Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A defendant lost his motion to dismiss an illegal re-entry indictment claiming that a prior notice to appear was deficient. The ruling is in accord with numerous district court decisions holding that compliance with immigration regulations is sufficient under the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert E. Payne U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant charged with unlawful reentry to the United States after removal received an order to appear before an immigration judge that did not contain the location of the hearing. Though he contended the defect meant the court lacked jurisdiction, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Rebecca Beach Smith U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A felon lacks standing to move to vacate other felons’ sentences as void ab initio. His reliance on Virginian-Pilot Media v. Dow Jones & Co., 280 Va. 464 (2010) for the proposition that standing is immaterial when attacking a void ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

A sentence imposed below the statutorily required minimum is voidable, not void ab initio, under existing precedent. The existing precedent was not overruled by either Rawls v. Commonwealth, 278 Va. 213 (2009), or Grafmuller v. Commonwealth, 290 Va. 525 (2015). ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

A defendant’s conviction for obtaining funds using false pretenses based on her withdrawal of $110 in cash after she had deposited two checks into her account that were subsequently rejected was upheld because the significant deficiencies in her appellate brief ...

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

A defendant who hit and kicked his mother and struck her with a hammer before she died argued that the commonwealth failed to prove he injured her in a way that was “permanent and significant.” There is no injury “more ...

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

Where a defendant’s trial was scheduled to take place more than five months after his preliminary hearing, in violation of Virginia’s speedy trial requirements, the defendant was not entitled to a dismissal of the indictment because he failed to object ...

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

Where the victim of inappropriate touching by the defendant had allegedly told the defendant that she did not want to say the things people were making her say, the hearsay statement was not admissible under the state-of-mind exception because it ...

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

Where two witnesses allegedly perjured themselves by changing their prior statements and providing favorable testimony to the defendant at his trial, and the defendant had written letters from jail describing his plan to convince two unidentified witnesses to provide favorable ...

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

Where an officer’s testimony and a record keeper’s affidavit demonstrated that the defendant missed a sex-offender reregistration date, and the defendant’s statements to the officer that he thought he had mailed the form in gave rise to a presumption that ...

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