Submitted: December 13, 2018
Appeal
from United States District Court for the District of South
Dakota - Pierre
Before
LOKEN and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges, and MAGNUSON, [1] District
Judge.
MAGNUSON, DISTRICT JUDGE.
A jury
convicted Appellant Jesse J. Waln of two counts of possession
of a stolen firearm, but acquitted him of three underlying
burglary and larceny charges. The district
court[2] sentenced him to 70 months' total
imprisonment. Waln appeals his conviction and sentence, and
for the following reasons, we affirm.
An
Indictment charged Waln and four others with two counts of
first-degree burglary and aiding and abetting, three counts
of larceny and aiding and abetting, one count of possession
of a stolen firearm, and one count of possession of a stolen
firearm and aiding and abetting. The charges arose out of
three burglaries on the Rosebud Indian Reservation-one in May
2016, and two in November 2016. The other four defendants,
including Waln's brother Jeremiah, pled guilty.
Waln
also pled guilty on the morning of trial to Counts I and II,
which charged larceny and burglary in the May incident. After
a three-day trial, the jury found Waln not guilty on the
three counts charging larceny and burglary in the November
incidents. The jury convicted Waln of the two counts of
possession of a stolen firearm, however. One of these counts
related to a Savage .204 caliber rifle stolen from the home
of Beau Westover in one of the November incidents. The other
related to a Benelli SuperNova 12 gauge shotgun also stolen
from Westover's home in November. The district court
denied Waln's motion for judgment of acquittal or a new
trial on these counts.
At
sentencing, the district court declined to apply the
acceptance-of-responsibility reduction as to the counts that
proceeded to trial, even though those counts were grouped
with the counts to which Waln pled guilty. The district court
found that Waln had not testified truthfully, so that the
acceptance-of-responsibility credit was not warranted. The
district court ultimately sentenced Waln to 30 months on the
guilty-plea counts, 57 months on the two firearms counts, to
be served concurrently with the exception of 13 months on the
burglary count, which was to run consecutively to the other
sentences. Waln received a total sentence of 70 months. The
district court made clear that 70 months was the appropriate
punishment for Waln, regardless of the applicable guidelines
range.
Waln
argues that the district court erred in denying the motion
for acquittal or new trial and in failing to give him
acceptance-of-responsibility credit. He also contends that
the evidence was insufficient to convict him of possession
with regard to the Savage rifle. He does not similarly
challenge the sufficiency of the evidence with respect to his
conviction for possession of the Benelli shotgun.
A.
Standard of Review
We
review the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal based
on the sufficiency of the evidence de novo. United States
v. Griffith, 786 F.3d 1098, 1102 (8th Cir. 2015). The
court must "view the evidence in the light most
favorable to the guilty verdict, granting all reasonable
inferences that are supported by that evidence."
United States v. Johnson, 745 F.3d 866, 869 (8th
Cir. 2014) (quotation omitted). The court reviews a trial
court's decision to admit expert witness testimony for an
abuse of discretion. United States v. Evans, 272
F.3d 1069, 1094 (8th Cir. 2001).
The
trial court's application of the Guidelines to the facts
is reviewed de novo, and its factual findings are reviewed
for clear error. United States v. Wiley, 350 F.3d
736, 738 (8th Cir. 2003).
B.
Motion for Acquittal
Waln
challenges two aspects of the district court's denial of
his motion for acquittal on the charge of possession of a
...