United States v. Cooper, No. 11-20711 (5th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for a number of drug and firearm offenses. To the extent that the descriptions of the charged offense conduct in defendant's indictment were ambiguous, the court held that any such ambiguity was cured by the captions. As a result, defendant's indictment contained all the elements of the offenses charged, described them with the requisite particularity, and was specific enough so as to preclude any double jeopardy concerns. Therefore, the court declined to reverse defendant's convictions on Counts 2 and 4. The court also held that the district court's instructions to the jury in no way broadened the basis of convictions beyond the indictment and they did not amount to a constructive amendment; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion to strike a juror; the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining a lesser-included-offense jury instruction of simple possession; because of the extremely limited impact of the objected-to question on the trial proceedings and the substantiality of the evidence presented, the Government's question did not prejudice defendant; and the court rejected defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence on the firearms counts. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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