United States v. Darellee Gordon, 496 F. App'x 579

Gordon was convicted of possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d).
Police found a partially sawed-off shotgun with the stock and barrel removed, taped, and concealed; Gordon lived in the apartment where found.
Gordon admitted gang membership in M.O.B. and his presence in the apartment; fingerprints on duct tape matched Gordon on multiple tape layers.
Evidence showed Gordon allegedly shortened the shotgun and potentially possessed it after shortening, supporting knowledge and dominion over the weapon.
PSR noted state murder and gun offenses; district court contemplated concurrent sentencing with state sentence; Gordon was later convicted in state court.
District court imposed 120-month federal sentence, with 51 months to run consecutively to the state sentence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence	Gordon lacked exclusive possession; others had access to apartment.	Evidence failed to show dominion after shortening and ownership of the gun.	Evidence sufficient: Gordon likely possessed and shortened the gun; fingerprints and circumstantial links supported conviction.
admissibility of gang evidence under Rule 404(b)	Gordon's gang membership showed motive and opportunity to possess a concealable weapon.	Evidence was improper propensity evidence.	Admitted for proper purposes; prejudicial impact was mitigated and outweighed by relevance.
Applicability of § 5G1.3(b) to concurrent sentencing	State offenses as relevant conduct required concurrent federal sentence.	District court should impose sentence concurrently under § 5G1.3(b).	Court may disregard § 5G1.3(b) to achieve 3553(a) goals; district court did not err in partially consecutive sentence.
Discretion to weigh concurrent sentencing	Court must run concurrent because relevant conduct increased offense level.	Discretion to depart from strict concurrency for policy reasons.	District court's partial consecutive sentence within its discretion.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (sufficiency standard for evidence)
Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600 (U.S. 1994) (tool-length and registration framework)
United States v. Allen, 619 F.3d 518 (6th Cir. 2010) (district court's Rule 404(b) purpose assessment)
United States v. Mack, 258 F.3d 548 (6th Cir. 2001) (proper-purpose admission of 404(b) evidence)
Merriweather, 78 F.3d 1070 (6th Cir. 1996) (limitations on 404(b) evidence and prejudice)
United States v. Hall, 632 F.3d 331 (6th Cir. 2011) (§ 5G1.3(b) applicability considerations)
Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (U.S. 2007) (sentencing court discretion under Booker)
United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (U.S. 2005) (mandatory sentencing guidelines advisory)
Herrera-Zuniga, 571 F.3d 568 (6th Cir. 2009) (sentencing discretion and application of § 3553(a))
United States v. Johnson, 119 F. App’x 114 (6th Cir. 2005) (reverse prints and possession inference)
United States v. Bailey, 553 F.3d 940 (6th Cir. 2009) (possession and shared access considerations)