United States v. Wright

102 F. App'x 972
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 28, 2004
DocketNo. 03-3810
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 102 F. App'x 972 (United States v. Wright) 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. Wright, 102 F. App'x 972 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

CLELAND, Disriet Judge.

Defendant-Appellant James A. Wright (“Defendant”) was convicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). He challenges his conviction, arguing that (1) the district court erred by admitting evidence relating to his state court admission and guilty plea to a charge of aggravated menacing under Ohio law, and (2) the prosecutor’s comments made during closing argument constituted misconduct warranting a new trial. We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts surrounding the incident giving rise to this case occurred during the late hours of October 12, 2002 and extended into the early morning hours of October 13, 2002. On October 12, 2002, Shirley Hoerner finished her shift as a waitress at a restaurant in Englewood, Ohio and pulled into a Kwik-N-Kold beverage center in Dayton, Ohio. The Kwik-N-Kold establishment included a beverage drive-thru and Ms. Hoerner pulled her vehicle in line behind a burgundy Oldsmobile at the entrance to the store. Hoerner testified that when she moved up behind the Oldsmobile, she observed two men sitting in the front seat. She described the driver as a “dark-skinned black man, thin in build, wearing a black leather jacket,” and the passenger as a “brown-skinned gentleman with a rounder face, [wearing] Cleveland Browns clothes [ ] and a brown jacket.” Hoerner also observed a third, thinly-built, black male wearing dark clothes standing outside of the entrance to the Kwik-N-Kold. Next, Hoerner claimed that the man standing outside of the entrance approached her car and started beating on her windshield, demanding that she back up. Hoerner refused to back up, but rather put her vehicle in park, started to exit her car, and told the man to get off of her vehicle. The man stopped hitting her windshield and began talking to the occupant of a third car that had since pulled in line behind Hoerner.

Hoerner returned to her vehicle and locked the door. The burgundy Oldsmobile then backed up closer to her car and the man sitting on the passenger side pointed a gun at her, demanding in less than civil language that she back up. At trial, she testified that the passenger pointed a large caliber black metal pistol at her for less than a minute. Hoerner, however, refused to back up. Nevertheless, the driver continued “backing up slowly right in front of her” until the Oldsmobile was within one foot of her front bumper. The driver of the Oldsmobile eventually maneuvered into an adjacent alley, turned around, and both men departed the scene. Hoerner was able to make note of the color, make, model, and license number of the vehicle before it departed.

After the incident, Hoerner purchased some beer and snacks and drove home. When she arrived home, she called 911 to report the incident. Dispatch issued an alert message at approximately 12:42 a.m., indicating the time, date, location, and na[975]*975ture of Hoerner’s incident at the Kwik-N-Kold. After receiving the alert message, Dayton Police Officers Amber Baca and Eric Brown observed a vehicle fitting the description of the one described by Hoerner and executed a traffic stop on the burgundy colored Oldsmobile for making an unlawful right turn. As soon as the vehicle stopped, the man seated on the passenger’s side, later identified as Defendant, exited the vehicle and began running away. Officer Brown gave chase, eventually apprehending Defendant approximately three blocks from the location of the traffic stop. Officer Brown handcuffed Defendant, patted him down (no firearm was on his person), and placed him in the back seat of a nearby police cruiser, that of Officer Daniel Zwiesler. Officer Zwiesler then drove Defendant back to the scene of the traffic stop in his patrol car. Dayton police identified the driver of the Oldsmobile as Andre Lamar Player. They also discovered that the car was registered to Larisha J. Spear, Lamar Player’s girl friend and mother to three of his children. Ms. Spear testified that she had lent her car to the driver.

After Defendant’s apprehension and return to the traffic stop, Hoerner arrived to participate in a show-up of the two apprehended suspects. She positively identified the burgundy Oldsmobile and both suspects. She specifically identified Defendant as the man who had pointed the pistol at her while waiting in line at the store. While on the scene, the officers also pried open the glove box of the Oldsmobile and recovered a handgun.

Defendant was arrested for aggravated menacing and transported to the Montgomery County Jail. Police also retrieved a key for the glove box of the Oldsmobile and a wallet from underneath the back seat of the police car transporting Defendant (officer Zwiesler’s patrol car). The police did not fingerprint the pistol recovered from the glove box. Based on a complaint sworn by Hoerner, Defendant was charged with the misdemeanor offense of aggravated menacing in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2903.21.1 On October 25, 2002, Defendant, represented by counsel, appeared in Dayton Municipal Court on the aggravated menacing charge and entered a guilty plea.

Defendant was subsequently indicted on a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) on November 27, 2002 and entered a plea of not guilty in federal court. On March 3, 2003, the government filed a motion in limine seeking to introduce evidence of Defendant’s guilty plea in Dayton Municipal Court in its case in chief. Defendant filed a response to the government’s motion on March 4, 2003. Because there were no facts stated upon any record which establish the specific underlying conduct to which Mr. Wright pled guilty, Defendant argued that the evidence of his state court admission and prior plea was not relevant to the federal charge and should be excluded under Rules 401 and 402 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. In addition, he argued that even if the district court found the evidence relevant to estab[976]*976lish a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), the evidence should have been excluded because its probative value was substantially-outweighed by its danger of unfair prejudice under Rule 403.

The court first considered the government’s motion seeking admission of Defendant’s October 25, 2002 plea colloquy from state court during a final pretrial conference. The district court initially denied, without prejudice, the government’s request to use the state court admission contained in the plea transcript. The district court also determined that the evidence at issue was not governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) and specifically noted that, “depending on the defense raised by Wright, whether in chief or as raised in cross-examination ..., [the admission in the plea transcript] may [later] become relevant.”

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102 F. App'x 972, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wright-ca6-2004.