United States v. Guzman-Montanez

Marcelino Guzman-Montanez (defendant) was arrested, while armed, at a fast-food restaurant located 300 feet from the gateway to a fenced school campus, as a suspect in an unrelated attempted robbery elsewhere in the city. The government charged him with possessing a firearm in a school zone under 18 U.S.C. § 922(q), which required proving he knew or had cause to know he was within 1,000 feet of a school. Guzman did not live in the neighborhood, and the government introduced no evidence that he knew the area, had ever driven past the school, could see any school signage from the restaurant, or that any visible signage identified the campus as a school. Guzman moved to dismiss for insufficient evidence, but the jury convicted him, and he appealed.