Defendant-appellant Curtis Moore appeals from an August 27, 1999 order of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Robert N. Chatigny, District Judge), denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Fed. R.Crim.P. 29, and sentencing him principally to 235 months’ imprisonment and three years’ supervised release. Because we find that the district court did not err in denying the Rule 29 motion, and properly considered all of Moore’s previous felony convictions in calculating his sentence, we affirm the decision of the district court.
BACKGROUND
On October 26, 1998, New Haven police officers responded to a complaint of gunshots in the Quinnipiac Terrace Housing Project. Upon reaching Quinnipiac Terrace, the officers saw defendant-appellant Curtis Moore standing in the middle of the courtyard with a black and silver handgun in his waistband. Moore was observed from a distance of 50 to 86 feet, at night, for a period of approximately five seconds. The officers ordered him to put his hands up, whereupon he fled into one of the apartments, where his aunt, Virginia Moore, resided. The officers followed Moore into the apartment, where they found him lying on a bed in one of the bedrooms. The officers also recovered a black and silver handgun from a doorless closet .in the same room.
Moore was indicted on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He was convicted after a jury trial. Moore timely moved for a judgment of acquittal under Fed.R.Crim.P. 29. The district court denied the motion on August 27, 1999 and sentenced Moore to 235 months’ imprisonment pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984,18 U.S.C. § 924(e).
On appeal, Moore argues that (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction, and therefore the district court erred by denying his Rule 29 motion, and (2) a previous felony conviction that was not disclosed before trial by the government should not have been considered in calculating his sentence.
DISCUSSION
I. Sufficiency of the Evidence
To convict a defendant of being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the government must prove that (1) the defendant possessed a firearm, (2) the defendant had a prior felony conviction, and (3) the firearm was possessed in or affecting interstate commerce. Moore stipulated to the fact that he was a *413 convicted felon and that the gun recovered from the bedroom closet had traveled in interstate commerce. He does not deny that the officers did see him carrying a handgun, but disputes whether the gun recovered from the closet, upon which his conviction was based, was ever possessed by him.
On a sufficiency of the evidence challenge, we review the evidence and the inferences to be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the government.
See United States v. Plitman,
On this record, we cannot say that the facts are such that no reasonable jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the gun previously on Moore’s person and the gun recovered from the bedroom closet were one and the same. We therefore reject Moore’s insufficiency claim.
II. Sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act
Moore’s second claim is that he was unaware before trial that, if convicted, he would be subject to the provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), and the corresponding Sentencing Guidelines provision, U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4(b)(3)(B), under which the applicable sentencing range was 235 to 293 months. Moore bases his claim upon the fact that he did not receive notice before trial that he had three predicate convictions instead of two, triggering application of these sentencing enhancements.
Prior to trial, the government provided Moore with a copy of a computer-generated criminal history, pursuant to its obligations under Fed.R.Crim.P. 16(a)(1)(B). Moore’s criminal history, taken from the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing system, which compiles arrests and convictions in the state of Connecticut, contained a conviction for a drug felony and an assault conviction, but omitted a second assault conviction. Moore does not contend that the government deliberately misled him by producing a criminal history with only two predicate convictions, but argues that the government failed to use due diligence to discover the additional assault conviction, which only came to light in the post-conviction Presentence Report prepared by the United States Probation Office. The additional conviction subjected Moore to the 15-year mandatory minimum sentence under section 924(e) and to the higher sentencing range required by U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4(b)(3)(B). Moore argues that since he was unaware that the third *414 prior conviction would be considered at sentencing, he was unable to make an informed guilty plea, and that this amounted to a denial of due process. We disagree.
It is settled that due process requires that a defendant have notice and an opportunity to contest the validity or applicability of the prior convictions upon which a statutory sentencing enhancement is based.
See Oyler v. Boles,
While we have never considered whether the
Oyler
rule should apply in the context of the Armed Career Criminal Act, the other circuit courts that have addressed the question have held that it does.
See United States v. O’Neal,
CONCLUSION
We conclude that the district court correctly denied Moore’s motion for a judgment of acquittal based on insufficiency of the evidence. We further find that the district court properly considered all of Moore’s prior convictions in imposing sentence, as required by the Armed Career Criminal Act, and that Moore was not denied due process at sentencing. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
