Can a defendant appeal his conviction for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Gonzales, 182 Cal.Rptr.3d 294, 232 Cal.App.4th 1449 (Cal. App. 2015):

Defendant claims that his conviction must be reversed because the prosecution failed to present substantial evidence at trial that he knew the firearm was loaded. We disagree. "Evidence of a defendant's state of mind is almost inevitably circumstantial, but circumstantial evidence is as sufficient as direct evidence to support a conviction." ( People v. Bloom (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1194, 1208, [259 Cal.Rptr. 669, 774 P.2d 698].) Defendant and his two passengers were fellow members of a criminal street gang, and defendant knew that one of his passengers was carrying a concealed firearm. A gang expert testified at trial that the primary activities of defendant's gang are "[c]arrying concealed firearms, murders, homicides, [and] shooting into inhabited dwellings." He also testified that members of this gang frequently carry guns in vehicles for the purpose of committing crimes. A reasonable jury could have concluded from this evidence that defendant knew that his fellow gang member would not carry a concealed firearm unless it was loaded since the primary purposes to which his fellow gang members put firearms required that those firearms be loaded.

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