United States v. Ingram

501 F.3d 963, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 21255, 2007 WL 2492463
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 6, 2007
Docket06-3915
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 501 F.3d 963 (United States v. Ingram) 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. Ingram, 501 F.3d 963, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 21255, 2007 WL 2492463 (8th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Shondell E. Ingram was convicted by a jury of unlawful possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon. The district court 1 sentenced him to 262 months’ imprisonment. Ingram appeals the conviction and sentence, and we affirm.

I.

Ingram’s conviction stems from the events of August 21, 2005, in Grandview, Missouri. Police reported to the Ridge-view Apartments, where three young women told them that Ingram had wrapped a handgun in a white t-shirt and put it in the back of a red Dodge pickup truck. An officer discovered a loaded .32-caliber handgun wrapped in a large white t-shirt in the truck bed. One of the women identified Ingram, who was in the area, and officers arrested him. Ingram was prohibited from possessing a firearm, having been convicted of armed robbery in 1991.

The prosecution presented testimony from several persons who resided at the Ridgeview Apartments. Angel Young and Christina Young, who are not related, lived together in one apartment with Christina’s parents and Christina’s younger sister, Ashley. Jennifer Zimmerman lived in another unit. Another witness, Jesse Dean, was the boyfriend of Ashley Young. At trial, Zimmerman, Angel, and Christina all testified that Ingram took the gun from his waistband, and placed it in the bed of the Dodge truck. Angel and Christina testified that Ingram wrapped the gun in a white t-shirt. Dean, Angel, and Ashley testified that they saw Ingram in possession of a handgun earlier in the day.

According to Dean and Ashley, Ingram was angry with Dean because he had refused to commit a robbery with Ingram. Dean testified that to express his anger, Ingram lifted his shirt to display a handgun concealed in his waistband, threatened to shoot through the door of the apartment where Dean was visiting Ashley, and threatened to kill Dean. When Dean looked outside, he saw Ingram pointing the weapon at the window.

Angel and Christina testified that later, when they were outside the apartment, they saw Ingram hiding in the hallway nearby. After that, Angel saw him in the parking lot near his car, putting bullets in *966 the gun. Ingram called the women over and told Angel that he would kill her if she “snitched” on him. The women then ran to Jennifer Zimmerman’s apartment. Ingram followed them, but was refused entry. Zimmerman then called the police, setting in motion the events that led to Ingram’s arrest and prosecution.

II.

Ingram first challenges the sufficiency of evidence to support his conviction. He contends that the evidence failed to establish that he knowingly possessed the firearm. When reviewing convictions for the sufficiency of the evidence, “we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, resolving eviden-tiary conflicts in favor of the government, and accepting all reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence that support the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Garnica, 477 F.3d 628, 630 (8th Cir.2007) (per cu-riam) (internal quotation omitted). We will reverse a conviction only if no reasonable jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

Ingram’s challenge rests on apparent inconsistencies in the statements of his accusers. Angel claimed to have seen three guns, Christina recalled only one gun, and Zimmerman told the 911 operator that there were five guns, based on information the other two women had given her. Similarly, Ingram points to Zimmerman’s apparently inaccurate statement of what t-shirt Ingram had been wearing, and inconsistencies as to whether an additional witness named “Daniel” was present in Zimmerman’s apartment with the three women. There was also conflicting evidence about whether Christina Young was present when Ingram was arrested.

Ingram also claims that the reported actions of several of the witnesses were inconsistent with the gravity of the situation they described, such that their testimony is inherently incredible. He says that Ashley’s mother — who apparently left her seventeen-year-old daughter alone at the Ridgeview Apartments — would not have done so if, as Ashley claimed, Ashley felt “uncomfortable” with Ingram being in the area. And Ingram contends that Christina would not have waited outside for the police with Ingram nearby, if she were really concerned that Ingram had a gun and was looking for her. Finally, Ingram questions Dean’s credibility, highlighting Dean’s motivation to avoid a gun charge in the aftermath of a recent conviction for a burglary offense.

These challenges to credibility do not warrant overturning the jury's verdict. “Attacks on the sufficiency of the evidence that call upon this court to scrutinize the credibility of witnesses are generally not an ■ appropriate ground for reversal.” United States v. McKay, 431 F.3d 1085, 1094 (8th Cir.2005), cert. denied, — U.S. ——, 126 S.Ct. 2345, 164 L.Ed.2d 859 and — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 46, 166 L.Ed.2d 48 (2006). To prove that Ingram knowingly possessed a firearm, the government produced two women who said they had seen Ingram wrap a handgun in a large white t-shirt and put it in a truck bed. Two police officers testified that they found the gun in the truck, wrapped in an extra large t-shirt that was likely to fit Ingram, who was a six-foot, two-inch, 210-pound man. Dean and Angel testified that Ingram possessed a handgun earlier in the day, and there was dramatic testimony about Ingram brandishing the weapon and threatening to kill Dean because he would not help him commit a robbery. Angel testified that she saw Ingram loading the gun in the parking lot and that he threatened to kill her if she “snitched.” In short, the jury heard from four witnesses who claimed to have seen Ingram possess a handgun on August 21, 2005, and from *967 two police officers who found the gun where the eyewitnesses said Ingram had concealed it. The jury reasonably could believe that Ingram did knowingly possess the firearm, despite the inconsistencies in testimony that Ingram identifies. Ingram’s allegations of factual inconsistencies, illogical behavior, and motivations to lie may have been useful fodder for cross-examination and closing argument, but they are not nearly compelling enough to establish that no reasonable jury could have found him guilty.

Ingram next argues that he should have been allowed to introduce videotaped interviews to impeach certain witnesses for the prosecution. We review the district court’s evidentiary determinations for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Buffalo, 358 F.3d 519, 521 (8th Cir.2004). The videotapes at issue were made by law enforcement on the day after Ingram’s arrest. Ingram claims that they are the best evidence of what the witnesses actually saw, as they record statements made before the witnesses had an opportunity to “polish” their stories and potentially forget details of what occurred.

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Bluebook (online)
501 F.3d 963, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 21255, 2007 WL 2492463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ingram-ca8-2007.