BY JUDGE JOSEPH E. BAKER<\/font><\/p>\nFROM THE CIRCUIT COURT
\nOF THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH<\/font><\/p>\nVon L. Piersall, Jr.,
\nJudge<\/font><\/p>\nArgued at Norfolk,
\nVirginia<\/font><\/p>\nPresent: Judges Bray,
\nOverton and Senior Judge Baker<\/font><\/p>\nMichael Rosenberg
\n(Richardson & Rosenberg, L.L.C., on brief), for appellant.<\/font><\/p>\nSteven A. Witmer,
\nAssistant Attorney General (Mark L. Earley, Attorney General, on
\nbrief), for appellee.<\/font><\/p>\n
\nRonnie McNair
\n(appellant) appeals from his bench trial convictions by the
\nCircuit Court of the City of Portsmouth (trial court) on multiple
\ncounts of forgery, uttering, and petit larceny. The charges
\nresulted from appellant’s involvement with blank checks stolen
\nfrom the Westhaven Church of God (the Church). Finding no error,
\nwe affirm the convictions.<\/font><\/p>\nThe judgment of a trial
\ncourt will be disturbed only if plainly wrong or without evidence
\nto support it. See<\/u> Martin v. Commonwealth<\/u>, 4 Va.
\nApp. 438, 443, 358 S.E.2d 415, 418 (1987). The credibility of a
\nwitness’ testimony and the inferences to be drawn from proven
\nfacts are matters solely for the fact finder’s determination. See<\/u>
\nLong v. Commonwealth<\/u>, 8 Va. App. 194, 199, 379 S.E.2d 473,
\n476 (1989).<\/font><\/p>\nAppellant was charged
\nwith forgery, uttering, and larceny in connection with several
\nchecks stolen from the Church and drawn on its bank account. He
\ninitially contended that the Church was not a legal entity
\nqualifying to be prejudiced as "another" as set forth
\nin Code Sect. 18.2-172. That statute provides:<\/font><\/p>\n\nIf any person forge
\n any writing, other than such as is mentioned in Sects.
\n 18.2-168 and 18.2-170, to the prejudice of another’s
\n right, or utter, or attempt to employ as true, such forged
\n writing, knowing it to be forged, he shall be guilty of a
\n Class 5 felony. Any person who shall obtain, by any false
\n pretense or token, the signature of another person, to any
\n such writing, with intent to defraud any other person, shall
\n be deemed guilty of the forgery thereof, and shall be subject
\n to like punishment.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nAt oral argument,
\nappellant conceded that this contention was without merit. We
\nagree.<\/font><\/p>\nAppellant further
\ncontended and argued that the evidence was insufficient to
\nsupport his convictions. We disagree. Because this opinion has
\nnot been designated for publication and, thereby, has no
\nprecedential value, we make only limited references to the facts
\nsupporting his convictions.<\/font><\/p>\nStated most favorably to
\nthe Commonwealth, granting to it all reasonable inferences fairly
\ndeducible therefrom, see<\/u> Higginbotham v. Commonwealth<\/u>,
\n216 Va. 349, 352, 218 S.E.2d 534, 537 (1975), the evidence proved
\nthat the Church had a checking account with NationsBank. Only
\nthree persons were authorized to draw checks on the Church
\naccount: Reverend Frank Allen, Verlene Raily and Peggy Jarman. In
\nAugust 1996, several blank checks, including check numbers 1006,
\n1007, 1047, 1278 and 1299, were stolen from the Church.<\/font><\/p>\nThe Commonwealth’s
\nevidence sufficiently proved that appellant wrote check number
\n1278 and gave it to Johnnie Williams, who cashed the check and
\nsplit the proceeds with appellant. Appellant gave check numbers
\n1047 and 1299 to Donnell Scott, who cashed them and kept the
\nproceeds. A forensic scientist with the Division of Forensic
\nScience examined check numbers 1047, 1278 and 1299 and concluded
\nthat appellant wrote these checks. The evidence also sufficiently
\nproved that appellant gave Patricia Collins check numbers 1006
\nand 1007, which were forged with the drawer name Jeffery Walker.
\nCollins cashed the checks and gave the proceeds to appellant.<\/font><\/p>\nWe hold that the record
\nsupports each of the convictions appealed and, accordingly,
\naffirm the judgments of the trial court.<\/font><\/p>\nAffirmed.<\/u><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FOOTNOTES: <\/font><\/p>\n[1]<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/font>Pursuant to Code Sect. 17.1-413,
\nrecodifying Code Sect. 17-116.010, this opinion is not designated
\nfor publication.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MCNAIR v. COMMONWEALTH OF VA (unpublished) DECEMBER 1, 1998 Record No. 2632-97-1 RONNIE McNAIR v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA MEMORANDUM OPINION[1] BY JUDGE JOSEPH E. BAKER FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH Von L. Piersall, Jr., Judge Argued at Norfolk, Virginia Present: Judges Bray, Overton and Senior Judge Baker Michael Rosenberg …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virginia-court-of-appeals","always_free"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valawyersweekly.com\/fulltext-opinions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}