United States v. William Moye

454 F.3d 390, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18515, 2006 WL 2045802
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJuly 24, 2006
Docket04-4549
StatusPublished
Cited by203 cases

This text of 454 F.3d 390 (United States v. William Moye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth 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. William Moye, 454 F.3d 390, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18515, 2006 WL 2045802 (4th Cir. 2006).

Opinions

Affirmed by published opinion. Senior Judge HAMILTON wrote the opinion for the court, in which Chief Judge WILKINS and Judges WIDENER, WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, WILLIAMS, TRAXLER, KING, SHEDD, and DUNCAN joined, and in which Judges MICHAEL and MOTZ joined as to Parts I and IIA and B. Judge MOTZ wrote an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Judge MICHAEL joined. Judge GREGORY wrote an opinion dissenting in part.

OPINION

HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge:

William Moye appeals his convictions for being a felon in possession of firearms, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and possession of stolen firearms, id. § 922(j). For the reasons stated below, we affirm.

I

A

At 5:30 a.m. on August 14, 2003, Anne Arundel County police officer Kurt List-man responded to a burglar alarm at Bart’s Sporting Goods store at 6814 Richie Highway in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. When Officer Listman arrived, he saw a car parked next to a door on the side of the store. Officer Listman saw a person, who was later identified as Courtney Cooper, behind the wheel of the car, and another person, who was later identified as Jackie Briggs, trying to get into the car.

As Briggs tried to get into the car, Cooper sped off, leaving Briggs behind. Cooper eventually was apprehended after a high-speed chase. Briggs, who fled on foot, was also apprehended. The car was found to contain thirteen firearms taken from the store. Two more firearms taken from the store were recovered on Briggs’ person. The finger-prints of Cooper, Briggs, and Moye were not found on any of the firearms.

As Officer Listman was “taking off’ to chase Cooper, another Anne Arundel County police officer, Matthew Walters, spotted Moye crawling out of the store’s side doorway. The side door to the store was no longer being used as an entrance because the side doorway leading into the store was framed with timber which created ten storage cubbyholes, each approximately eighteen inches by eighteen inches in size. (Government’s Exhibits 2c, 2f). From the store’s interior, an employee had easy access to the cubbyholes because the cubbyholes were located directly behind a set of hinged side-by-side doors used to hide, with the use of pegboard and merchandise, the cubbyholes from the store’s retail space. Thus, in essence, the side-by-side doors created a small storage closet where equipment and merchandise were stored in the cubbyholes. The distance between the side-by-side doors and the store’s gun display cabinets, which ran perpendicular to the doors, is approximate[394]*394ly three feet. (Government’s Exhibits 2g, 2h).

Officer Walters saw Moye crawling out of the store through the cubbyhole below the side door’s knob. This cubbyhole was the only one that was not cluttered with boxes and/or store equipment/merchandise. (Government’s Exhibits 2c, 2f). After Moye escaped through the cubbyhole, he fled on foot, but was later apprehended.2

B

On April 20, 2004, a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Maryland returned a two-count superseding indictment against Moye. In Count One, Moye was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). In Count Two, Moye was charged with possessing stolen firearms, id. § 922(j). Each count also charged Moye as an aider and abettor under 18 U.S.C. § 2.

At trial, Thomas Love, an ATF agent who was qualified as an expert in interstate nexus, testified that the firearms set forth in the indictment affected interstate commerce because they were not manufactured in the State of Maryland. Alan Koch, the manager of the store, testified that all of the firearms stolen from the store’s gun display cabinets functioned properly.

At the conclusion of the trial, a jury convicted Moye on both counts. On July 19, 2004, Moye was sentenced to thirty months’ imprisonment. He filed a timely notice of appeal.

On September 9, 2005, a panel of this court reversed Moye’s convictions. See United States v. Moye, 422 F.3d 207 (4th Cir.2005). On October 18, 2005, the panel opinion was vacated, as a majority of active circuit judges voted to rehear this case en banc. See Fourth Circuit Local Rule 35(c) (“Granting of rehearing en banc vacates the previous panel judgment and opinion.”).

II

Moye contends there is insufficient evidence in the record to support his convictions. Moye’s convictions must be upheld if “there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the Government,” to support them. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). “[Substantial evidence is evidence that a reasonable finder of fact could accept as adequate and sufficient to support a conclusion of a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Burgos, 94 F.3d 849, 862 (4th Cir.1996) (en banc). Moreover, we can reverse a conviction on insufficiency grounds only when the “prosecution’s failure is clear.” United States v. Jones, 735 F.2d 785, 791 (4th Cir.1984) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, drawing all reasonable inferences in its favor. United States v. Wilkinson, 137 F.3d 214, 220 (4th Cir.1998). We also assume that the jury resolved all contradictions in the testimony in favor of the government. United States v. Sun, 278 F.3d 302, 313 (4th Cir.2002). Finally, where the evidence supports differing reasonable interpretations, the jury will decide which interpretation to accept. [395]*395United States v. Wilson, 118 F.3d 228, 234 (4th Cir.1997).

Count One charged Moye with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which makes it unlawful for any person “who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” to possess a firearm, which has been shipped or transported in interstate commerce. Id. § 922(g)(1). We have previously explained that the elements required for conviction under § 922(g)(1) are:

(1) the defendant previously had been convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year; (2) the defendant knowingly possessed, transported, shipped, or received, the firearm; and (3) the possession was in or affecting commerce, because the firearm had travelled in interstate or foreign commerce at some point during its existence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
454 F.3d 390, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 18515, 2006 WL 2045802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-william-moye-ca4-2006.