United States v. Lamar Eady, Jr.

591 F. App'x 711
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 6, 2014
Docket14-10592
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 591 F. App'x 711 (United States v. Lamar Eady, Jr.) 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. Lamar Eady, Jr., 591 F. App'x 711 (11th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

A jury convicted Deondre Bain and Lamar Eady on one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Mr. Bain appeals six of the district court’s evidentia-ry rulings at trial. Mr. Eady does not appeal his conviction. Instead, he challenges the district court’s sentencing determination that he was an armed career criminal. He argues that his prior conviction of felony battery under Fla. Stat. § 784.041(1) should not qualify as a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).

For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I

On June 30, 2013, Detective Derek Rodriguez of the City of Miami Gardens Police Department saw a man holding a long rifle standing next to a car parked on the side of the road. Detective Rodriguez thought he recognized the man as Henry Carter, a person of interest in a criminal investigation. In fact, the man was later identified as Lloyd Hulse. Detective Rodriguez activated his police vehicle lights and ordered Mr. Hulse to drop his weapon. Mr. Hulse threw the rifle into the car’s back seat through an open rear door and raised his hands.

Two other detectives and FBI Special Agent Brett McDaniel accompanied Detective Rodriguez to the car. Three men were seated inside: Andre Beach in the front driver’s seat, Mr. Eady in the front passenger’s seat, and Mr. Bain in the back seat. The officers found three firearms inside the car: a Glock Model 27 .40 caliber handgun lying on the floor of the front passenger seat next to Mr. Eady, a Glock Model 22 .40 caliber handgun under the front passenger seat and partially sticking out the back of the seat next to Mr. Bain; and the AR-15 rifle Mr. Hulse threw in the back seat next to Mr. Bain.

A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Hulse, Mr. Bain, and Mr. Eady each on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Mr. Hulse pled guilty, while Mr. Bain and Mr. Eady proceeded to trial. The government presented testimony from the arresting officers, DNA evidence from the firearms, recordings of Mr. Bain’s phone calls from jail, and evidence that Mr. Bain and Mr. Eady each had a prior felony conviction involving a firearm. Mr. Bain called one witness, Travonna Shantavia Gosier, who testified that she spent several hours alone with Mr. Bain until moments before the officers found him in the car.

The jury found Mr. Bain guilty, and the district court sentenced him to 111 months in prison. The jury also found Mr. Eady guilty. At sentencing, the district court determined that Mr. Eady was an armed career criminal under the ACCA. The court found Mr. Eady had three prior violent felony convictions: (1) aggravated assault with a firearm; (2) strong arm robbqry; and (3) felony battery. Mr. Eady objected to his felony battery conviction being considered a violent felony under the ACCA. After concluding that felony battery was a violent felony, the district court sentenced Mr. Eady to 188 months, *714 the low end of the guideline range for his criminal history category and total offense level.

Both Mr. Bain and Mr. Eady timely appealed.

II

To prove a defendant is guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the government must establish beyond a reasonable doubt “(1) that the defendant was a convicted felon; (2) that the defendant was in knowing possession of a firearm; and (3) that the firearm was in or affecting interstate commerce.” United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273, 1279 (11th Cir.2003). Mr. Bain does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence.

Mr. Bain argues instead that he is entitled to a new trial because the district court erred in six of its evidentiary rulings. Specifically, he asserts that the district court wrongfully (1) admitted evidence that he was previously convicted of a felony involving a firearm; (2) prevented him from asking a detective a question on cross examination under the rule of completeness; (3) allowed the government to ask a burden-shifting question on cross-examination; (4) excluded evidence that Mr. Beach had a prior felony conviction; (5) excluded evidence of Mr. Hulse’s guilty plea; and (6) violated his Confrontation Clause rights by admitting DNA evidence without testimony from the crime scene investigator who collected it.

We start with Mr. Bain’s arguments regarding the district court’s nonconstitu-tional evidentiary rulings before discussing his argument regarding the Confrontation Clause.

A

We review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Malol, 476 F.3d 1283, 1291 (11th Cir.2007). But “[e]ven if an abuse of discretion is shown, nonconstitu-tional evidentiary errors are not grounds for reversal absent a reasonable likelihood that the defendant’s substantial rights were affected.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). A defendant’s substantial rights are not affected “[w]here there is overwhelming evidence of guilt” or where the error had only “a very slight effect.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). See also United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244, 1266 n. 20 (11th Cir.2004) (en banc) (explaining that erroneous evidentiary rulings are not reversible if they do not have a “substantial influence ... or leave grave doubt as to whether they affected the outcome of a case” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).

First, Mr. Bain challenges the district court’s denial of his motion in limine to exclude a prior felony conviction of his that involved a firearm. In September of 2010, Mr. Bain was convicted in state court of attempted second-degree murder involving the discharge of a firearm. The government filed a notice of intent to offer evidence of the conviction under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) to show that Mr. Bain’s possession was knowing and intentional. Mr. Bain moved to exclude the evidence, arguing that his prior crime was not closely related enough to his pending charges to be admissible. The district court denied Mr. Bain’s motion. It allowed the government to admit into evidence the fact that Mr. Bain was previously convicted of a felony involving the knowing and intentional possession of a firearm. The jury was not informed, however, that Mr. Bain’s conviction was for attempted second-degree murder.

We use a three-part test to determine whether a district court abused its discre

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Bluebook (online)
591 F. App'x 711, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-lamar-eady-jr-ca11-2014.