Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where appellant slid a folded note into a bank teller’s tray and told the teller, “This is a robbery,” there was sufficient evidence of intimidation to sustain a robbery conviction. Intimidation “Robbery, a common law offense in Virginia, is defined ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge William G. Petty Virginia Court of Appeals

Where a sex trafficking defendant lured women into prostitution using social media, her vagueness challenge to a ban on using social networking accounts was rejected. There was a “commonsense” meaning of the condition, she heard the probation officer’s explanation, could ...

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

Where the drug defendant asked that his sentence be reduced by five years but received only a two-year reduction, there was no abuse of discretion because the district court considered his arguments and balanced the nature of his offense, his ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Julius N. Richardson

Where the former corrections officer convicted for his role in the death of a detainee argued that the jury instructions were erroneous, but he did not raise that objection at trial, his motion for habeas relief was denied. Background A ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allison Jones Rushing

Where the Fourth Circuit joined the Fifth and Sixth Circuits in holding there was jurisdiction to review a Board of Immigration Appeals’ removal decision, in this case that removal of a Mexican citizen would not cause his children “exceptional and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

Where the jury was allowed to convict the defendant if they found him guilty of any or at least one of the underlying crimes of violence, but the Supreme Court has since held that some of the underlying conduct no ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Raymond A. Jackson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Appellant’s conviction of possessing controlled paraphernalia is reversed. The trial court ruled that appellant’s the mere possession of an unused hypodermic syringe and needle was sufficient to convict Code § 54.1-3466. However, the statute is best understood as requiring both ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mary Bennett Malveaux Virginia Court of Appeals

Where a second commonwealth witness was present in the courtroom when another commonwealth witness testified during defendant’s trial for making false Medicaid payment applications, the trial court properly ruled that allowing the second witness to testify would not prejudice defendant. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge James W. Haley Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where appellant was indicted on June 5, 2017, for murdering her husband, there was no speedy trial violation when trial commenced on Jan. 8, 2020. Appellant’s requests for continuances and her waivers tolled the speedy trial period, as did the ...

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

Where appellant claims the prosecutor violated his speedy trial rights by vindictively dismissing the charges and reindicting him, the record establishes that the prosecutor dismissed and reindicted due to conflicts in the trial court’s schedule. Overview On Oct. 1, 2018, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert P. Frank Virginia Court of Appeals