United States v. Christian

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  No. 02-7776 VANCE LAMONT CHRISTIAN, Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Frederic N. Smalkin, District Judge. (CR-01-10-S) Submitted: February 20, 2003 Decided: February 28, 2003 Before LUTTIG, MOTZ, and GREGORY, Circuit Judges. Remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. COUNSEL Vance Lamont Christian, Appellant Pro Se. James Gerard Pyne, Assistant United States Attorney, Albert David Copperthite, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). 2 UNITED STATES v. CHRISTIAN OPINION PER CURIAM: Vance Lamont Christian appeals the district court’s order denying relief on his motion to correct his sentence under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b). In criminal cases, the defendant must file his notice of appeal within ten days of the entry of judgment. Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A); United States v. Breit, 754 F.2d 526, 528 (4th Cir. 1985) (applying ten-day appeal period to Rule 35 motion). With or without a motion, the district court may grant an extension of time of up to thirty days upon a showing of excusable neglect or good cause. Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(4); United States v. Reyes, 759 F.2d 351, 353 (4th Cir. 1985). The district court entered its order denying the motion to correct Christian’s sentence on October 15, 2002; the ten-day appeal period expired on October 25, 2002. Christian filed his notice of appeal on November 13, 2002, after the ten-day period expired but within the thirty-day excusable neglect period. Because the notice of appeal was filed within the excusable neglect period, we remand the case to the district court for the court to determine whether Christian has shown excusable neglect or good cause warranting an extension of the ten- day appeal period. The record, as supplemented, will then be returned to this court for further consideration. We defer action on any pending motions until the case is returned to us. REMANDED