United States v. Surmondrea McGregor, 960 F.3d 1319

In 2016 McGregor, a convicted felon, was on state probation that allowed home visits; probation officer smelled marijuana during a 2018 visit and called police.
A warrant search of the residence recovered marijuana, credit cards and papers containing others’ PII, and a Glock 9mm with a clear extended magazine; the gun and a sheet with PII were found together in a small closet and the PII sheet bore McGregor’s fingerprints.
McGregor was federally indicted on one gun count (which he pled guilty to) and multiple counts of possession of unauthorized access devices and aggravated identity theft (which proceeded to trial).
Before and during trial McGregor objected to admission of the firearm and related Snapchat photos as unduly prejudicial and as improper character evidence; the district court admitted the gun and two Snapchat images.
A jury convicted McGregor on the fraud and identity-theft counts; he appealed arguing the court abused its discretion admitting the firearm evidence under Rules 401/402/403 and 404(b).
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, holding the firearm evidence was relevant and highly probative of possession of the PII, and that any prejudicial effect did not substantially outweigh probative value; Rule 404(b) did not apply because the gun was res gestae.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Relevance of firearm to fraud/possession	McGregor: firearm irrelevant because fingerprints on PII already tied him to the documents	Government: gun found in same small closet as PII and linked to McGregor by Snapchat, so it makes McGregor’s possession of PII more likely	Admitted — firearm was relevant and probative to showing McGregor possessed the PII
Rule 403 balancing (unfair prejudice)	McGregor: gun and photos would inflame jury and unfairly prejudice a fraud-only trial	Government: limited prejudice by not informing jury of illegality/prior convictions; firearm probative value high	No abuse of discretion — probative value not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice
Rule 404(b)/character evidence	McGregor: firearm and photos were impermissible character evidence	Government: no 404(b) objection raised below; firearm was res gestae tying McGregor to the PII	Not reversible — 404(b) not implicated; plain-error review would apply and res gestae analysis supports admissibility

United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244 (11th Cir. en banc 2004) (abuse-of-discretion standard for evidentiary rulings and deference to district court)
United States v. Jiminez, 224 F.3d 1243 (11th Cir. 2000) (review of admission of evidence for abuse of discretion)
Gen. Elec. Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136 (1997) (appellate deference to trial-court evidentiary judgments)
United States v. Cross, 928 F.2d 1030 (11th Cir. 1991) (Rule 403 is an extraordinary remedy; exclusion should be used sparingly)
United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273 (11th Cir. 2003) (district court is best situated to balance probative value and prejudice)
United States v. Nerey, 877 F.3d 956 (11th Cir. 2017) (Rule 404(b) does not apply where evidence constitutes res gestae)