Tuesday, July 02, 2019

Evicted Occupant Found Guilty of Possessing Firearm Found After His Departure

United States v. Bellamy, 925 F.3d 1180 (10th Cir. 2019) (CO, published): The occupant of the house in which Bellamy lived ejected him 12 hours before the ATF raided the house. Inside a dresser drawer in the room where he stayed, agents found Bellamy’s birth certificate and an unloaded large capacity magazine. In the closet, they also found a 5.56 caliber rifle with a loaded large capacity magazine. Bellamy pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The district court increased his guidelines base offense level because it found the government had established by a preponderance of the evidence that Bellamy possessed a semiautomatic firearm with a large-capacity magazine that was either attached or in close proximity to the firearm. On appeal, Bellamy said the court clearly erred because he did not possess the rifle when agents seized it many hours after he left. Therefore, there was insufficient evidence to show that when he possessed the rifle earlier, it had a large capacity magazine attached or in close proximity to it. The panel disagreed. The rifle’s location supports an inference that Bellamy possessed both the firearm and its attached magazine before he was ordered to leave the home. The other magazine, in the dresser drawer with his personal effects, further suggests that these magazines belonged to him.