United States v. Theunick

651 F.3d 578, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 13311, 2011 WL 2566883
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 30, 2011
Docket08-1363, 08-1452, 08-1569
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 651 F.3d 578 (United States v. Theunick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Theunick, 651 F.3d 578, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 13311, 2011 WL 2566883 (6th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Gary Theunick, Frederick MacKinnon, and Maxwell Garnett (collectively, “Defendants”) were convicted of possessing automatic weapons and making false entries on weapons application and transfer forms in *583 violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), 5861(£), and 7206(2). The Defendants raise various issues on appeal, including the constitutionality of the statutes charged, double jeopardy, discovery errors, and sentencing errors. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I.

A.

MacKinnon was elected Ogemaw County prosecutor in 1993, where he worked until losing his reelection bid in 2000. In 1997, he hired Theunick as chief assistant prosecutor. During MacKinnon’s tenure, he and Theunick were the only prosecutors in Ogemaw County.

Garnett was the chief of police in Rose City, Michigan. During this time, Rose City was comprised of one square mile with a population of 800. The Rose City Police Department (“RCPD”) had one full-time patrol officer and one police car.

In 1997, MacKinnon and Theunick began purchasing machine guns and silencers under the authority of the Ogemaw County prosecutor’s office. They purchased these weapons using Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (“ATF”) forms for the tax-exempt transfer and registration of firearms. The sellers, or transferors, of the weapons were National Firearms Act (“NFA”) vendors. The ATF forms indicated that the firearms were “being transferred to ... a government entity.” The forms contained a box to check if the firearm was being acquired “for personal use,” and these boxes were not marked. The forms also indicated that the weapons were tax-exempt by nature of their use by a government entity.

MacKinnon and Theunick purchased these weapons using their personal funds. They never sought repayment from the Ogemaw County Board of Commissioners, which is the usual procedure for bills incurred at Ogemaw County offices. The Ogemaw County sheriff and the Michigan State Police in Ogemaw County were unaware of the firearms.

In April 2000, Garnett, MacKinnon, and Theunick simultaneously purchased three handguns with silencers, and three additional silencers. Garnett sent the firearms dealer a letter on Rose City letterhead stating, “please accept this letter as an official order.... payment made in advance by the county prosecutor Gary Theunick and i [sic] understand that he also will be ordering on his letterhead.” The letter also stated that the purchase “is for official law enforcement use only and is not subject to any state or federal taxs [sic].”

After MacKinnon was not reelected as county prosecutor in 2000, he and Theunick executed ATF forms to transfer the weapons and silencers to the RCPD. Separately, Theunick had a document prepared indicating that he donated the weapons to the RCPD. When MacKinnon and Theunick left the prosecutor’s office in December 2000 and the incumbent prosecutor arrived, there was no record at the Ogemaw County office of the purchase, possession, or transfer of the firearms.

Theunick then worked as assistant prosecutor in Newaygo County. RCPD records indicate that Theunick also worked a few hours at the RCPD in May 2001. MacKinnon was employed as assistant prosecutor in Midland County, but there is no record of MacKinnon’s working at the RCPD. Between February 2001 and April 2001, Theunick and Garnett purchased more machine guns and silencers. On the ATF forms, they identified the RCPD as the transferee. In March 2001, Garnett signed a letter on RCPD letterhead to purchase an AK47 automatic rifle. Theun *584 ick negotiated and paid for that purchase, and faxed Garnett’s letter from the Newaygo County prosecutor’s office to the firearms dealer.

In May 2001, ATF agents conducted an investigation into the transfers from the Ogemaw County prosecutor’s office to the RCPD, but found none of the firearms at the RCPD. Garnett told an agent that Theunick and MacKinnon “never surrendered possession of the weapons.” Two months later, the firearms were seized from the RCPD by the Michigan State Police.

In June 2001, Garnett instituted a logbook for signing out the various guns registered to the RCPD. The logbook entries indicate that Theunick and Garnett regularly checked out NFA machine guns and silencers. Other officers signed out only non-NFA firearms. Theunick did not work any hours for the RCPD in June 2001, and worked approximately 40 hours for the RCPD in 2001.

In 2002, MacKinnon possessed a machine gun registered under the RCPD, and shot the machine gun at Garnett’s residence with Theunick and other individuals. In February 2003, Garnett and Theunick purchased an additional machine gun under the authority of the RCPD. Garnett’s and Theunick’s employment with the RCPD was terminated in July 2004. The logbook entries indicate that Theunick kept one machine gun and silencer continuously from December 2003 to December 2004.

B.

In 2005, MacKinnon, Theunick, and Gar-nett were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan. Each was charged with conspiring to violate 26 U.S.C. § 5861(b), (d), (e), and (l), by receiving, possessing, and transferring machine guns and silencers in violation of the NFA, and by making and causing false entries on NFA applications. The Defendants were also charged with violating 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2) by falsely claiming that the firearm transactions were tax-exempt. They were further charged with the knowing possession of six machine guns and nine silencers not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record to the Defendant in possession in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), and with making and causing materially false representations to the ATF regarding the identity of the persons obtaining the firearms in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(i).

The Defendants moved to dismiss the indictment for failing to state a criminal act. They argued that they had authority to possess the weapons based on the documentation they submitted. The district court denied the motion, pointing out that the question presented was whether the Defendants made false representations on such documentation. The Defendants then challenged the constitutionality of §§ 5861(d), 5861(Z), and 7206(2) as applied. The district court held that the charging statutes provided adequate notice of the prohibited conduct and denied the motion to dismiss.

The Defendants were convicted of the conspiracy charge and seven counts of tax evasion in violation of § 7206(2).

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Bluebook (online)
651 F.3d 578, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 13311, 2011 WL 2566883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-theunick-ca6-2011.