supreme Court, 2002)
United States v. Liana Lee Lopez
649 F.3d 1222 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Terence George Kelly
888 F.2d 732 (Eleventh Circuit, 1989)
United States v. Donnie Foster
889 F.2d 1049 (Eleventh Circuit, 1989)
United States v. Pedro Angel Gomez
927 F.2d 1530 (Eleventh Circuit, 1991)
United States v. Alberto Calderon
127 F.3d 1314 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
683 F. App'x 845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-durrell-lee-ca11-2017.