WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled in a Maryland case yesterday that an individual accused of using a gun in a crime that spreads to several states may be prosecuted in any of those states, no matter where the gun actually was used.

By a 7-2 vote, the court rejected the argument that the federal gun crime may be prosecuted only in the state where that specific crime occurred -- Maryland, in this case.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority that it does not matter that the gun was used only in Maryland, because it was used during a kidnapping that started in Texas and continued as the victim was moved to New York, New Jersey and, finally, to Wheaton, Montgomery County -- where the victim managed to escape and summon police.

Numerous charges were filed against Jacinto Rodriguez-Moreno, who was tried and convicted in New Jersey.

A federal appeals court ruled that the federal charge of using a gun could have been tried only in Maryland.

Overturning that result, the Supreme Court reinstated the conviction of Rodriguez-Moreno, a New Yorker recruited into a drug-related interstate kidnapping, for brandishing a gun and using it to threaten the kidnap victim during a stopover at a house in Wheaton in January 1995.

Rodriguez-Moreno was convicted of kidnapping and a kidnapping conspiracy, in addition to the gun-use charge.

He was sentenced to 87 months in prison on the kidnapping convictions.

Under federal law, an added 60 months in prison resulted from the gun conviction. Only the gun conviction was at issue in yesterday's ruling.

Rodriguez-Moreno is now in federal prison in Beaumont, Texas.

The drug deal involved an attempt to locate a New York drug dealer who had stolen 30 kilograms of cocaine from a Texas drug dealer.

When the New Yorker could not be found, Rodriguez-Moreno and others took the middleman in the drug deal, Ephrain Avendano, as a hostage.

Avendano was moved from Texas to New Jersey, where he had an apartment. Later, he was moved to New York, and then to a house in Wheaton.

Rodriguez-Moreno was accused in the case of using a revolver to threaten Avendano while at the house in Wheaton.

Avendano fled from his captors and ran to a neighboring house, ultimately leading Maryland police to arrest those involved in the plot.

The case was tried, however, in New Jersey.

Justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens dissented from the ruling upholding the New Jersey prosecution of the gun accusation.

Pub Date: 3/31/99