United States v. Ronald Lee Bramble

Appellant, Ronald Lee Bramble, appeals his conviction of three counts of violating Title 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1), for distributing cocaine and possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. He does not dispute the fact that on January 8, 1980, he sold cocaine to one Spaulding, an acquaintance who, unbeknownst to him, was a paid informer for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and to two DEA agents. His defense was that he had been entrapped; that he had never sold cocaine before and that the sole reason he agreed to sell it on January 8 was to halt Spaulding’s unrelenting requests for the drug, made in a series of harassing and upsetting phone calls to appellant over a period of weeks.

Appellant raises three issues on this appeal: (1) that evidence of a prior conviction was improperly admitted; (2) that he did not freely and voluntarily consent to the search of his car and that evidence from that search should therefore have been suppressed; and (3) that an Allen charge was improperly given to the jury.

Prior Conviction

Appellant contends that it was reversible error for the judge to admit into evidence a 1978 conviction for possession of marijuana. (Appellant had been cultivating…