## Facts

- While helping his grandmother move, Matthew Williams found his deceased grandfather’s shotgun in a garage.
- Williams moved the shotgun to a bathroom connected to a bedroom and locked the bedroom door to prevent others from encountering it.
- About a week later, a deputy sheriff searching for a juvenile suspect obtained Williams’s consent to search the home.
- Williams unlocked the bedroom; the deputy found the shotgun on a toilet tank and observed the barrel appeared shorter than legally allowed.
- The barrel was later measured at about 13 inches, approximately five inches shorter than the statutory minimum.
- Williams initially denied knowledge of the firearm but later said it was his grandfather’s and he moved it for safety.
- The State charged Williams with unlawful possession of a short-barreled shotgun under RCW 9.41.190(1).
- The to-convict instruction required the jury to find Williams “knowingly possessed a short-barreled shotgun,” without expressly requiring knowledge (or reason to know) of the barrel-length characteristic.
- The jury convicted; the Court of Appeals affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether RCW 9.41.190(1) requires proof that the defendant knew or should have known the firearm’s defining unlawful characteristics (e.g., barrel length), rather than only knowing possession of the firearm.
2. Whether omission of that mens rea from the to-convict instruction required reversal or was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Decision

- The court held RCW 9.41.190(1) is not strict liability as to the firearm’s defining characteristics.
- The State must prove the defendant knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, the characteristics that made the firearm unlawful.
- The court ruled the to-convict instruction was deficient for failing to reflect this required mental element.
- The instructional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence that Williams knew or should have known the barrel was unlawfully short was overwhelming.
- The conviction was affirmed.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal statutes are presumed to include a mens rea requirement unless the legislature clearly indicates strict liability.
- For RCW 9.41.190(1), the mens rea attaches to the factual characteristics that make the firearm unlawful (actual or constructive knowledge), not to knowledge that the law prohibits such possession.
- A defective to-convict instruction omitting an element may be harmless if the reviewing court is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the omission did not affect the verdict.

## Conclusion

RCW 9.41.190(1) requires proof that a defendant knew or should have known the firearm’s unlawful characteristics, but a conviction may stand despite an incomplete to-convict instruction when the evidence on the omitted mens rea element is overwhelming.


State v. Williams, 158 Wash. 2d 904, 148 P.3d 993 (Wash. 2006)