United States v. William Solano

We are compelled to reverse because of an error in the duress instruction.

I. Facts

Solano rented a storage locker for a methamphetamine laboratory. His defense was duress, that a man whom he reasonably feared would otherwise kill him forced him to rent the locker. The jury acquitted him of two counts of manufacturing, but convicted him of six counts of attempting to manufacture and possession with knowledge or intent to manufacture. The prosecution used an aiding and abetting theory on all counts.

Solano testified. As to Count VII, possession of a listed chemical with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that it will be used to manufacture a controlled substance, he admitted all the elements, but only on a knowledge theory of the crime, not an intent theory. He testified that his intent was to stay alive, not to make methamphetamine. As he explained the events, he was a former Hell’s Angel, and was forced to rent the storage locker by Richard Smith, a Hell’s Angel chapter president. Smith threatened to kill him and his family if Solano did not do as he was told. Solano testified that he had been present in court in a 1979 trial when the government put on testimony that the…