Background
After a bench trial in Warren County, Danny L. Britt was convicted of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and endangering the life or health of a child. Police stopped a vehicle shortly after responding to a domestic-battery call and found Britt riding in the back seat with his five-year-old daughter, E.B. Officers found a loaded, chambered 9-millimeter pistol in E.B.’s backpack in the back half of the vehicle.
The backpack contained E.B.’s clothes and snack food and was used in parenting-time exchanges between Britt and E.B.’s mother. Britt, who had a prior robbery conviction, denied knowing about the gun and suggested others could have placed it in the backpack. The trial court acquitted him of aggravated domestic battery but sentenced him to concurrent terms of five years’ imprisonment for the weapon offense and 364 days in jail for child endangerment.
The Court’s Holding
The appellate court affirmed. Viewing the evidence in the State’s favor, it held that a rational factfinder could conclude Britt constructively possessed the firearm. The gun was in his young daughter’s backpack, which traveled with him during his parenting time, and the evidence supported an inference that the backpack was in the same back-seat area as Britt and accessible to him. The trial court was entitled to reject Britt’s account that others placed the gun in the backpack.
The court also held that placing a loaded, ready-to-fire handgun in a five-year-old child’s backpack while she was present in the back seat created a sufficient potential for injury to support child endangerment. It rejected Britt’s facial Second Amendment challenge to Illinois’s felon-in-possession statute under Bruen, adhering to Fourth District precedent that the relevant Second Amendment protection does not extend to felons as non-law-abiding citizens. Britt forfeited his undeveloped Illinois constitutional claim; the court also noted prior decisions rejecting that challenge.
Key Takeaways
- Constructive possession may be inferred where a firearm is found in a child’s backpack used by the defendant during parenting time and located near the defendant.
- A loaded gun hidden in a young child’s backpack can support child endangerment because the offense requires a potential risk of harm, not actual injury.
- The Fourth District again held that Illinois’s felon-in-possession statute is facially constitutional under the Second Amendment.
Why It Matters
The decision illustrates how circumstantial evidence concerning control, access, and proximity can establish constructive firearm possession even without fingerprints, admissions, or a gun found on the defendant’s person.
It also confirms the Fourth District’s continuing position that facial Bruen-based challenges to Illinois’s unlawful-possession-of-a-weapon-by-a-felon statute fail.