Criminal – Closing Argument – Improper Statement 
By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 22, 2010
Tags: Criminal, Justice Harry L. Carrico, Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court upholds the first-degree murder and firearm convictions of a woman who fatally shot her husband, a retired state trooper, but claimed he had been killed by an intruder; the trial court did not err when it denied a mistrial after the prosecutor commented during closing argument that defendant didn’t get the house [...]
Criminal – Sexually Violent Predator – Civil Commitment
By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 16, 2010
Tags: Criminal, Justice Harry L. Carrico, Supreme Court of Virginia
The Virginia Supreme Court upholds an order finding appellant to be a sexually violent predator, based on treatment records admissible in court as business records. The treatment records in this case can easily pass the tests in McDowell v. Commonwealth, 273 Va. 431 (2007). Dr. Dennis, the commonwealth’s expert witness, testified that “department policy” required [...]
Umbrella policy covers fight at college dorm
By Peter Vieth
Published: April 22, 2010
Tags: Justice Harry L. Carrico, Personal Injury, Supreme Court of Virginia News
A friendly game of beer pong that went bad set the stage for a Virginia Supreme Court opinion that an insurance company owes a defense for a Virginia Tech student who was sued over injuries he caused in a 2002 altercation. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company had a duty to defend Adam Copp, the court ruled, [...]
Insurance – Intentional Injury – Self-Defense Exception
By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 21, 2010
Tags: Insurance, Justice Harry L. Carrico, Supreme Court of Virginia
An insurer that wrote an umbrella policy has a duty to defend its insured in a tort action for assault and battery because the facts developed in depositions could fit within a policy exception allowing coverage for intentional injury caused by an insured “trying to protect person or property,” the Supreme Court of Virginia holds. [...]
Criminal – Drug Possession – Public Use Property – Two Substances
By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 8, 2010
Tags: Criminal, Justice Harry L. Carrico, Supreme Court of Virginia
A defendant peddling drugs from the trunk of his car in a parking lot near a school can be convicted of two separate offenses of possession of both cocaine and marijuana in violation of Va. Code § 18.2-255.2, and the Supreme Court of Virginia says the multiple convictions do not violate the prohibition against double [...]
Search & Seizure – Reasonable Suspicion – High-Crime Area – Flight
By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 25, 2010
Tags: Justice Harry L. Carrico, Search & Seizure, Supreme Court of Virginia
Although defendant’s headlong flight from police in a high-crime area does not alone justify police detention, in this case, police also pointed to additional circumstances, such as defendant’s abandonment of his bicycle, his evasive behavior in looping around houses and a church and jumping over two fences, and his holding onto his jacket pocket as [...]
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