United States v. Cornelison, No. 12-2759 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his sentence and conviction of being a felon in possession of firearms. The court concluded that the evidence taken as a whole amply supported the jury's conclusion that defendant knew about and had possession of the weapons and, therefore, the district court did not err in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal based on insufficient evidence; the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of defendant's prior conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm where the evidence was relevant to a material issue and not unduly prejudicial; the district court did not err in refusing to give defendant's two requested jury instructions; and the district court did not commit plain error in imposing a minimum fine under the Sentencing Guidelines.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm; no error in admitting evidence of defendant's prior conviction for being a felon in possession as the evidence was relevant to the material issue of whether defendant knew the weapons were in his home; the district court did not err in giving a particular version of the reasonable doubt instruction as this court has repeatedly upheld use of this version of the instruction, and the court was not obligated to use a draft version requested by defendant; district court did not err in refusing to give defendant's "mere presence" instruction as it was duplicative of other instructions which adequately presented defendant's theory of defense; no error in imposing a fine.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.