United States v. James B. Sparlin

569 F.2d 1314, 1978 U.S. App. LEXIS 12036

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Decided: March 23, 1978
• Docket: 77-5480
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is a companion case to U. S. v. Carter, 5 Cir. 1978, 568 F.2d 453 and U. S. v. Moore, 569 F.2d 1312, decided this date. Those two cases dispose of the issues in the instant case except the following.

Appellant’s contention that he was denied a reasonable opportunity to obtain counsel is refuted by the record. He was granted a continuance of both his arraignment and his trial to enable him to retain counsel. The court informed appellant that he would not be granted any further delay, yet he appeared at trial without counsel. It is clear that appellant proceeded pro se below, as in this court, because he desired to do so.

We find nothing in the record to support contentions that appellant was ridiculed by the trial judge at pretrial and at trial and that the U.S. Attorney improperly employed public opinion to convict appellant.

The evidence was sufficient to support the conviction. There was no error in instructing the jury. The sentence imposed was within the discretion of the court.

AFFIRMED.