Circumstantial evidence sufficient for murder conviction

The commonwealth presented sufficient circumstantial evidence to convict appellant of second-degree murder.

Background

Christian, the murder victim, was an elementary school teacher. When she failed to appear for work on Sept. 4, 1981, a coworker called her father, who went to her apartment and discovered her body. He called the police.

Several witnesses testified at appellant Moore’s trial. Stavely, a police detective, testified that Christian had been strangled with the cord of a clock radio. The clock had stopped at 7:30. There were no signs of forced entry. Although there were several broken items in the living room and kitchen. Christian’s purse, containing money, was on a living room chair.

Michaels, an eyewitness who lived in an apartment across from Christian’s, saw Christian near the apartment complex’s playground. She then observed an unknown man park his car, walk toward Christian’s apartment and peek through one of the windows. The man was wearing a blue or black hat.

He then went to the lobby door, leaned in with one foot in the door and look toward Christina’s apartment. She did not see him enter, nor did she see Christian return from the playground area.

Later, Michaels saw the man leaving and “locked eyes” with him, later testifying that, “‘I will never forget them eyes.’” Police interviewed Michaels several times. At one point, after a long interview session, she “felt like the police were ‘beating [her] up.’ She recanted her statements to the police because she stated that the police seemed like they did not believe her.”

Later, however, she picked Moore from a photo lineup. “At trial, Michaels identified Moore in photographs from 1982 and in the courtroom as the unidentified man she saw in the apartment complex.”

She described the car  he was driving “as an ‘aqua green Chrysler bearing Virginia plates, license plates. … Four door, possibly green and white … the year and model was the early 70s.’ At trial, Michaels identified the photograph of the 1965 aqua green Ford Galaxy, that Moore was stopped in nine months after Christian’s murder, as the car she saw the man driving.

“Michaels acknowledged that in her 1981 interview she told police that the vehicle was a Chrysler from the early 70s, but noted that ‘I don’t know my cars.’

“Another witness testified at trial that she saw Moore driving the 1965 aqua green Ford Galaxy in the fall of 1981 and June of 1982. The witness also testified that Moore wore a blue baseball hat. Boyd, a witness who lived above Christian’s apartment, said that sometime after 7 a.m. but before 7:30 a.m., she heard raised voices, noise, and a female voice say “help me. Stop.”

In 2011, Meyer a police detective, reviewed Christian’s murder file while on cold case assignment. Over the next year, he interviewed Boyd and Michaels, then met with Moore. Mayer told him he was investigating a murder, explained what a witness observed and showed him the photograph of the aqua green Ford.

Moore denied the car was his, first said he would have been sleeping when the murder occurred but later said he would have been working. He denied being at the apartment complex but when informed that an eyewitness saw him, he immediately replied, “I don’t remember seeing nobody.”

Mayer interviewed Moore again in 2014. He again denied the murder. Ludovico and Farr, FBI special agents, interviewed Moore in 2015 and arrested him for Christian’s murder.

“Moore had ‘no reaction. No emotion.’ Ludovico then showed Moore photos of himself from 1965 through 1982. Referencing that time period, Moore told Ludovico that, ‘I was just mean’ and ‘I just didn’t care.

“Moore ‘became upset and asked why now’ when Ludovico specifically asked him about Christian’s murder. He also said ‘what car’ and immediately asked for a bathroom break when Ludovico referenced a photograph of the Ford Galaxy. However, Moore admitted to Farr that he had owned the car in the photograph.

“Ludovico discussed Moore’s faith with him and asked Moore what he, ‘King David, the Apostle Paul, and Moses [had] in common,’ Moore stated that they were murderers. Ludovico testified that when she asked Moore whether he believed ‘God fixed situations,’ Moore said to himself, ‘[I]f God fixed this I might die in jail.’

“Moore also told Ludovico that demons ‘come in, they do the act, and then he described the aftermath. It’s scary. You don’t know what happened and then he mentioned that shame and being ashamed comes in on the back end, because the demons leave and they leave you.’”

Decision

Moore appeals his conviction on the basis that the circumstantial evidence presented was insufficient to sustain his conviction. “However, the circumstantial evidence presented by the Commonwealth supports the jury’s finding of guilt.

“When identifying Moore at trial, Michaels testified that the man she saw in the parking lot caught her eye because he was unfamiliar to her. Her memories of the man wearing a blue or black baseball hat and driving a blueish green car were consistent with other testimony and evidence of Moore’s hat and car that he owned at the time of Christian’s murder.

“She also did not waver in her identification of him during the show up. Michaels testified that she had made eye contact with the man in the parking lot and would ‘never forget them eyes.’

“Moore’s interactions with police during Mayer’s investigation also tended to prove his guilt. He first denied owning the 1965 aqua green Ford Galaxy in which he had been arrested nine months after the murder, however later admitted that the car was his. When Mayer told Moore that a witness had seen him at Christian’s apartment complex the morning of her murder, Moore immediately responded, I don’t remember seeing nobody.’

“Moore blamed demons for his past and stated that he ‘did what he could get away with.’ He denied knowledge of the apartment complex but later was recorded telling his sister that he used the apartment complex as a cut through to get to the laundromat.

“Moore also told Mayer several variations of what he would have been doing on the day of the murder.

“Despite the passage of time since Christian’s murder, the weight of the circumstantial evidence was consistent with Moore’s guilt. The judgment of the jury was not ‘plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.’ Code § 8.01-680.”

Moore v. Commonwealth, Record No. 190856 (Order). May 14, 2020 (COA). Charles Edward Haden for appellant, Anton Arnett Bell, Phillip Orlando Figura, Rachel Lynsie Yates for appellee. VLW 020-6-035, 7 pp.