United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT _____________

No. 97-2580EA _____________

United States of America, * * Appellee, * * v. * * Bakari Liu Adisa, * * Appellant. * Appeals from the United States _____________ District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. No. 97-2649EA _____________ [UNPUBLISHED]

United States of America, * * Appellee, * * v. * * Izih Lenard, Jr., * * Appellant. * _____________

Submitted: November 18, 1997 Filed: November 26, 1997 _____________

Before FAGG, WOLLMAN, and HANSEN, Circuit Judges. _____________

PER CURIAM.

Bakari Liu Adisa and Izih Lenard, Jr. appeal their convictions and sentences for bank robbery and related weapons charges. Having reviewed the record and the parties' briefs, we conclude that an extensive discussion is not warranted. First, the district court properly classified Adisa's conviction for a racketeering conspiracy predicated on an underlying series of four armed robberies and a hired shooting as a serious violent felony for sentencing purposes under 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c) (1994). Second, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Adisa's request for a court-appointed psychiatric expert. Third, Lenard's assertions that a felony conviction expunged under Arkansas state law could not be used as the predicate for Lenard's conviction as a felon in possession of a weapon, that the government failed to produce sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdicts, and the district court improperly enhanced his sentence for reckless endangerment and for obstruction of justice either are unsupported by the record, otherwise without legal merit, or both. Having rejected Adisa's and Lenard's contentions, we affirm their convictions and sentences. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.

A true copy.

Attest:

CLERK, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT.

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