United States v. Joshua Belcher

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: February 19, 2025
• Docket: 23-4633
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

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UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-4633

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff – Appellee,

v.

JOSHUA O’KEITH BELCHER,

Defendant – Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Danville. Michael F. Urbanski, Senior District Judge. (4:19-cr-00025-MFU-1)

Argued: September 26, 2024 Decided: February 19, 2025

Before DIAZ, Chief Judge, RUSHING, Circuit Judge, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished opinion. Judge Rushing wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Diaz and Senior Judge Keenan joined.

ARGUED: Erin Margaret Trodden, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellant. Jonathan Patrick Jones, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Mary Maguire, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellant. Christopher R. Kavanaugh, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Roanoke, Virginia, for USCA4 Appeal: 23-4633 Doc: 71 Filed: 02/19/2025 Pg: 2 of 9

Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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RUSHING, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted Joshua Belcher of illegally possessing a firearm as a felon. Belcher

appeals his conviction, challenging two evidentiary rulings and the district court’s refusal

to give one jury instruction Belcher requested. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

I.

In April 2019, Officer Jayme Clark stopped Belcher for driving a truck with a

broken taillight. Officer Clark’s body camera and dashboard camera recorded the incident.

At the truck, Officer Clark smelled marijuana and asked to search the vehicle. Belcher

consented. Upon searching, Officer Clark discovered a stolen pistol under the truck’s

bench seat. Belcher was arrested.

The truck was registered to Belcher’s father, Roy Lynwood Hairston, Jr. Instead of

towing the truck, Officer Clark allowed Belcher to call Hairston so he could retrieve it.

When Hairston arrived, Officer Clark told him Belcher wanted to talk to him, but Hairston

declined to speak with his son.

Officer Clark then took Belcher to the police station and questioned him about the

gun. Explaining the potential charges, Officer Clark urged Belcher to reveal where he

obtained the gun if he didn’t steal it. Belcher responded that there was a “dilemma” in

answering those questions. J.A. 806, at 4:30–4:45. Eventually, however, Belcher

confessed to buying the gun, saying: “Yeah, but I don’t even know who the person was I

got it from. That’s why I said you wouldn’t even believe it; if I tell you, you won’t believe

it.” J.A. 806, at 5:17–5:27.

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Belcher was indicted for possessing a firearm as a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C.

§ 922(g)(1). At trial in July 2022, the jury found Belcher guilty. The district court

sentenced him to forty-eight months in prison.

II.

On appeal, Belcher first challenges the exclusion of proffered defense evidence. At

trial, Belcher sought to introduce a certified copy of his father’s 1980 felony conviction.

According to Belcher, this evidence would support a defense theory that the gun belonged

to his father, who was not legally allowed to possess it, and that Belcher falsely confessed

to protect his father from being criminally charged as a felon in possession of a firearm.

Belcher further argued that the prior conviction explained Hairston’s reluctance to talk to

Belcher when he retrieved the truck and “why [Hairston] has never come forward in the

interim to say that the gun was his.” J.A. 530.

The district court reasoned that Hairston’s prior conviction was irrelevant absent

evidence Belcher knew about it and evidence Hairston’s right to possess a firearm had not

been restored. See Fed. R. Evid. 401, 104(b). Belcher did not provide such evidence, so

the court excluded the conviction records.

After the verdict, Belcher moved for a new trial on the ground that Hairston’s

conviction was relevant and its exclusion inhibited Belcher’s ability to present a complete

defense. The district court disagreed. As the court explained, even without a prior felony

conviction, “it was illegal for Hairston to knowingly receive a stolen firearm, and the

defense was able to argue that Hairston’s possession of the firearm explained both

Belcher’s and Hairston’s conduct.” United States v. Belcher, No. 4:19-CR-25, 2023 WL

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1423754, at *6 (W.D. Va. Jan. 30, 2023). In particular, Belcher had the opportunity to

argue—and did argue—to the jury that he falsely confessed because he was concerned his

father may have stolen the gun and that Hairston’s unlawful possession of the gun

motivated his conduct when he retrieved the truck. In reaching its verdict, however, “the

jury necessarily rejected Belcher’s theory that Hairston owned the gun.” Id. “Under these

circumstances,” the district court reasoned, its decision to exclude Hairston’s court records

“could not have affected the jury’s verdict.” Id.

We review the district court’s decision to exclude evidence for abuse of discretion.

United States v. Delfino, 510 F.3d 468, 470 (4th Cir. 2007). Yet, evidentiary rulings are

subject to harmless error review, so even if the ruling was in error, we will “leav[e] the

judgment intact where we are able to conclude, after pondering all that happened without

stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially

swayed by the error.” United States v. Garcia-Lagunas, 835 F.3d 479, 492 (4th Cir. 2016)

(internal quotation marks omitted).

Evidence is relevant if it “has any tendency” to make a fact of consequence “more

or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Fed. R. Evid. 401. As we have

often observed, “relevance typically presents a low bar to admissibility.” United States v.

Hart, 91 F.4th 732, 742 (4th Cir. 2024) (internal quotation marks omitted). Belcher

persuasively argues that Hairston’s conviction was relevant to his defense because it could

explain why Hairston did not claim the gun or testify on Belcher’s behalf. That remains

so even if Belcher was unaware of his father’s 1980 conviction and even if Belcher did not

produce evidence proving the negative that Hairston’s firearm rights had not been restored.

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But even assuming the district court abused its discretion by excluding Hairston’s

conviction records, any error was harmless.

As the district court correctly explained when denying Belcher’s motion for a new

trial, even without evidence of Hairston’s prior conviction, Belcher was able to argue to

the jury that Hairston’s conduct and Belcher’s confession were explained by the fact that

the gun belonged to Hairston and possessing it was illegal—not because Hairston was a

felon, but because the gun was stolen. The defense made this exact argument during

closing. By convicting Belcher, the jury rejected his assertion that he lied about owning

the gun to protect his father from being charged with possessing a stolen firearm. It stands

to reason that the jury would not be swayed by the additional argument that Belcher was

(perhaps unknowingly) protecting Hairston from being charged with possessing a firearm

as a felon. We therefore conclude any error in excluding this evidence was harmless.

III.

Next, Belcher contends the district court erred in excluding certain cross-

examination evidence. Before trial, the Government disclosed information to the defense

regarding Officer Clark. See Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154–155 (1972).

Specifically, the Government produced body camera footage of an April 2020 traffic stop

in which Officer Clark used his stun gun against a man for allegedly resisting arrest.

Records produced with the footage showed that Officer Clark was disciplined for this

incident and transferred to the police department’s animal control unit.

The Government moved pretrial to exclude the video and disciplinary records,

arguing they were irrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and improper character evidence. See

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Fed. R. Evid. 402, 403, 404(b), 608(b). Belcher disagreed, arguing the evidence showed

Clark’s bias, untruthfulness, motive or intent, and “modus operandi” in “interacting with

young black men.” J.A. 92. The district court granted the Government’s motion, excluding

evidence related to the 2020 traffic stop but allowing Belcher to cross-examine Officer

Clark about his transfer from patrol officer to animal control and his ambition to be

promoted outside that unit.

In a written opinion, the court examined the criteria for admitting evidence of a

witness’s character or other acts under Federal Rules of Evidence 404, 608, 402, and 403.

The court reasoned that evidence about the April 2020 traffic stop was “not relevant to any

issue in Belcher’s prosecution.” J.A. 193 (citing United States v. Queen, 132 F.3d 991,

997 (4th Cir. 1997)). The stop was a year after Belcher’s, and “the two episodes could not

be more different.” J.A. 194. “The Belcher traffic stop involved a defective tail light, the

odor of marijuana, and the discovery of a stolen handgun in which the parties remained

calm throughout, while the [2020] stop concerned a violent, physical encounter during

which Clark discharged an electrical stun device.” J.A. 194.

Having reviewed the video and disciplinary records, the court also concluded that

the 2020 incident and disciplinary investigation did not “bear[] upon or relate[] to Clark’s

character for truthfulness,” nor did they “suggest any propensity of Clark’s to falsify his

testimony or indicate a lack of candor.” J.A. 195–196. The court further determined that

the evidence was unfairly prejudicial, as it “undoubtedly” would “inflame the jury and

confuse and mislead them as to the issues material to the criminal prosecution of Belcher.”

J.A. 197; see also J.A. 193 (finding any probative value “‘substantially outweighed by

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confusion or unfair prejudice in the sense that it tends to subordinate reason to emotion in

the factfinding process’” (quoting Queen, 132 F.3d at 997)). Finally, the court found

Belcher’s argument—that the video and disciplinary records were “evidence of bias by

Clark” providing him “with a motive to plant evidence and testify falsely at the trial of this

case”—“entirely speculative” and “belied by the relevant body camera video of the April

20, 2019, traffic stop involving Belcher.” J.A. 197.

Reviewing for abuse of discretion, see Delfino, 510 F.3d at 470, we find none. The

district court carefully considered the relevant criteria for admission under Rules 404 and

608, and Belcher has identified no factual or legal error in the court’s analysis. Nor did the

court transgress its “wide discretion . . . to determine admissibility under Rule 403.”

United States v. Miller, 61 F.4th 426, 430 (4th Cir. 2023) (internal quotation marks

omitted). Finally, as the district court rightly observed, the jury could fully assess Officer

Clark’s actions in arresting Belcher by viewing the body camera and dashboard camera

footage from Belcher’s own traffic stop.

IV.

Lastly, Belcher argues the district court erred by not instructing the jury about his

“theory of defense.” Specifically, Belcher proposed the following instruction: “Mr.

Belcher’s defense is that he did not ‘knowingly’ possess any weapon, and that the

government has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Belcher knew any weapon

was in his father’s truck.” J.A. 439.

“We review the district court’s decision to give or deny a proposed jury instruction

for abuse of discretion.” United States v. Hicks, 64 F.4th 546, 556 (4th Cir. 2023). “When

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a trial court has rejected a proposed instruction, we will reverse only if that instruction

‘(1) was correct; (2) was not substantially covered by the court’s charge to the jury; and

(3) dealt with some point in the trial so important, that failure to give the requested

instruction seriously impaired the defendant’s ability to conduct his defense.’” United

States v. Lespier, 725 F.3d 437, 449 (4th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Passaro, 577

F.3d 207, 221 (4th Cir. 2009)).

The district court did not abuse its discretion. As the court correctly explained, its

charge to the jury adequately covered the relevant concepts, including knowledge,

reasonable doubt, and the Government’s obligation to prove all the elements of the crime.

Denial of the requested instruction did not impair Belcher’s ability to present his theory of

defense to the jury.

* * *

The district court’s judgment is

AFFIRMED.