United States Fifth Circuit

Defendant's firearm possession conviction and sentence are affirmed where: 1) faced with contradictory testimony regarding what officers saw in defendants' car, the district court was entitled to decide whom to believe when both presented "reasonable views of the evidence"; 2) there was not enough in this record to rule on whether defendant's counsel was ineffective, so he was required to follow the usual route of collateral attack; and 3) defendant's third prior conviction for violating the federal escape statute, 18 U.S.C. section 751(a), was a violent felony, as the district court held, which qualified defendant for enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/07/2010
• Published 04/07/2010

Judges

• E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:, Before KING, JOLLY and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Richard Terrell Starrett, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued), Jackson, MS, for Plaintiff-Appellee., Clarence T. Guthrie (argued), Ridgeland, MS, for Defendant-Appellant.