Court Opinion

ID: 995033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-07-04 00:31:31.932673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:05:45.960777
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.                                                                    No. 97-4372

ANTHONY L. OLVIS, a/k/a Tony,
Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Newport News.
Robert G. Doumar, Senior District Judge.
(CR-95-38)

Submitted: April 30, 1998

Decided: May 20, 1998

Before ERVIN, NIEMEYER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

_________________________________________________________________

COUNSEL

James S. Ellenson, Newport News, Virginia, for Appellant. Helen F.
Fahey, United States Attorney, Robert E. Bradenham, II, Assistant
United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________
OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Anthony L. Olvis appeals his conviction for his role in a large-scale
conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine including related firearm and
money laundering charges. See 18 U.S.C.§§ 924(c) &
1956(a)(1)(B)(i) (1994); 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) & 846 (1994). Olvis
was convicted by a jury following a three-day trial after this court
reversed the district court's previous order dismissing the indictment
against Olvis. See United States v. Olvis, 97 F.3d 739 (4th Cir. 1996).
In challenging his conviction, Olvis makes two related assignments of
error. He claims that the district court abused its discretion in admit-
ting evidence of Olvis's activities in relation to the conspiracy which
occurred before his eighteenth birthday. Because the Federal Juvenile
Delinquency Act specifically circumscribes the instances in which a
juvenile may be tried as an adult, see 18 U.S.C. § 5032 (1994), Olvis
argues that the admission of evidence of his pre-majority criminal
activities violated Fed. R. Evid. 404(b). Olvis also advances a conclu-
sory suggestion that the district court erred in its instruction to the
jury regarding that evidence. For those reasons, he urges this court to
vacate his conviction.

Even assuming that Olvis properly preserved the district court's
evidentiary rulings for review on appeal, see Fed. R. Crim. P. 51, this
court generally reviews the district court's decision to admit evidence
of bad acts under Rule 404(b) for abuse of discretion. See Cook v.
American S.S. Co., 53 F.3d 733, 742 (6th Cir. 1995); United States
v. Mark, 943 F.2d 444, 447 (4th Cir. 1991). In order to abuse its dis-
cretion, a district court must either fail or refuse to exercise its discre-
tion, or rely on an erroneous legal or factual premise in the exercise
of its discretionary authority. See James v. Jacobson, 6 F.3d 233, 239
(4th Cir. 1993). Stated more succinctly, Rule 404(b) decisions are not
reversed unless they are "arbitrary and irrational." United States v.
Powers, 59 F.3d 1460, 1464 (4th Cir. 1995).

There is no evidence of an abuse of discretion in this case. Olvis
has identified no erroneous legal or factual premises tainting the dis-
trict court's exercise of its discretion regarding the evidence of
Olvis's pre-majority activities in furtherance of the conspiracy. Olvis

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relies entirely on United States v. Spoone, 741 F.2d 680, 687 (4th Cir.
1984), to support his claim of error. Our decision in that case affirmed
the conspiracy conviction of a defendant who committed only one
overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy after his eighteenth birth-
day. See id. The evidence at trial and the charges in the indictment
identify nearly thirty overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy after
Olvis reached the age of majority. Consequently, we find no abuse of
discretion in the district court's admission of evidence of acts in fur-
therance of the conspiracy prior to Olvis's eighteenth birthday.

In addition, the district court properly and repeatedly instructed the
jury not to consider Olvis's acts before he turned eighteen as evidence
of his guilt of the conspiracy charge. See id. As a result, we find
Olvis's assignments of error on appeal to be without merit and affirm
the conviction. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and
legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the
Court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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