## Facts

- At Little Magen’s Bay, St. Thomas, Hilton A. Lake confronted beachgoer Milton Clarke after asking about a car parked up a hill near the road, not visible from the beach.
- After Clarke refused Lake’s requests to borrow the car, Lake displayed a gun, pointed it at Clarke, and demanded keys; Clarke retreated into the water.
- Clarke’s friend Pamela Croaker arrived; Lake demanded her car keys and, during a struggle, held the gun to her head, causing fear.
- Croaker surrendered her keys at gunpoint; Lake walked up the path to the road and drove away in Croaker’s car.
- Police later apprehended Lake in the vehicle; no gun was recovered, and Lake claimed the weapon could have been a toy.
- A jury acquitted Lake of federal carjacking (18 U.S.C. § 2119) but convicted him of using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)), with the predicate identified as the alleged carjacking.

## Issues

1. Whether sufficient evidence supported treating the taking as a § 2119 carjacking because the vehicle was taken from the victim’s “person or presence” even though it was parked out of sight up a hill.
2. Whether sufficient evidence showed Lake used or carried a real “firearm” for § 924(c) despite the weapon not being recovered.
3. Whether the government sufficiently proved § 2119’s interstate-commerce element.
4. Whether a § 924(c) conviction predicated on carjacking can stand when the jury acquitted on the separate carjacking count.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed the § 924(c) conviction.
- The evidence permitted a rational jury to find the car was taken from Croaker’s “person or presence” because, but for Lake’s gun-based intimidation, she could have kept control over the vehicle.
- The evidence permitted a rational jury to find Lake used or carried a real firearm based on eyewitness descriptions, the manner of use (gun to face/head), and inferences from Lake’s conduct.
- Testimony that no motor vehicles are manufactured in the Virgin Islands supported an inference that the vehicle traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.
- The carjacking acquittal did not bar the § 924(c) conviction; apparent inconsistency in verdicts does not invalidate a conviction supported by sufficient evidence.

## Legal Principles

- For § 2119, a vehicle is taken from the victim’s “person or presence” when it is sufficiently within the victim’s reach, observation, or control such that the victim could have retained possession but for the defendant’s violence or intimidation.
- “Presence” is not limited to immediate physical control or visual range; property in an adjoining area or otherwise accessible may qualify if intimidation prevents resistance.
- A § 924(c) conviction may be sustained even if the jury acquits on the separately charged predicate offense, so long as the record contains sufficient evidence that the predicate crime of violence occurred.
- A firearm under § 924(c) may be proven through circumstantial evidence and lay eyewitness testimony regarding the weapon’s appearance and the defendant’s manner of use, even if the gun is not recovered.
- The interstate-commerce element of § 2119 may be proven circumstantially, including by evidence supporting an inference the vehicle necessarily arrived from outside the jurisdiction.

## Conclusion

The court held that a carjacking’s “person or presence” element can be met even when the vehicle is parked out of sight and some distance away if intimidation prevented the victim from maintaining control, and it upheld a § 924(c) conviction based on sufficient evidence of both the predicate conduct and a real firearm despite an acquittal on the separately charged carjacking count.


United States v. Lake, 150 F.3d 269 (3d Cir. 1998)