Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where a 16-year-old defendant was sentenced to life without parole for murder and robbery and resentenced to life suspended after 91 years following the decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 465 (2012), the sentences are constitutional. Miller held ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant was found guilty of being a violent felon in possession of a firearm, a police detective did not have to be qualified as an expert to testify about the gun. Background When Snelgrow, a police detective on uniformed ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert J. Humphreys Virginia Court of Appeals

There was sufficient evidence to convict appellant of receiving a stolen firearm. However, his conviction for possession of marijuana is reversed. The results of a field test were inadmissible because the Department of Forensic Science had not approved the test ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Marla Graff Decker Virginia Court of Appeals

There was sufficient evidence for the trial court to convict appellant of two hit-and-run accidents. Although both arose from the same incident, each accident had a separate causation and there “was a sufficient temporal interval between the two collisions.” Background ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Glen A. Huff Virginia Court of Appeals

Even though photos of appellant were, according to the trial court, “practically useless,” a store clerk who observed him was able to verify his identity, and thus, there is sufficient evidence to sustain appellant’s convictions of statutory burglary, petit larceny ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert J. Humphreys Virginia Court of Appeals

Appellant waived his hearsay challenge to having a police officer testify a second time regarding a recorded interrogation between the officer and appellant, facilitated by a police translator, where he did not object when the officer first testified, and, in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert J. Humphreys Virginia Court of Appeals

Appellant’s argument that a juror should have been struck for cause is not well-taken. Even though she indicated that appellant would not have been charged unless there was some evidence against him, she repeatedly stated that she needed to wait ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Richard Y. AtLee Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where appellant was convicted of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and using a firearm to commit those crimes, the trial court correctly excluded evidence that appellant argues would have helped to establish that someone else was the shooter. Overview The commonwealth ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mary B. Malveaux Virginia Court of Appeals

Where police were told that the perpetrator of an alleged robbery could still be in his motel room, police were justified in making an entry without a warrant. Drug evidence in plain view was properly admitted at trial. Appellant’s conviction ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Richard Y. AtLee Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where appellant did not appear for a hearing despite having timely notice of where and when to appear, the trial court correctly determined appellant’s absence was willful. His conviction for felony failure to appear is affirmed. Overview Appellant Partain was ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert J. Humphreys Virginia Court of Appeals