UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ┐ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ │ > No. 17-5718 v. │ │ │ JEREMY BROWN, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee at Memphis. No. 2:16-cr-20143-1—Samuel H. Mays, Jr., District Judge.

Decided and Filed: April 25, 2018

Before: MERRITT, WHITE, and DONALD, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Unam Peter Oh, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellant. Karen Hartridge, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

BERNICE BOUIE DONALD, Circuit Judge. Jeremy Brown challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support a jury’s verdict that he was guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). Defendant was arrested and later indicted after he was involved in a domestic dispute where a gun was discharged and left at the scene. At trial, defendant’s theory of the case was that the gun in question belonged to his then-girlfriend. No. 17-5718 United States v. Brown Page 2

On appeal, defendant also challenges an evidentiary ruling at trial permitting as res gestae evidence that contained references to prior domestic abuse. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I.

Kimberly Brown and defendant began a romantic relationship in 2011.1 Ms. Brown testified that in the early morning on Christmas Day 2015, the couple began to argue on the phone about Ms. Brown’s whereabouts. Ms. Brown indicated that she was at her aunt’s house, and defendant told her that he was coming over. Defendant called Ms. Brown when he arrived; she declined to let him in the house because it would set off her aunt’s home alarm system while her aunt was asleep. Ms. Brown told him to come back the following morning. After defendant became agitated, Ms. Brown flipped a light on and off in the kitchen to show that she was, in fact, in the house. Defendant demanded that Ms. Brown leave the house with him, and the couple continued to argue.

Defendant continued to call Ms. Brown and approached the house asking her to come out. He told her that if she did not come out of the house, he was going to “set it off.” After hanging up the phone and declining to come out of the house, Ms. Brown heard gunshots, glass breaking, and the security alarm went off. A gun was found between two doors leading to the front of the home, an outer storm door and an inner door, both of which were locked. The glass of the front door was broken. At trial, Ms. Brown’s aunt, Claudia Taylor, testified she was awakened by the gunshots. She testified that she did not see who fired the gun but had heard defendant’s voice outside.

Ms. Taylor received a phone call from her alarm company, Monitronics, in response to the alarm being triggered. On this phone call, which was admitted in its entirety as an exhibit at trial, Ms. Taylor and