United States v. Nevils
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
548 F.3d 802 (2008)
Relevant factsFree
Los Angeles police found Nevils (defendant) asleep in an apartment with open doors, two guns leaning against his body, and drugs visible on the coffee table, leading to his arrest and prosecution as a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Nevils testified that he had gotten drunk at an adjacent apartment and been brought to this apartment to sleep it off, and that no guns or drugs were visible when he first arrived there. The jury convicted him, and he appealed based on insufficiency of the evidence.
IssueFree
Whether an individual can be convicted of possession of a firearm when he honestly did not know, and had no reason to know, that he was in possession of it.