State v. Rhodes

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant's convictions for criminal possession of a firearm and having a weapon in a motor vehicle. It held that circumstantial evidence supported an inference that the defendant knew the firearm was in the vehicle and had both the ability and intent to control it, despite the passenger's actual possession. The court further held that the firearm-possession finding supplied sufficient evidence for the motor-vehicle conviction even under the defendant's proposed interpretation of the statute, and that any instructional error was harmless.