US v. Henderson: Police went to Henderson’s home to execute a search warrant. Once there, they saw a blue car pull into the front yard. Henderson walked toward the car, but as the officers approached, he “opened his hand and tossed items underneath the vehicle,” including a firearm and a plastic bag with small amounts of crack and powder cocaine. The search of the residence uncovered additional drugs and firearms, as well as a digital video recorder with a week’s worth of footage from security cameras around the home. The video showed Henderson selling drugs “with an easily accessible handgun placed on the table in front of him” and “Henderson and other men, armed with multiple handguns and an AR-15 style rifle, standing in the front yard of the residence as cars and people would approach it.” He was convicted at trial on conspiracy, drug, and firearm counts and sentenced to a downward variance sentence of 324 months in prison.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Henderson’s convictions and sentence. As Henderson’s conspiracy conviction (and related firearm conviction), the court held that there was sufficient evidence to support the verdicts. It rejected Henderson’s argument that the evidence was insufficient because it was only on his confession, which he later recanted (his family testified at trial that he was a liar, as well), noting that there was significant additional evidence (largely on video) to corroborate the confession. As to the other counts, the court held that there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate an intent to distribute drugs on Henderson’s part. As to Henderson’s sentence, the court rejected Henderson’s argument that it was procedurally unreasonable (based, again, on the argument that his confession, upon which relevant conduct was based, was false) and then concluded that he did not rebut the presumption of reasonableness that attached to the below-the-Guidelines sentence.
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