United States of America, Cross-Appellant v. Stanley Bruce Ritter and Guy Val Bliss, Cross-Appellees
Opinion
Opinion
Farris, J.
Guy Val Bliss and Stanley B. Ritter were convicted of conspiracy to make an unregistered pipe bomb and to cause travel in interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire, making an unregistered pipe bomb and aiding and abetting, and receipt and possession of an unregistered pipe bomb. Ritter was also convicted of transferring an unregistered pipe bomb. Both defendants appeal.
The government cross-appeals the district court’s decision to set-aside Bliss and Ritter’s conviction for using or carrying a destructive device “during and in relation to a crime of violence.” 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c) (1988).
We Reverse in part and Affirm in part.
FACTS
Dan Mclnerney met with Agent Joseph Ruzevich of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in February 1990. Mcln-erney and his wife, Joanne, agreed to become informants for the ATF.
Between 1989 and 1991, Ray Haynie had been living with his girlfriend, Judy McKee, at his home in Reno, Nevada. In Mid-January 1991, Haynie returned home from his job in Sacramento and discovered McKee had moved out. She had moved in with Guy Val Bliss. Haynie confronted McKee at the casino where she worked. McKee testified that Haynie threatened to…