United States v. Montoya-Gaxiola, No. 14-10255 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed her sentence and conviction for violating the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. 5801-5872, alleging that the district court failed to instruct the jury on the mens rea element of the charge. The court agreed, concluding that, if Ninth Circuit Model Criminal Jury Instruction 9.34 is strictly followed, as it was here, it may result in an erroneous instruction. The Model Instruction is susceptible of being unwittingly misinterpreted as calling for the inclusion of a description of the weapon’s identifying characteristics (such as make, caliber and serial number). Because such error is not harmless, the court reversed the conviction and sentence, remanding for a new trial.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel reversed a conviction for possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun with a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length, in violation of the National Firearms Act, 28 U.S.C. § 5861(d), and remanded for a new trial. The panel held that the district court erred by failing to instruct the jury as to the mens rea element of the charge. The panel explained that Ninth Circuit Model Criminal Jury instruction 9.34, if strictly followed as it was in this case, is susceptible of being unwittingly misinterpreted as calling for the inclusion of a description of the weapon’s identifying characteristics instead of instructing the jury to determine whether the defendant knowingly possessed a sawed-off shotgun with a barrel of less than eighteen inches long. The panel held that the error was not harmless. UNITED STATES V. MONTOYA-GAXIOLA 3
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.