Gavel-Court-LegalRICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ A federal appeals court has upheld the convictions and nearly eight-year prison sentence of a Roanoke man who threatened to have his ex-wife beaten. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against avowed neo-Nazi William White on Thursday. White fled to Mexico in 2012 ahead of a resentencing hearing that likely would have lengthened a 21/2-year prison term for intimidating a group of Virginia Beach apartment-complex residents and making other threats. Meanwhile, he began threatening his ex-wife in an attempt to collect alimony he believed he was owed. White was arrested in Mexico and convicted on four charges in Roanoke. The appeals court rejected claims by White, including that he couldn’t have intended to extort his ex-wife because she owed him a legitimate debt.