United States Fifth Circuit

Conviction and sentence for drug and weapons charges are affirmed where: 1) independent corroboration of defendant's confession, although minimal, tended to establish its truthfulness and was sufficient to allow the jury's verdict to stand; 2) there was sufficient evidence that defendant possessed firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes; and 3) Deal v. US, 508 U.S. 129 (1993) foreclosed defendant's argument that the 25-year minimum consecutive sentence applicable to a "second or subsequent conviction" is a recidivism provision that requires an intervening conviction between the commission of the earlier and later offenses.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/15/2009
• Published 01/15/2009

Judges

• EDITH H. JONES, Chief Judge:, Before JONES, Chief Judge, and OWEN and SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Camille Ann Domingue, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued), Lafayette, LA, for U.S., Christopher Albert Aberle (argued), Mandeville, LA, for Sterling.