Professional Documents
Culture Documents
No. 11-4583
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
VINCENT MYERS,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern
District of West Virginia, at Huntington.
Robert C. Chambers,
District Judge. (3:10-cr-00093-1; 3:01-cr-00099-1)
Submitted:
Decided:
PER CURIAM:
In these consolidated appeals, Vincent Myers appeals
his
conviction
charges
(No.
and
forty-one-month
11-4568);
and
the
sentence
revocation
on
of
federal
his
drug
supervised
release from a prior federal sentence, and resulting thirty-sixmonth sentence (No. 11-4583).
courts
judgment
in
No.
and
proceed
to
The
charges
stemmed
from
controlled
buys
R.
Crim.
P.
33
motion
for
new
trial,
and
(3)
the
We affirm.
United States v.
Hickman, 626 F.3d 756, 762-63 (4th Cir. 2010), cert. denied, 132
S. Ct. 469 (2011).
the evidence, we must sustain the jurys verdict if, viewing the
evidence in the light most favorable to the government, any
rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements
of
the
crime
beyond
reasonable
doubt.
United
States
v.
Green, 599 F.3d 360, 367 (4th Cir.) (internal quotation marks
omitted), cert. denied, 131 S. Ct. 271, 340 (2010).
Because the
(4th
Cir.)
quotation
marks
and
alteration
United States
v. Alerre, 430 F.3d 681, 689 (4th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation
marks omitted).
Two law enforcement officers and an informant offered
substantially similar accounts of the controlled buys supporting
the
charges
against
Myers,
with
the
informant
stating
from Myers.
during
indicated
his
each
controlled
awareness
of
the
buy.
Additionally,
fact
that
Myers
oxycodone
is
prescription drug.
Moreover, the fact that the jury acquitted Myers of
one count does not undermine the validity of his convictions on
the
remaining
counts.
See
Green,
599
F.3d
at
368-69.
We
United States v.
new trial was appropriate due to the bias of the informant and
the fact that the recording of each controlled buy was obtained
in violation of the West Virginia Constitution.
See State v.
the
recordings,
federal
statutory
and
surveillance
device
on
consenting
informant
for
18 U.S.C.
Accordingly,
court
of
determined,
the
admission
the
as the district
recordings
at
Myers
See United
States v. Van Metre, 150 F.3d 339, 347 (4th Cir. 1998).
The
informant.
same
is
true
for
the
alleged
bias
of
the
recordings
quotation
and
substantially
the
testimony
corroborated
controlled buys.
marks
the
omitted).
of
Here,
two
police
informants
audio
officers
account
of
the
of
his
sentence.
applying
We
review
deferential
reasonableness,
sentence
is
we
within
presume
we
properly
must
Id.
determined
is
into
When, as
advisory
range,
reasonable.
it
take
In
Guidelines
2007).
that
for
abuse-of-discretion
sentence
substantively
Furthermore,
Myers suggests that the district court should have reduced his
sentence
based
statements
on
the
regarding
the
informants
total
admittedly
quantity
of
inconsistent
oxycodone
he
the
presumption
of
within-Guidelines sentence.
reasonableness
we
accord
to
Myers
the
applicable
Guidelines
range.
Therefore,
this
claim
warrants no relief.
We affirm Myers conviction and sentence in No. 114568, and the revocation of supervised release and sentence in
No. 11-4583.
before
the
court
and
argument
would
not
aid
the
decisional
process.
AFFIRMED