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After having his sentence commuted by Gov. Chris Christie, Evan Nappen convinced the State Appellate Division to over-turn charges stemming from possession of a Handgun and possession of “High-Capacity” Magazines.  From the opinion:

Based upon our review of the record in the light most
favorable to Brian, we conclude that there was a rational
factual basis to instruct the jury about the State exemption.
According to the defense, Brian was residing at both the Mount
Laurel and Hoboken locations at the time of his arrest. That
evidence was introduced at trial through several witnesses.

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Although Joy was qualified to testify that they held sixteen
rounds based upon his having unloaded both magazines and
reloaded one of them at trial, he was not qualified to testify
that the magazines were capable of feeding ammunition
“continuously and directly therefrom into a semi-automatic
firearm” because he was not qualified as an expert and had not
actually used them for that purpose.
Consequently, we find that the State failed to prove all of
the elements of a violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-3(j). For that
reason, the trial judge should have granted the motion for a
judgment of acquittal on count two.

Hat tip to NJGF user Dan for the excerpt.  It appears the handgun charge was overturned because the Judge failed to instruct the jury on exemptions to handgun possession.  The “High Capacity” Magazine ruling was overturned thanks in part to questioning the expertise of the ‘expert’ who stated the magazines held more than 15 rounds, and also the fact that these magazines did not demonstrate that they could be fed into a semi-automatic weapon and operate.

Weird.

Lastly, the charges on hollow-points stand thanks to some silly logic where you can’t physically move them from one residence to another…  Evan Nappen has this to say:

“It doesn’t make sense if you have a gun and an exemption that allows you to take it to your new residence and the exemption doesn’t apply toward ammunition,” he said. “Are you supposed to leave your ammunition behind like you do light fixtures and refrigerators?”

Oy ve…