United States v. Robinson, No. 19-2207 (8th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The court first concluded that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained during this arrest. In this case, detectives saw defendant shove another man and shout threatening words at him, which is itself potentially a crime under Missouri law. Because the detectives witnessed defendant committing what looked like an assault, they had reasonable suspicion to conduct a Terry stop. The court also concluded that defendant has not shown that, but for the error in the jury instructions in light of Rehaif v. United States,139 S. Ct. at 2200, the outcome of his case would have been different. Therefore, defendant cannot establish plain error.
Court Description: [Kelly, Author, with Wollman and Stras, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. Where plain clothes officers saw defendant push another man, shout threatening language at him and move his hands as if he might draw a weapon from his waistband, they had reasonable suspicion to conduct a Terry stop and frisk defendant, and his motion to suppress the handgun seized from his waistband was properly denied; the district court did not give a Rehaif instruction but defendant failed to show the error affected his substantial rights.
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