UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Theodore Stewart FRIES, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 11-15724.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
Aug. 6, 2013.
725 F.3d 1286
At bottom, “the broader context of the statute as a whole,” in conjunction with a plain language interpretation of
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court‘s classification of the February and August layoffs as plant closings. See
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED.
Chet Kaufman, Randolph Patterson Murrell, Federal Public Defender‘s Office, Tallahassee, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.
Theodore Stewart Fries, Ocala, FL, pro se.
Before CARNES, Chief Judge, WILSON and EBEL,* Circuit Judges.
WILSON, Circuit Judge:
Theodore Stewart Fries appeals his conviction for transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident when neither he nor the buyer was a licensed firearms dealer, in violation of
I.
In December 2009, Special Agents Donald Williams and William Lee Visnovske of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) went to the Tallahassee Gun and Knife Show in Florida for the purpose of conducting an undercover investigation of illegal gun sales. At the show, Williams asked Visnovske to purchase a firearm from Fries. Visnovske was a Georgia resident, and the sale was to take place in Florida, so it would therefore be illegal for Fries to knowingly sell a weapon to Visnovske, a nonresident of Florida, if neither the buyer nor the seller was a licensed dealer at the time of the transaction.
Posing as a character named “Peebo,” Visnovske approached Fries and identified himself as a “Georgia boy.” Visnovske further related that his younger brother was a student at the University of Florida and that he came from Georgia, where he lived, to visit his younger brother in Gainesville about once per month. Upon learning that Visnovske was from Georgia, Fries balked at the sale, explaining “[t]hat he couldn‘t sell to an out-of-state resident; that [Visnovske] needed to be from Florida.” Agent Williams, who was standing next to Visnovske, then volunteered that he was a Florida resident, to which Fries responded that he could sell the gun to Williams, and “what you do with it, I don‘t care.” Neither Visnovske nor Williams made any mention of whether they possessed a federal firearms license (FFL).
Because Fries had refused to sell a gun to the nonresident Visnovske the first time around, the agents tried again in April 2010. Visnovske (still posing as Peebo) and Williams again showed up at a Tallahassee gun show, and Visnovske again attempted to purchase a firearm. This time Fries took the bait. Fries told Visnovske that he had just received a Kimber handgun as a trade-in, but that he was willing to sell it to Visnovske for $1,200. Visnovske agreed to buy the gun, counted out
On April 6, 2011, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Fries with: (1) engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license, in violation of
The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict of not guilty as to Count I and of guilty as to Count II on July 27, 2011.2 The district court accepted the verdict, adjudged Fries guilty of Count II, and sentenced him to two years’ probation. Section 922(a)(5), under which Fries was charged and convicted in Count II of the indictment, provides that it shall be unlawful
for any person (other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector) to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver any firearm to any person (other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector) who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in (or if the person is a corporation or other business entity, does not maintain a place of business in) the State in which the transferor resides; except that this paragraph shall not apply to (A) the transfer, transportation, or delivery of a firearm made to carry out a bequest of a firearm to, or an acquisition by intestate succession of a firearm by, a person who is permitted to acquire or possess a firearm under the laws of the State of his residence, and (B) the loan or rental of a firearm to any person for temporary use for lawful sporting purposes.
Prior to trial, Fries had asked the district court to modify the applicable Eleventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instruction to include the defense that a person “may be a resident of more than one state if he maintains a home in more than one state.” Apparently, Fries wished to present evidence that at the time he sold the gun, he believed Visnovske to be a resident of Georgia and Florida because of Visnovske‘s story about visiting his younger brother once per month at the University of Florida. During argument on this issue, the district judge commented, “I take it in this case the only claim is that Mr. Fries knew he was unlicensed and knew he was selling to somebody that was a nonresident. There is no claim about speeding or anything like that.” Fries‘s counsel later responded, “That‘s all I‘m asking the court to do, is to instruct the jury accurately about this dual citizenship law, and I think that‘s what I propose.” No mention was ever made—by the government, by Fries, or by the court—of the fact that
After discussing the jury instructions with the parties at a charge conference, the district court ultimately issued the following jury instruction as to the Count II:
[A] sale or transfer by an unlicensed person can only be made to a person who resides in the same state. Thus, a Florida resident who does not have a
federal license cannot legally sell or transfer a firearm to a person who does not reside in Florida. There are exceptions—for a transfer to a licensed dealer, for a firearm that [is] passing through inheritance, and for a firearm that is being loaned or rented for sporting purposes—but the exceptions are not involved in this case. The defendant can be found guilty on Count Two if, and only if, all the following facts have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt: First, the defendant did not have a Federal Firearms License[;]
Second, the defendant sold or transferred the firearm described in the indictment in Florida;
Third, the defendant knew or had reasonable cause to believe that the person who was acquiring the firearm through the sale or transfer did not reside in Florida; and,
Fourth, the defendant acted willfully.
Fries did not object to the proposed jury instruction, either at the charge conference or at trial, on the ground that it did not require the government to prove that the buyer of the firearm did not possess an FFL. Nor did Fries file a motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the government‘s case, at the close of all the evidence, or in a post-trial motion.
Fries filed a notice of appeal, but soon thereafter his attorney filed a motion to withdraw as counsel and an Anders brief,3 contending that a review of the record revealed no arguable issue of merit upon which he could proceed in good faith. A member of this Court subsequently denied the motion to withdraw and ordered further briefing on the following two issues: (1) whether the district court effectively removed the burden of proof regarding an element of the
In keeping with that directive, Fries now argues that because there is insufficient evidence to support a finding that Visnovske did not have an FFL when Fries sold him the firearm at issue in Count II, his conviction should be reversed. He also argues in the alternative that because the trial judge instructed the jury that transferee‘s licensure status was an exception to criminal liability under
II.
We begin with Fries‘s argument that insufficient evidence supports his conviction for violating
Ordinarily, we review de novo whether sufficient evidence supports a conviction, viewing the evidence and taking all reasonable inferences in favor of the jury‘s verdict. United States v. Farley, 607 F.3d 1294, 1333 (11th Cir.2010). But where a defendant does not move for acquittal or otherwise preserve an argument regarding the sufficiency of the evidence in the court below, the defendant “must shoulder a somewhat heavier burden: we will reverse the conviction only where doing so is necessary to prevent a manifest miscarriage of justice.” United States v. Greer, 440 F.3d 1267, 1271 (11th Cir.2006).5 This standard requires us to find either that the record is devoid of evidence of an essential element of the crime or “that the evidence on a key element of the offense is so tenuous that a conviction would be shocking.” Milkintas, 470 F.3d at 1343 (internal quotation marks omitted); see United States v. Wright, 63 F.3d 1067, 1072 (11th Cir.1995).
A.
To prove that a defendant violated
B.
Having determined that
The government concedes that the record contains no direct evidence of Visnovske‘s licensure status, such as Visnovske‘s own testimony that he lacked an FFL or the testimony of a custodian of records to that effect. The government contends, however, that a jury could have found that Visnovske was unlicensed from testimony between Fries and various ATF agents in which Fries apparently demonstrated knowledge that it would be illegal sell a gun to a nonresident of Florida unless that person held an FFL. That fact, plus Fries‘s attempts to circumvent the law, says the government, can be relied upon to prove that Visnovske was actually unlicensed at the time of the sale. Put another way, the government argues that Fries‘s subjective belief that he was breaking the law by selling the weapon to Visnovske is evidence of the objective fact that Visnovske was unlicensed. We are unpersuaded. As we see it, because Fries lacked personal knowledge of Visnovske‘s licensure status, his subjective belief that he was executing a transaction with an unlicensed person simply does not bear upon the objective state of affairs as they actually were at the time of the sale. In light of the government‘s concession that the record contains no other evidence on this front, the record is completely bereft of any evidence that Visnovske was, as a matter of objective fact, unlicensed at the time of sale. That being so, our inquiry is at its end—Fries‘s conviction cannot stand: “To uphold a conviction, in the absence of any evidence as to an essential element, would be a miscarriage of justice.” United States v. Tapia, 761 F.2d 1488, 1492 (11th Cir.1985) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted); see Wright, 63 F.3d at 1074 (“Under the manifest miscarriage of justice standard, reversal is required only if the record is devoid of evidence pointing to [the defendant‘s] guilt or the evidence of a key element is so tenuous that a conviction would be shocking.“); Hamblin, 911 F.2d at 558 (“The record is otherwise devoid of evidence to support the jury‘s verdict, and intuition cannot substitute for admissible evidence when a defendant is on trial.“).
The government next argues that any error in not submitting evidence of Visnovske‘s licensure status was harmless because, had Fries objected at trial, the government could have proved Visnovske was unlicensed. But on appeal, we are confined to the record before us. And our searching review of the record in this case simply reveals no evidence whatsoever that Visnovske—the person to whom Fries allegedly sold a firearm—did not possess a license at the time of the sale. In every criminal case, the government must be put to its proof, and though the failure to make a contemporaneous objection or motion at
It is no answer to say that the particular element at issue here—the licensure status of the transferee for purposes of
III.
The judgment of the district court is reversed, and the case remanded to the district court with instructions to enter judgment of acquittal on Fries‘s behalf as to Count II of the indictment.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
CARNES, Chief Judge, concurring:
During the charge conference held at the end of the first day of trial, Fries went along with an instruction, suggested by the court, containing language that while there are exceptions to
Nor can it be said that by not objecting to that jury instruction at the charge conference Fries lulled the government into failing to ask Visnovske if he was a licensed dealer. Visnovske testified during the first day of the trial, before the charge conference was conducted. The government‘s failure to ask him if he was a licensed dealer occurred before it knew what Fries’ position might be on that factual issue. Fries did not sucker punch the government. Instead, it knocked itself out of a valid conviction by not asking its witness a simple question the importance of which is obvious from the indictment‘s
ED CARNES
CHIEF JUDGE
Notes
Theodore Stewart Fries, a resident of the State of Florida, not being a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, and collector of firearms, within the meaning of Chapter 44, Title 18, United States Code, did willfully transfer and sell a firearm, that is, a Kimber, Model Warrior, .45 caliber pistol, to a person not being a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, and collector of firearms, within the meaning of Chapter 44, Title 18, United States Code, knowing and with reasonable cause to believe that said person was not then residing in the State of Florida at the time of the aforesaid transfer and sale of the firearm.
Further, it would be an absurd reading of the statute to construe the words “(other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector)” as an essential element where they apply to the defendant, but to interpret that very same parenthetical statement not to be an essential element when it appears later in the same sentence as a modifier of the transferee of the weapon. See
