Judge Cleo E. Powell | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Doubting Juror Should Have Been Struck

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 12, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although the trial court tried to rehabilitate a potential juror who expressed a “preconceived notion” that “if you go to court ….you’re pretty much guilty,” the juror was not properly rehabilitated and should have been struck; the Court of Appeals reverses defendant’s convictions of aggravated malicious wounding and child neglect.
In reviewing the decision of [...]

Unlucky Strike Not Malicious Despite Loss of Eye

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 6, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals reversed defendant’s conviction for malicious wounding and remanded for a new trial on assault and battery because the trial court’s findings fail to prove the required statutory intent to “to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill.”
Victim and defendant’s girlfriend had three children. Less than a year after their relationship ended, defendant [...]

Judicial elections in Assembly go down to the wire

By Alan Cooper
Published: May 2, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Judge D. Arthur Kelsey, Judge Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Court of Appeals News

Members of the House and Senate were still negotiating at press time to settle on candidates to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Virginia, with Court of Appeals Judges Elizabeth A. McClanahan and Cleo E. Powell apparently acceptable to the majority caucuses of each house.
Senate Democrats had been distracted by redistricting, and some [...]

Order Sustaining Demurrer to Added Counts Not Final

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 28, 2011
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals must dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction this appeal from a purported final decree that leaves pending a circuit court appeal from the denial of a motion to amend by the juvenile and domestic relations district court.
Mother met and married father a year after giving birth to her first child. [...]

Marijuana in Locked Glove Box Does Not Prove Ownership

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 28, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals reversed defendant’s conviction of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute where defendant was not occupying the vehicle at the time of the search and voluntarily provided a key to the glove compartment where 28 individual bags of marijuana were found; the evidence was insufficient to prove either defendant’s dominion and [...]

Supreme Court deal in the works

By Alan Cooper
Published: April 22, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Judge Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Court of Appeals News

A deal may be in the works to elevate two Virginia Court of Appeals judges to the Supreme Court of Virginia and replace them with Gov. Bob McDonnell’s former law partner and a Portsmouth circuit judge.
Judges Elizabeth A. McClanahan and Cleo E. Powell would go to the Supreme Court and Glen A. Huff, a civil [...]

Assembly delays election of judges until late April

By Alan Cooper
Published: April 18, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Judge D. Arthur Kelsey, Judge Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Court of Appeals News

The state appears unlikely to get any new judges elected before April 25 at the earliest, although the General Assembly moved closer to filling two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Virginia. The Republican caucus in the House of Delegates has selected Virginia Court of Appeals Judges D. Arthur Kelsey and Elizabeth A. McClanahan as [...]

Firefighter’s Statutory Presumption Overcome

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 11, 2011
Tags: Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers' Comp

The Court of Appeals affirmed the commission decision that employer presented sufficient evidence to overcome the statutory presumption of causation for firefighters’ heart disease, reversing a deputy commissioner, under the authority of Augusta Co. Sheriff’s Dep’t v. Overby, 254 Va. 522 (1997).
After working as a police officer and paramedic, Coble became a firefighter [...]

Defendant Admitted Pot in Road Was His

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 29, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute where the trial court’s error allowing laboratory certificate without an analyst’s testimony was harmless in view of defendant’s admissions at the trial.
A sheriff’s deputy with nearly five years of experience on a regional drug task stopped the car in which [...]

No Miranda Warnings Before Field Sobriety Tests

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 24, 2011
Tags: Judge Cleo E. Powell, Traffic Offenses, Virginia Court of Appeals

An officer did not have to give Miranda warnings to defendant driver before advising about the physical components of the field sobriety tests and asking the driver if he had any physical problems that would affect the tests; the Court of Appeals says this conversation did not involve testimonial communication, and defendant’s physical performance [...]

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