UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v. No. 96-4611

JOSEPH MCKNIGHT,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.

T.S. Ellis, III, District Judge.

(CR-96-24-A)

Submitted: June 12, 1997

Decided: June 24, 1997

Before WIDENER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and

PHILLIPS, Senior Circuit Judge.

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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

Joseph J. McCarthy, DELANY, MCCARTHY, COLTON &

BOTZIN, P.C., Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Helen F. Fahey,

United States Attorney, Mythili Tharmaratnam, Special Assistant

United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See

Local Rule 36(c).

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OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Appellant Joseph McKnight was convicted by a jury of one count

each of assault on a correctional facility employee (D.C. Code Ann.

§ 22:505(a) (1981)),1 assault by striking (18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(4)

(1994)), and theft of personal property (18 U.S.C.§ 661 (1994)). On

appeal, he challenges the district court's denial of his motion for leave

to submit a questionnaire to the jury, his request to individually question each member of the jury, and his proposed voir dire questions.

He also alleges the evidence was insufficient to support the finding

that the victim was a District of Columbia employee and that he committed theft and that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on

the power of citizen arrest and the right to resist unlawful arrest. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

McKnight, a prisoner at Lorton Reformatory, went to the infirmary

to have stitches removed. The victim, who worked as a nurse at the

facility, removed the stitches, and McKnight left. The victim stepped

into another room to speak to a doctor, leaving her purse containing

approximately $25 - $30 in the exam room. The victim observed

McKnight return to the room, confronted him, and told him to put

down whatever he had in his closed fist.2 McKnight grabbed the victim by the neck and wrist, pushed her violently out of the way, and

fled. Correctional officers eventually apprehended McKnight and

recovered cash which corresponded to the amount the victim reported

was missing from her purse. McKnight admitted that he knew the

money did not belong to him but claimed it was just lying under the

exam table.

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1 This offense requires that the victim be employed by the District of

Columbia.

2 Initially, the victim could not tell what McKnight was holding.

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We find McKnight's first challenge to be without merit. A defendant is not entitled to inquire into every possible area which may conceivably prejudice a potential juror against him. 3 We also reject

McKnight's claim that he was denied a fair trial by the district court's

refusal to ask his proposed voir dire questions. We review the district

court's refusal for abuse of discretion, and we find no such abuse here.4

We find that McKnight's proposed voir dire questions were substantially covered by the questions asked by the district court.

We further find that the evidence was sufficient to support the findings that the victim was an employee of the District of Columbia and

that McKnight stole the money from the victim.5 The victim testified

that she worked for the Department of Corrections at Lorton. Other

witnesses, including a doctor, nurse, and correctional officers, all testified that they were employed by the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. We find that a reasonable trier of fact could infer

from this testimony that the Department of Corrections employing the

victim was, in fact, the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. We likewise find that a reasonable juror could find from the

undisputed facts that the money taken by McKnight came from the

victim's purse.

Finally, the district court's refusal to provide an instruction

requested by the defendant constitutes reversible error only if the

instruction was correct, was not substantially covered by the court's

charge to the jury, and dealt with some point in the trial so important

that failure to give the requested instruction seriously impaired the

defendant's ability to conduct his defense. United States v. Lewis, 53

F.3d 29 (4th Cir. 1995). We find that the instructions at issue here fail

to satisfy the third element of this test because we find nothing in the

record to suggest, nor did McKnight assert at trial, that the victim was

trying to arrest him or that he was trying to resist such an arrest.

We therefore affirm McKnight's convictions and sentences. We

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3 See Ristiano v. Ross, 424 U.S. 589, 594-95 (1976).

4 See United States v. Barber, 80 F.3d 964, 967 (4th Cir.), cert. denied,

___ U.S. ___, 65 U.S.L.W. 3262 (U.S. Oct. 7, 1996) (No. 96-5058).

5 See Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80 (1942).

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dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions

are adequately presented in the material before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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