Where the evidence shows that it was appellant’s idea to become a confidential informant and participate in a controlled drug buy with a high-level distributor, the trial court correctly refused to instruct the jury on entrapment at appellant’s trial for ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the trial court admitted other-acts evidence – an uncharged burglary – at appellant’s burglary trial under the modus operandi exception to the general rule barring evidence of other criminal acts, appellant’s appeal is not properly before the court. His ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

The circuit court correctly rejected appellant’s accommodation defense, which would have entitled him to a lesser punishment for possessing heroin with intent to distribute. The accommodation evidence offered was unrelated to the transaction for which he was convicted. Background Appellant ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

A statute that provides a final order of adoption cannot be appealed after six months is the “outer boundary” for bringing a challenge based on an exception to Rule 1:1’s 21-day limit in which to challenge a final order. As ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where appellant argues that the trial court, when imposing sentence, improperly considered his failure to accept a deferred disposition of this domestic assault case in the JDR court, appellant has waived the issue because he did not raise it in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Even though there was no evidence to counter husband’s de bene esse deposition testimony that no marital funds were used to purchase a condominium, the court was free to reject husband’s evidence and classify the condo as marital property. Further, ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Even though there was no video evidence that appellant made an abrupt lane change without signaling, and the police officer who stopped him admitted the stop was “pretextual,” the trial court’s conclusion that the stop was valid and that drugs ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Under the unusual facts of this case, where the trial court made a clear legal error in awarding husband 100 percent of the marital share of wife’s military pension, the rules pertaining to a bill of review provided the court ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the circuit court precluded mother from testifying in her case-in-chief at a custody hearing because, in response to father’s interrogatories, she did not identify herself as a potential witness and describe her anticipated testimony, her failure to provide the ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the police had a valid warrant to search appellant’s electronic devices for evidence of drug crimes, the trial court incorrectly suppressed evidence of unrelated crimes discovered during the search. The unrelated evidence was admissible under the plain view doctrine. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals