Multiple Counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Felon

G.S. 14-415.1 makes it unlawful for "any person who has been convicted of a felony to . . . possess . . . any firearm," with limited exceptions. In State v. Garris, 191 N.C. App. 276 (2008), the court of appeals held that a defendant may be "convicted and sentenced only once for possession of a firearm by a felon based on his simultaneous possession of [multiple] firearms." In State v. Wiggins, __ N.C. App. __, 707 S.E.2d 664 (2011), the court extended the logic of Garris to a defendant who obtained two guns simultaneously, then used the guns to shoot three people in a two-hour period. The defendant was convicted of three counts of violating G.S. 14-415.1, one for each time he used the weapons, but the court of appeals ruled that "the fact that Defendant may have fired [the] weapons . . . on more than one occasion during the commission of several substantive crimes does not support multiple possession-based convictions and sentences." Last week, however, in State v. Lee, the court declined to apply Garris to a case in which the defendant robbed multiple convenience stores, using the same gun, over the course of five weeks. The court affirmed the defendant's convictions of multiple counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, stating: "If the evidence shows that the defendant possessed a weapon on different days and in different locations, the holding from Wiggins is not controlling, and the defendant can be charged with multiple possession offenses." [...]