Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

In a case where the defendant filed his latest appeal in 2013, the court found his erroneous designation as a career offender required the district court to sentence him to between 262 and 327 months under then mandatory Sentencing Guidelines ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

Because the government placed a GPS device on a vehicle without a warrant, the drugs found on the defendant were the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” requiring his conviction for possession and intent to distribute methamphetamine to be vacated. Background ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Roger L. Gregory

A defendant who pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death will have his sentence of 65 years reviewed so the district court can weigh his argument that he was 15 at the time of the crimes against the gravity of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Per Curiam Opinion

Because the defendant had notice of the charges against him; received notice of the date, time and place of his removal hearing; attended that hearing, where he had a fair opportunity to be heard by the immigration judge; and offered ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

Despite the deficiencies in the initial notice to appear, the defendant appeared at the deportation hearing, did not argue he was denied an opportunity to be heard and did not offer a substantive argument that there was a reasonable probability ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

In granting the government’s motion to dismiss without prejudice an indictment for fraud against managers of a health care company, the court found defendants conflated prejudice arising from the investigation and indictment with prejudice arising from a delay in trial. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

The government disclosed, at the end of a two-week jury trial, that it failed to produce up to 32,000 documents but the court held it was inadvertent, and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment. Background On Oct. 28, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Liam O'Grady U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An 11-count discrimination suit brought by a former substance abuse counselor was dismissed because one defendant could not be sued and another was immune; the court did not have jurisdiction over some counts and others ran the statute of limitations, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Claude M. Hilton U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The court found one count of defendants’ firearm convictions must be vacated following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dimaya because there was no requisite “crime of violence” to support a guilty verdict. The defendants however, lost their bid for ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state court erred in not allowing an expert for a convicted murderer to testify on the probability of the defendant committing future violent acts in prison, which went directly to the dangerousness ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Stephanie Dawn Thacker