Applying the “ends of justice” exception to Rule 5A:18, the Court of Appeals reverses a conviction for escape from custody on a felony because, although defendant had been arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession and was being handcuffed when he ...

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

Police are skilled at getting defendants to talk, even when the accused know they should just button up. Sometimes, however, the officers don’t have to lift a finger to gather the damning evidence. The Virginia Court of Appeals today confronts ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert J. Humphreys Search & Seizure

A mother contends her daughter’s truancy was not a valid, legal basis for termination of her parental rights under Va. Code § 16.1-283(B), and the Court of Appeals says termination on that basis was improper. However, the appellate court upholds ...

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

A confidential police informant was reliable where he provided tips that resulted in 12 search warrants over an 18-month period, seizures of money, drugs and firearms and a number of arrests, but he provided only general information (type of car, ...

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

A man who stood away from a car as others approached and got into the car with a suitcase, after getting off a midnight bus from New York City, has his drug conviction reversed because the Court of Appeals says ...

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

Contrary to husband’s assertion that he objected at the time the final divorce decree was entered to dismissal of his motion to designate as waste a second mortgage wife took out on marital property, the trial court order contains no ...

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

Although a 911 tape with an observer’s account of persons stealing property from a stockyard was properly admitted over defendant’s hearsay objection, admission of the tape violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to confrontation, and the Court of Appeals reverses defendant’s ...

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

Although a hearing officer found that a father did not intend to harm his 15-year-old daughter when he displayed a loaded firearm to his daughter to express frustration with her behavior, his display of the weapon in the presence of ...

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

Police did not violate defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights when they seized defendant, as well as a cocaine cookie block found beneath the seat of defendant’s automobile, after a valid stop based on observation of defendant’s illegally parked vehicle, which matched ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert J. Humphreys Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

At defendant’s trial for the capital murder of his estranged wife, the trial court did not err in admitting the wife’s affidavit used to obtain a protective order against defendant; on rehearing en banc, the Court of Appeals says the ...

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