Opinion
Nos. 05-3157-cr, 05-4708-cr, 05-5207-cr, 06-1153-cr.
April 25, 2007.
Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Frederic Block, Judge).
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
James C. Neville, Port Washington, NY, for Defendant-Appellant Virgil Rivers.
Brian Sheppard, New Hyde Park, NY, for Defendant-Appellant Robertino Vasquez.
Scott L. Fenstermaker, New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee Edward Copeland.
Jo Ann M. Navickas, Assistant United States Attorney (Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney, on the brief, Peter A. Norling, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY, for Appellee.
PRESENT: RALPH K. WINTER, PIERRE N. LEVAL and JOSE A. CABRANES, Circuit Judges.
SUMMARY ORDER
Defendants Virgil Rivers, Robertino Vasquez, and Edward Copeland appeal their convictions, after jury trials, of various crimes arising out of their commission of an armed bank robbery on September 29, 2003. We assume the parties' familiarity with the facts, the issues on appeal and the procedural history.
We conclude first that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in admitting at the trial of defendants Rivers and Cope-land, pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 404(b), evidence concerning a 1974 armed robbery committed by Rivers and Copeland and a 1992 armed robbery committed by Rivers. Next, we determine that there was an adequate factual basis for the Pinkerton charge given by the District Court at the trial of Rivers and Copeland, and that the charge, as clarified by the District Court, contained no legal error. We also determine that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Rivers's request for new counsel prior to trial. Finally, we conclude that comments by the prosecutor and the District Court during summation in defendant Vasquez's trial did not deprive Vasquez of a fair trial.
We have considered all of defendants' arguments on appeal and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, we hereby AFFIRM the judgment of the District Court.