A defendant who murdered two victims within three years was subject to conviction and sentencing for both crimes under the statutory provision addressing such successive murders. Although the separate indictments merely changed the order in which victims were named, the ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Sentencing Supreme Court of Virginia

Even valid appeal waivers in plea agreements do not necessarily bar claims that the factual basis for a guilty plea is insufficient. In this case, however, the stipulated factual basis and other affirmations by the defendant provided enough support for ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

At a revocation hearing, a district court asked to reconsider imposing the maximum sentence based on hardship to the defendant’s family did in fact consider that mitigating factor, as shown by the court’s response of “all right” and a subsequent ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Sentencing

The district court did not err in convicting and sentencing two U.S. citizens who engaged in online fundraising activities for a foreign terrorist organization. The evidence supporting the convictions – obtained through ex parte, in camera FISA review – was ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

A former CIA officer convicted of four counts of selling state secrets to China won judgment of acquittal on two of those counts. Although the defendant lives in Virginia, there was no evidence he was in the state when he ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk judge says a bright line rule has emerged from Virginia’s court rulings on non-moving DWI cases: If the defendant was in the driver’s seat and the key was in the ignition, the defendant was operating the vehicle. That ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David W. Lannetti Norfolk Circuit Court

A defendant who sat in the driver’s seat of her vehicle and rotated the key in the ignition to roll up the windows was “operating” the vehicle while intoxicated, even though she never started the car’s engine or intended to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David W. Lannetti Norfolk Circuit Court Traffic Virginia Circuit Courts

Even if he factually did not commit a charged offense, a criminal defendant may plead guilty to avoid potential conviction of a more serious crime or imposition of a worse sentence. Courts considering such pleas should require the defendant to assert ...

Tagged with: Criminal Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David A. Oblon Virginia Circuit Courts

While officers had the defendant’s explicit consent to search specific rooms in his house and implied consent to take a path leading to those rooms, his firearm was seen only after an officer deviated from that path. Thus, it exceeded ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Judge David W. Lannetti Norfolk Circuit Court Search & Seizure Virginia Circuit Courts

No Virginia precedent sets forth specific types of evidence that must be proven to show lascivious intent in a sexual battery case. Such intent may be proven with any evidence that establishes such intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Background Four-year-old ...

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