Double Jeopardy Rejected in Larceny Case

Victims Saw Burglar’s Gun

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 30, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although the commonwealth concedes error in defendant’s conviction for use of a firearm to commit burglary, the Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s jury trial convictions for that offense and burglary; defendant failed to preserve his sufficiency of evidence objection and the ends of justice exception of Rule 5A:18 does not apply when two victims saw [...]

Reversal for Improper Impeachment

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 30, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

On appeal of jury trial convictions for second-degree murder and use of a firearm, the Court of Appeals orders a new trial for trial court error in admitting improper impeachment evidence that defendant purchased the firearm illegally; the error could have influenced the jury’s assessment of defendant’s credibility, critical to his defense. One April evening [...]

Intoxicated Defendant’s Resistance Unlawful

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 16, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

Defendant is not entitled to reversal of his jury trial convictions for resisting arrest and assault and battery of a police officer, the Court of Appeals says; defendant’s noncompliance with the officer’s warning to remain inside to defuse potential domestic violence provided exigent circumstances to enter his residence and arrest him for public intoxication. Officers [...]

Appeals court grants writ of innocence

By The Associated Press
Published: December 12, 2011
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals News

(AP) A Richmond man who had been imprisoned nearly 30 years for at least one sexual assault he didn’t commit has been exonerated in two other rape cases. A divided Virginia Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted a writ of actual innocence and vacated Thomas Haynesworth’s rape and abduction convictions in two sexual assaults in [...]

Change Application After Layoff Not Time-Barred

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 1, 2011
Tags: Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers’ Comp

A warehouse worker with a knee injury who received temporary total disability benefits until Aug. 11, 2005, prior to her light-duty employment, but who stopped the light-duty job on May 1, 2009, due to an economic layoff, had two years from cessation of her temporary total benefits to file her change in condition application, and [...]

Prenup Stock Disclosure Was ‘Fair and Reasonable’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 28, 2011
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although the physician husband testified in 2009 that stock he owned when the parties entered into a 1993 premarital agreement was worth $250,000 to $300,000 at the time of the agreement, not $68,000 as identified in the agreement, the Court of Appeals rejects the college instructor wife’s claim that husband did not make a “fair [...]

Rape by Mental Incapacity

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 14, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals affirms a bench trial conviction for rape by mental incapacity but reverses and remands a conviction for forcible sodomy; victim corroborated defendant’s rape confession and expert testimony established her mental incapacity, but the evidence was insufficient to prove penetration required for sodomy. Defendant age 26 is married with a child. After [...]

Withdrawn Appeal Defeats Nolle Prosequi Challenge

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 3, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

Defendant is not entitled to reversal of her petit larceny conviction based on the commonwealth moving for nolle prosequi after her counsel voluntarily withdrew her appeal for tactical reasons, the Court of Appeals says. Defendant was convicted of petit larceny in general district court and appealed to circuit court. The commonwealth moved for nolle prosequi. [...]

Spattering Deputy Was Assault

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 11, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge Larry G. Elder, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s bench trial conviction for felony assault of a police officer based on evidence showing defendant threw liquid at an inmate within three feet of a deputy; spraying the deputy was the natural and probable consequence of defendant’s action and the statute does not require intentional selection based on law [...]