Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Any error resulting from the district court’s application of a sentencing enhancement for career offenders was harmless because, even if the enhancement was not applied, the court would have imposed the same sentence and that sentence would have been reasonable. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Conviction for assault, battery or wounding an officer while resisting arrest could not serve as a predicate offense under the violent felony clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act because it is possible for a person to be convicted of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Robert B. King

Where a pawn shop employee had reason to believe the fellow gang member he gave several guns would use the firearms unlawfully, sentence enhancement of his convictions for firearm trafficking was appropriate. Background Appellant William Devon Evans was an employee ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Despite being conducted in a public area, an officer’s strip search of the passenger of a car stopped for a traffic violation did not violate the passenger’s Fourth Amendment rights because the search was limited in scope and manner and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Where a defendant facilitated the award of a contract to a private company whose owner was issuing payments to him for fraudulent invoices submitted to another one of his companies,  the defendant’s bribery conviction is upheld. Background Appellant Raushi J. ...

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

A defendant who had been declared incompetent to stand trial can be medicated to achieve competency; the medication was unlikely to have side effects that would undermine the defendant’s ability to receive a fair trial. Background Appellant Richard Leroy Abney ...

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

A defendant who repeatedly clashed with his attorneys was not entitled to a continuance during sentencing in order to allow him to obtain the services of another attorney, which would have been his fifth attorney during the case. Background Trent ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

The trial court ordered the appellant to pay restitution for loss directly caused by the offense. Because her conduct resulted in the loss of keys to two vehicles owned by the victim, she was responsible for reprogramming the electronic locks ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Virginia Court of Appeals

A man whose asylum application had yet to be heard when he pleaded guilty to felony transportation of untaxed cigarettes, argued that his indictment for receiving a gun while under indictment violated his Second Amendment rights. But the court found ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge M. Hannah Lauck U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Defense attorneys who represented a man sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder failed to investigate signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in the case; their admission that they did not provide this potentially mitigating evidence prompts a new trial. Background ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge G. Steven Agee