United States v. Hackley, IV, No. 10-4069 (4th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of several offenses related to the sale of cocaine base to a government informant (Jackson) and subsequent efforts to have Jackson murdered. Defendant raised several issues on appeal. The court affirmed the denial of defendant's Motion for Judgment of Acquittal with respect to the conspiracy to distribute and possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute count and concluded that the jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had a continuous buy-sell relationship with Maryland suppliers to bring their drugs to market in Virginia. The court also concluded that the district court did not err when it denied defendant a jury instruction on entrapment where a fellow inmate (Johnson) was not a government informant at the time that the discussion about doing away with Jackson began and there was ample evidence in the record from which a jury could find that defendant was predisposed to prevent Jackson from testifying. The court affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's Motion for Judgment of Acquittal as to solicitation to commit murder for hire where the record showed that defendant clearly wrote to his many girlfriends seeking help in his murder for hire scheme. The court further concluded that there was sufficient evidence to convict him of being a felon in possession of a firearm and the district court did not err by denying defendant's motion for a separate trial on this count. The court finally concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied defendant's Motion for Change of Counsel and the district court did not abuse its discretion by improperly considering his prior felony conviction when calculating his sentence. Accordingly, the judgment was affirmed.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 20, 2011.
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