A federal court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a Hurricane man who said he should have been allowed to argue to a jury that his illegal possession of a gun was justified.

Danny Dutton, 24, contended that he began receiving threats the day after he shot and killed a violent intruder at his apartment.

Because of a 2004 felony conviction for cultivating marijuana, Dutton is prohibited from possessing firearms. He argued, though, that his only realistic option was to carry a gun to protect himself.

But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the threats weren't severe enough to instruct a jury on justification. That ruling upholds Dutton's conviction and the 37-month sentence he is serving.

Trouble began when Dutton loaned $500 to Lucinda Corral in return for full repayment plus $100 the next week, according to court documents. Corral refused to repay the loan and Dutton allegedly received repeated threats on his life.

The documents say Aaron Rondan Barbosa entered Dutton's apartment on March 24, 2007, and began beating him with a metal pipe. Dutton eventually retreated to the kitchen, grabbed a .357-caliber handgun and shot Barbosa to death.

A man who was with Barbosa fled in a vehicle driven by Corral, court records say. Authorities later determined Dutton had acted in self-defense. Corral later pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated assault and was sentenced to one year in jail.

Dutton says his estranged

wife received three phone calls in the next month threatening him. He put his possessions in storage, changed his appearance and disconnected his phone.

In May 2007, state Adult Probation and Parole officers were searching a residence that Dutton was visiting and discovered he was carrying a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell denied his request for a justification instruction, and Dutton was convicted in a two-day trial. He then appealed to the Denver-based 10th Circuit, which noted police concluded Dutton's assailants were not connected to a gang and were not a serious threat to him.

The court also said Dutton was not under a threat "sufficiently imminent" to justify carrying a gun.

pmanson@sltrib.com