United States v. Randall White

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 99-4081 RANDALL WHITE, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Greenville. William B. Traxler, Jr., District Judge. (CR-98-293) Submitted: December 29, 1999 Decided: February 1, 2000 Before NIEMEYER and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. _________________________________________________________________ Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL Lance Armstrong, LAW OFFICES OF LANCE ARMSTRONG, Miami, Florida, for Appellant. J. Rene Josey, United States Attorney, A. Bradley Parham, Assistant United States Attorney, Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee. _________________________________________________________________ Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). _________________________________________________________________ OPINION PER CURIAM: Randall White appeals his jury convictions and resulting 400 month sentence for conspiracy in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (1994) and possession with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 841 (West 1994 & Supp. 1999). We affirm. White claims on appeal that the Government's questions to two witnesses during trial as to whether they were afraid of White consti- tuted plain error. We have reviewed the record and conclude that the remarks did not constitute plain error. See United States v. Brewer, 1 F.3d 1430, 1434-35 (4th Cir. 1993). White also claims that the district court erred in denying White's motion for a mistrial after the Govern- ment remarked during closing argument that it possessed additional evidence that was not presented at trial. The district court immedi- ately directed the jury to disregard the reference to additional evi- dence and repeated during jury instructions that argument that the Government possessed evidence not presented at trial be disregarded. Under these circumstances, and in light of the evidence against White properly adduced at trial, we find that the court did not abuse its dis- cretion in refusing to grant a mistrial. See United States v. Morsley, 64 F.3d 907, 913 (4th Cir. 1995); United States v. Dorsey, 45 F.3d 809, 817 (4th Cir. 1995). We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal conten- tions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 2